14 Winston Churchill Quotes to Ponder and Digest

My current readings include an excellent audiobook called Churchill & Orwell: the Fight for Freedom, by Thomas E. Ricks. The book goes back and forth from one to the other, sharing details regarding the experiences that formed each one. Neither was remarkable, in this author's view, until they reached the pinnacle of their respective powers -- Churchill to carry England through its darkest hour, Orwell to write the two great novels he's remembered by, Animal Farm and 1984.

I've reached the point in the book where Churchill has taken charge, pretty much against all odds, and must inspire England to rise up or be doomed. Some of his most powerful speeches are shared, and it sent me to seek out more quotes worthy of re-visiting. 

Most of these are excerpts from lengthier passages from his writings, or from his speeches. And I will start with this one because it serves as a justification of sorts for this habit of mine of sharing quotes.

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It is a good thing for an uneducated man to read books of quotations. Bartlett's Familiar Quotations is an admirable work, and I studied it intently. The quotations when engraved upon the memory give you good thoughts. They also make you anxious to read the authors and look for more.

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What is the use of living, if it be not to strive for noble causes and to make this muddled world a better place for those who will live in it after we are gone?

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Broadly speaking, human beings may be divided into three classes: those who are toiled to death, those who are worried to death, and those who are bored to death.

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War arises from both sides feeling they have a hope of victory.

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A free Press is the unsleeping guardian of every other right that freemen prize; it is the most dangerous foe of tyranny.

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We live in a country where the people own the Government and not in a country where the Government owns the people. Thought is free, speech is free, religion is free, no one can say that the Press is not free. In short, we live in a liberal society, the direct product of the great advances in human dignity, stature and well-being which will ever be the glory of the nineteenth century.

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The shores of History are strewn with the wrecks of Empires.

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Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.
--Tribute to the fighter pilots who defended England

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Here is the answer which I will give to President Roosevelt: Put your confidence in us. ... We shall not fail or falter; we shall not weaken or tire. Neither the sudden shock of battle, nor the long-drawn trials of vigilance and exertion will wear us down. Give us the tools and we will finish the job.

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Never give in — never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.

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Addressing a joint session of the U.S. Congress, 1943

The price of greatness is responsibility.

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When I see the present Socialist Government denouncing capitalism in all its forms, mocking with derision and contempt the tremendous free enterprise capitalist system on which the mighty production of the United States is founded, I cannot help feeling that as a nation we are not acting honourably or even honestly.

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Socialism is the philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance and the gospel of envy.

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Personally, I am always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught.

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I like learning, too. I just seem to be a little slow at it sometimes.