My rule of life prescribed as an absolutely sacred rite smoking cigars and also the drinking of alcohol before, after and if need be during all meals and in the intervals between them.

All the great things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope.

Eating words has never given me indigestion.

What kind of people do they think we are? Is it possible they do not realize that we shall never cease to persevere against them until they have been taught a lesson which they and the world will never forget?

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

Meeting Franklin Roosevelt was like opening your first bottle of champagne; knowing him was like drinking it.

The price of greatness is responsibility.

A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject.

We have always found the Irish a bit odd. They refuse to be English.

The farther backward you can look, the farther forward you can see.

We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.

If you have an important point to make, don't try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time - a tremendous whack.

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

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.

There is nothing more exhilarating than to be shot at without result.

When the war of the giants is over the wars of the pygmies will begin.

We occasionally stumble over the truth but most of us pick ourselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened.

A politician needs the ability to foretell what is going to happen tomorrow, next week, next month, and next year. And to have the ability afterwards to explain why it didn't happen.

We are asking the nations of Europe between whom rivers of blood have flowed to forget the feuds of a thousand years.

It is a mistake to look too far ahead. Only one link of the chain of destiny can be handled at a time.

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

Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.

Sure I am of this, that you have only to endure to conquer.

Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.

The power of man has grown in every sphere, except over himself.

There is no such thing as public opinion. There is only published opinion.

The length of this document defends it well against the risk of its being read.

An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last.

I am an optimist. It does not seem too much use being anything else.

I always avoid prophesying beforehand, because it is a much better policy to prophesy after the event has already taken place.

True genius resides in the capacity for evaluation of uncertain, hazardous, and conflicting information.

Before Alamein we never had a victory. After Alamein we never had a defeat.

To jaw-jaw is always better than to war-war.

If the human race wishes to have a prolonged and indefinite period of material prosperity, they have only got to behave in a peaceful and helpful way toward one another.

Play the game for more than you can afford to lose... only then will you learn the game.

Never, never, never give up.

I am certainly not one of those who need to be prodded. In fact, if anything, I am the prod.

Solitary trees, if they grow at all, grow strong.

I am never going to have anything more to do with politics or politicians. When this war is over I shall confine myself entirely to writing and painting.

The short words are best, and the old words are the best of all.

We do not covet anything from any nation except their respect.

The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.

I was only the servant of my country and had I, at any moment, failed to express her unflinching resolve to fight and conquer, I should at once have been rightly cast aside.

Ending a sentence with a preposition is something up with which I will not put.

One does not leave a convivial party before closing time.

Broadly speaking, the short words are the best, and the old words best of all.

Do not let spacious plans for a new world divert your energies from saving what is left of the old.

Difficulties mastered are opportunities won.

Everyone has his day and some days last longer than others.