Winston Churchill Quotes About War

• I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.

  Winston Churchill

  Determination, Military, War

  Speech in House of Commons, 13 May 1940

• If you will not fight for right when you can easily win without bloodshed; if you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all odds against you and only a precarious chance of survival. There may be even a worse fate, you may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves.

  Winston Churchill

  Peace, Freedom, War

  Winston Churchill (1986). “The Gathering Storm”, p.312, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

• War is a game that is played with a smile. If you can't smile, grin. If you can't grin, keep out of the way till you can.

  Winston Churchill

  Smile, Peace, War

• Victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory however long and hard the road may be; for without victory, there is no survival.

  Winston Churchill

  Fear, War, Greatest Victory

  Speech in House of Commons, 13 May 1940

• We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.

  Winston Churchill

  Inspirational, Strength, Beach

  Hansard 4 June 1940, col. 796

• You were given the choice between war and dishonor. You chose dishonor and you will have war.

  Winston Churchill

  War, Choices, Politics

  Sir Winston Churchill (1965). “Memoral Addresses and Tributes”

• Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.

  Winston Churchill

  Memorial Day, Military, War

  Speech in House of Commons, 20 Aug. 1940

• Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.

  Winston Churchill

  Inspirational, Life, Graduation

  Speech at Mansion House, London, 10 Nov. 1942.

• A prisoner of war is a man who tries to kill you and fails, and then asks you not to kill him.

  Winston Churchill

  Funny, Sarcastic, Laughter

• In War: Resolution; In Defeat: Defiance; In Victory: Magnanimity; In Peace: Good Will.

  Winston Churchill

  Peace, War, Victory And Defeat

  "Marlborough; his life and times".

• The Pashtun tribes are always engaged in private or public war. Every man is a warrior, a politician and a theologian Every large house is a real feudal fortress....Eve ry family cultivates its vendetta; every clan, its feud....Nothing is ever forgotten and very few debts are left unpaid.

  Winston Churchill

  Real, War, Men

• You ask, What is our policy? I will say; 'It is to wage war, by sea, land and air, with all our might and with all the strength that God can give us: to wage war against a monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark lamentable catalogue of human crime. That is our policy.' You ask, What is our aim? I can answer with one word: Victory-victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory however long and hard the road may be; for without victory there is no survival.

  Winston Churchill

  Change, Giving Up, War

  Hansard 13 May 1940, col. 1502

• In wartime, truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies.

  Winston Churchill

  Time, Peace, Truth

  Discussion of Operation Overlord with Stalin at the Teheran Conference November 30, 1943; in Winston Churchill: The Second World War, Volume V : Closing the Ring (1952), Chapter 21 (Teheran: The Crux), p. 338.

• I have never promised anything but blood, tears, toil and sweat. Now, however we have a new experience. We have a victory - a remarkable and definite victory. The bright gleam has caught the helmets of our soldiers and warmed and cheered all our hearts.

  Winston Churchill

  War, Heart, New Experiences

  Winston Churchill (1953). “War Speeches: From June 25, 1941 to September 6, 1943”

• Politics is almost as exciting as war, and quite as dangerous. In war you can only be killed once, but in politics many times.

  Winston Churchill

  War, Political, Cynical

  Winston Churchill (1987). “The Irrepressible Churchill: Stories, Sayings and Impressions of Sir Winston Churchill”, London : Robson Books

• Nobody ever launched an attack without having misgivings beforehand, You ought to have misgivings before; but when the moment of action is come, the hour of misgivings is passed. It is often not possible to go backward from a course which has been adopted in war. A man must answer "Aye" or "No" to the great questions which are put, and by that decision he must be bound.

  Winston Churchill

  Leadership, War, Men

  Winston Churchill, Robert Rhodes James (1980). “Churchill speaks: Winston S. Churchill in peace and war : collected speeches, 1897-1963”, Atheneum

• In war as in life, it is often necessary when some cherished scheme has failed, to take up the best alternative open, and if so, it is folly not to work for it with all your might.

  Winston Churchill

  War, Patriotic, Alternatives

  Sir Winston Churchill (1954). “Sir Winston Churchill: a self-portrait”

• One day President Roosevelt told me that he was asking publicly for suggestions about what the war should be called. I said at once 'The Unnecessary War'.

  Winston Churchill

  Peace, Military, War

  Second World War (1948) vol. 1, p. viii

• Churchill says the Government had to choose between war and shame. They chose shame. They will get war, too.

  Winston Churchill

  War, Shame, Attributes

  "Churchill By Himself".

• Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be free, and life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands. But if we fall, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age... Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, 'This was their finest hour.'

  Winston Churchill

  War, Moving, Fall

  Hansard 18 June 1940, col. 60

• You must understand that this war is not against Hitler or National Socialism, but against the strength of the German people, which is to be smashed once and for all, regardless of whether it is in the hands of Hitler or a Jesuit priest.

  Winston Churchill

  War, Hate, Hands

• Never, never, never believe any war will be smooth and easy, or that anyone who embarks on the strange voyage can measure the tides and hurricanes he will encounter. The statesman who yields to war fever must realize that once the signal is given, he is no longer the master of policy but the slave of unforeseeable and uncontrollable events.

  Winston Churchill

  Peace, Military, War

  Winston Churchill (2010). “My Early Life: 1874-1904”, p.227, Simon and Schuster

• Good night, then - sleep to gather strength for the morning. For the morning will come. Brightly will it shine on the brave and true, kindly on all who suffer for the cause, glorious upon the tombs of heroes. Thus will shine the dawn.

  Winston Churchill

  Good Night, Morning, War

  Winston Churchill (2012). “Churchill: The Power of Words”, p.363, Da Capo Press

• The story of the human race is war. Except for brief and precarious interludes there has never been peace in the world; and long before history began murderous strife was universal and unending.

  Winston Churchill

  War, Race, Long

  Winston Churchill (1957). “The world crisis”

• Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, 'This was their finest hour.'

  Winston Churchill

  War, Men, Years

  Speech in House of Commons, 18 June 1940

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