Orator Quotes

Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.

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.'

Historians are apt to judge war ministers less by the victories achieved under their direction than by the political results which flowed from them. Judged by that standard, I am not sure that I shall be held to have done very well.

I am too busy. I have not time for worry.

Preposition: An enormously versatile part of grammar, as in 'What made you pick this book I didn't want to be read to out of up for?'

The United States abd usually be reiled on to do the right thing, but only after they have tried all the other alternatives.

A thankful heart is not only the greatest virtue, but the parent of all the other virtues.[Lat., Gratus animus est una virtus non solum maxima, sed etiam mater virtutum onmium reliquarum.]

There is no statement so absurd that no philosopher will make it.

So you see, old age is really not so bad. May you come to know the condition!

Thus, then, on the night of the tenth of May, at the outset of this mighty battle, I acquired the chief power in the State, which henceforth I wielded in ever-growing measure for five years and three months of world war, at the end of which time, all our enemies having surrendered unconditionally or being about to do so, I was immediately dismissed by the British electorate from all further conduct of their affairs.

Strategy is all very well, but it pays to give thought from time to time to the results.

In our amusements a certain limit is to be placed that we may not devote ourselves to a life of pleasure and thence fall into immorality.

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?

For there is assuredly nothing dearer to a man than wisdom, and though age takes away all else, it undoubtedly brings us that.

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? How else can we put ourselves in harmonious relation with the great verities and consolations of the infinite and the eternal? And I avow my faith that we are marching towards better days. Humanity will not be cast down. We are going on swinging bravely forward along the grand high road and already behind the distant mountains is the promise of the sun.

When you are on a great horse, you have the best seat you will ever have.

The Russian Bolsheviks have discovered that truth does not matter so long as there is reiteration. They have no difficulty whatever in countering a fact by a lie which, if repeated often enough and loudly enough, becomes accepted by the people.

The test of a people is what they can do when they're tired.

Of all the branches of men in the forces there is none which shows more devotion and faces grimmer perils than the submariners.

The rhinoceros stood ... about five hundred yards away ... not a twentieth-century animal at all, but an odd, grim straggler from the Stone Age.

The malice of the wicked was reinforced by the weakness of the virtuous.

I always seem to get inspiration and renewed vitality by contact with this great novel land of yours which sticks up out of the Atlantic.

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

Always remember, however sure you are that you could easily win, that there would not be a war if the other man did not think he also had a chance.

I am not ashamed to confess that I am ignorant of what I do not know.

To freemen, threats are impotent.[Lat., Nulla enim minantis auctoritas apud liberos est.]

It is the stain and disgrace of the age to envy virtue, and to be anxious to crush the very flower of dignity.

I will go further, and assert that nature without culture can often do more to deserve praise than culture without nature.

There is not only an art, but an eloquence in it.

Let the punishment match the offense.

Friendship is given us by nature, not to favor vice, but to aid virtue.

By being so long in the lowest form [at Harrow] I gained an immense advantage over the cleverer boys. . . . I got into my bones the essential structure of the ordinary British sentence - which is a noble thing. Naturally I am biased in favor of boys learning English; I would make them all learn English: and then I would let the clever ones learn Latin as an honor, and Greek as a treat.

Let your desires be ruled by reason.

Now that we are, as you say, 'in the same boat,' would it not be wise for us to have another conference ... and the sooner the better.

Plans are of little importance, but planning is essential.

A happy life consists in tranquility of mind.

Justice is the crowning glory of the virtues.

The searching-out and thorough investigation of truth ought to be the primary study of man.

In prosperity let us most carefully avoid pride, disdain, and arrogance.

In extraordinary events ignorance of their causes produces astonishment.

This is no war of chieftains or of princes, of dynasties or national ambition; it is a war of peoples and of causes. There are vast numbers, not only in this Island but in every land, who will render faithful service in this war, but whose names will never be known, whose deeds will never be recorded. This is a War of the Unknown Warriors

The comfort derived from the misery of others is slight.

We should not be so taken up in the search for truth, as to neglect the needful duties of active life; for it is only action that gives a true value and commendation to virtue.

Glory follows virtue as if it were its shadow.

Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfils the same function as pain in the human body. It calls attention to an unhealthy state of things.

We should never so entirely avoid danger as to appear irresolute and cowardly; but, at the same time, we should avoid unnecessarily exposing ourselves to danger, than which nothing can be more foolish.

As the scale of the balance must give way to the weight that presses it down, so the mind must of necessity yield to demonstration.

Some men make a womanish complaint that it is a great misfortune to die before our time. I would ask what time? Is it that of Nature? But she, indeed, has lent us life, as we do a sum of money, only no certain day is fixed for payment. What reason then to complain if she demands it at pleasure, since it was on this condition that you received it.

He is rich who wishes no more than he has.

The hours pass and the days and the months and the years, and the past time never returns.

Of all the talents bestowed upon men, none is so precious as the gift of oratory. He who enjoys it wields a power more durable than that of a great king. He is an independent force in the world.

The greatest advances in human civilization have come when werecovered what we had lost: when we learned the lessons of history.

If you cannot read all your books, at any rate handle them, and, as it were, fondle them. Let them fall open where they will. Make a voyage of discovery, taking soundings of uncharted seas.

He has all of the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire.

As I breathe, I hope.

And wherever men are fighting against barbarism, tyranny, and massacre, for freedom, law, and honour, let them remember that the fame of their deeds, even though they themselves be exterminated, may perhaps be celebrated as long as the world rolls round.

No man in his senses will dance.

To give counsel, as well as to take it, is a feature of true friendship.

There has never been a poet or orator who thought another better than himself.

What does all this stuff about flying saucers amount to? What can it mean? What is the truth?