Winston Churchill Quotes

Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.

It doesn't take a hero to order men into battle. It takes a hero to be one of those men who goes into battle.

Anyone who wants to carry on the war against the outsiders, come with me. I can’t offer you either honours or wages; I offer you hunger, thirst, forced marches, battles and death. Anyone who loves his country, follow me.

This idle complaining, wishing, and lamenting, and boasting will answer no end. Something must be done! Must be done by you! Therefore instead of assuming the state of patriots and heroes at home, TO ARMS! and away to the field and prove your pretensions sincere. Let the thunder of this imprecation rouse you out of your ease and security...

Soldiers, I intend to stay here, not only as long as a man remains, but as long as a piece of a man is left.

Battle is the most magnificent competition in which a human being can indulge. It brings out all that is best; it removes all that is base. All men are afraid in battle. The coward is the one who lets his fear overcome his sense of duty. Duty is the essence of manhood.

When you've married someone who's been at war, there is nothing you can do that compares to that level of selflessness and bravery.

My dear Excellency! I have not gone to war to collect cheese and eggs, but for another purpose.

Follow me if I advance, kill me if I retreat, avenge me if I die.

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.

I shall never ask any pilot to go on a mission that I won't go on.

For one thing, I don't think that anybody in any war thinks of themselves as a hero.

I don't think that anybody in any war thinks of themselves as a hero. The minute anybody presumes that they are heroes, they get their boots taken away from them and buried in the sand.

I saw some war heroes... John Kerry is not a war hero. He couldn't tie the shoes of some of the people in Coastal Division 11.

Going to war was the only unselfish thing I have ever done for humanity.

Some people wonder all their lives if they've made a difference. The Marines don't have that problem.

A short, glorious life in service of a greater good - say, the life of the Spartans at Thermopylae, or the pilots in the Battle of Britain, of whom Winston Churchill said 'Never have so many owed so much to so few,' - that is worth praising. But for glory alone? I think not.

All of my high school male teachers were WWII and/or Korean War veterans. They taught my brothers and me the value of service to our country and reinforced what our dad had shown us about the meaning of service.

Our young people have come to look upon war as a kind of beneficent deity, which not only adds to the national honor but uplifts a nation and develops patriotism and courage.

I have so much respect for people in the service. The mental strength it takes to do what they do is unbelievable.

In my grandfather's day, there was a different perspective on war and men that went into war; it was such a patriotic act to fight for your country in the Forties.

I was in uniform for four years, and I know that heroism doesn't occur from taking orders, but rather from people who through their own willpower and strength are willing to sacrifice their lives for an idea.

I know that I'm already in the history books and that people are going to remember me as the prisoner of war and the fabricated stories, but you know, to me I was just another soldier over there doing my job.

It is up to you to decide who to believe: the same people as usual or those who endanger their lives to save the country.

For as long as this nation has known war, we have embraced the heroes it has produced. Americans have rightfully noted the honor and nobility of courage under hostile fire and thanked those who perished in their defense.