Winston Churchill
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, 1874–1965. 4 explained quotes.
Churchill did say this in Parliament in 1947, but in longer words and with a twist most people miss. He introduced it as something “that has been said,” not as his own invention.
Read the full explanation →Churchill's first promise as Prime Minister was not victory but hardship. He told Parliament the truth about the war ahead and asked for its support anyway.
Read the full explanation →Churchill's tribute to the fighter pilots of the Royal Air Force during the Battle of Britain, a few thousand airmen defending a nation of millions.
Read the full explanation →Churchill's promise, right after the Dunkirk evacuation, that Britain would never surrender even if invaded. He paired it with a blunt warning that Dunkirk was a defeat, not a victory.
Read the full explanation →No quotes match these filters yet. New quotes are added every week.
About Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from May 1940 to 1945, leading Britain through the Second World War, and again from 1951 to 1955. Before that he had been a soldier, a war correspondent and a minister in several governments, and he won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1953 for his historical writing and speeches.
Churchill wrote his own speeches and rehearsed them carefully, often dictating drafts laid out on the page like verse to mark his pauses. Because he is so quotable, he is also one of the most misquoted people in history: hundreds of witty lines are credited to him with no source at all, so the quotes on this site are checked against Hansard, the official record of Parliament, and his published speeches.
More lines by Churchill
Short quotes checked against their sources.
- “This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.”Speech at the Lord Mayor's Luncheon, Mansion House, London, 1942
- “From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic an iron curtain has descended across the Continent.”“Sinews of Peace” speech, Fulton, Missouri, 1946