Winston Churchill Quotes

This is not going to be decided by public opinion polls. It is a national security issue.

Polls are contradictory when the public opinion is such.

Our leaders now are entirely spooked by polls.

I cannot rely upon public opinion polls to tell me what is right.

In war, the moral element and public opinion are half the battle.

Nothing is more dangerous in wartime than to live in the temperamental atmosphere of a Gallup Poll, always feeling one's pulse and taking one's temperature.

When a nation is at war many things that might be said in time of peace are such a hindrance to its efforts that their utterance will not be endured.

What makes a nation most likely to take part in war was not policy or interest, but sentiment.

Public opinion polls would have maintained slavery.

I've learned a long time ago not to take polls too seriously.

Food is as important to armies as ammunition—but more important than either is an unfailing supply of lies. You simply cannot murder your enemy in the most efficient manner if you know he is in every essential the same kind of a man as yourself.

If the people are not convinced that the Free World is in mortal danger it would be impossible for Congress to vote the vast sums now being spent to avert danger. With the support of public opinion, as marshaled by the press, we are off to a good start. It is our Job --- yours and mine --- to keep our people convinced that the only way to keep disaster away from our shores is to build up America's might.

Any idea that you can have a league for security is nuts, and all people who favor it are potential murderers… as long as man is man, there will be war and the only way to avoid trouble is to have the best army and navy, which we now have.

Parliamentarians would prefer to follow the path of least resistance and vote for the myths that the public opinion polls show their constituents believe in, instead of taking the trouble to educate themselves and their constituents.

It is absurd to believe in the possibility of perpetual peace...Fascist education must be education for battle.

They are spinning and people are dying.

Counting heads is not an ideal way to govern, at least it is better than breaking them.

All you have to do is tell them they're being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to greater danger.

There is no person in this town who is doing particularly well at the moment when it comes to the opinions of the American people.

In a democracy such as ours military policy is dependent on public opinion.

Public opinion wins war. I have always considered as quasi-staff officers, correspondents accredited to my headquarters.

Public Policy Polling asked a broad sample of Democratic and Republican primary voters whether they would support bombing Agrabah. Nearly a third of Republican respondents said they would, versus 13 percent who opposed the idea. Democratic preferences were roughly reversed; 36 percent were opposed, and 19 percent were in favor. Agrabah doesn’t exist. It’s the fictional country in the 1992 Disney film Aladdin. Liberals crowed that the poll showed Republicans’ aggressive tendencies. Conservatives countered that it showed Democrats’ reflexive pacifism. Experts in national security couldn’t fail to notice that 43 percent of Republicans and 55 percent of Democrats polled had an actual, defined view on bombing a place in a cartoon.

We dare not tempt them with weakness. For only when our arms are sufficient beyond doubt can we be certain beyond doubt that they will never be employed.

The professed war-weariness among populations who have sent only a small percentage of their sons and daughters to fight in recent wars may derive from a failure to communicate effectively what is at stake in those wars and explain why the efforts are worthy of the risks, resources, and sacrifices necessary to sustain the strategy.

Advocating war is easier when you and your family are not endangered by it.