Churchill upon becoming Prime Minister in May 1940, during the Second World War
The Second World War (Primary source)
Churchill’s six-volume memoir and history of World War II, chronicling his leadership as Britain’s wartime Prime Minister. Combining personal experience with strategic analysis, it covers major battles, diplomatic negotiations, and key decisions that shaped Allied victory. The work earned Churchill the Nobel Prize in Literature.
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“During these last crowded days of the political crisis, my pulse had not quickened at any moment. I took it all as it came. But I cannot conceal from the reader of this truthful account that as I went to bed at about 3 A.M., I was conscious of a profound sense of relief. At last I had the authority to give directions over the whole scene. I felt as if I were walking with Destiny, and that all my past life had been but a preparation for this hour and for this trial. Eleven years in the political wilderness had freed me from ordinary party antagonisms. My warnings over the last six years had been so numerous, so detailed, and were now so terribly vindicated, that no one could gainsay me. I could not be reproached either for making the war or with want of preparation for it. I thought I knew a good deal about it all, and I was sure I should not fail. Therefore, although impatient for the morning, I slept soundly and had no need for cheering dreams. Facts are better than dreams.”
Winston Churchill
“You do your worst—and we will do our best.”
— Winston Churchill Primary source“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.”
— Winston Churchill Primary source“Give us the tools, and we will finish the job.”
— Winston Churchill Primary source“I fight for my corner. I leave when the pub closes.”
— Winston Churchill Secondary sourceMore quotes by Winston Churchill →
“Joan was a being so uplifted from the ordinary run of mankind that she finds no equal in a thousand years. The records of her trial present us with facts alive to-day through all the mists of time. Out of her own mouth can she be judged in each generation. She embodied the natural goodness and valour of the human race in unexampled perfection. Unconquerable courage, infinite compassion, the virtue of the simple, the wisdom of the just, shone forth in her. She glorifies as she freed the soil from which she sprang.”
— Winston Churchill Primary source“You never kill any one that you want to kill in a war.”
— Ernest Hemingway Primary source“The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.”
— Steve Jobs Primary source“The world is a fine place and worth the fighting for and I hate very much to leave it.”
— Ernest Hemingway Primary source