A lot has been said and written about Winston Churchill last month, with Jan 24th marking the 50th anniversary of his death.
While Jeremy Paxman described him as “a chancer, an egotist and a charlatan“, others have pointed to his flaws as a leader and bigoted views of the world, ‘The Independent’ reported.
But many revere the prime minister who led Britain through its darkest hours, and there is no doubting his gift as an orator.
Many others consider Churchill a bigger racist than Hitler and part of the wrong alliance in World-War II. Still, he was a genius and in personal life suffered from chronic depression which ordinary people do not carry.
In no particular order, some of his quotes below:
1. The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.
2. Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.
3. If you’re going through hell, keep going.
4. A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.
5. 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.
6. I am prepared to meet my Maker. Whether my Maker is prepared for the great ordeal of meeting me is another matter.
7. All the great things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word: freedom, justice, honour, duty, mercy, hope.
8. Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.
9. My dear you are ugly, but tomorrow I shall be sober and you will still be ugly.
10. You have enemies? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.
11. The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is.
12. We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.
13. Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.
14. The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.
15. History will be kind to me for I intend to write it.
