Why Winston Churchill is my favorite historical figure...

(And yes, I deliberately alphabetized these)

“A joke is a very serious thing.” Winston Churchill

“A politician needs the ability to foretell what is going to happen tomorrow, next week, next month, and next year. And to have the ability afterwards to explain why it didn't happen.” Winston Churchill

“A prisoner of war is a man who tries to kill you and fails, and then asks you not to kill him.” Winston Churchill

“All the great things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope.” Winston Churchill

“Although personally I am quite content with the existing explosives, I feel we must not stand in the path of improvement.” Winston Churchill

“Although prepared for martyrdom, I preferred that it be postponed.” Winston Churchill

“An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last.” Winston Churchill

“Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.” Winston Churchill

“By swallowing evil words unsaid, no one has ever harmed his stomach.” Winston Churchill

“Clement Attlee is a modest man who has a good deal to be modest about.” Winston Churchill

“Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.” Winston Churchill

“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.” Winston Churchill

“Dictators ride to and fro upon tigers which they dare not dismount. And the tigers are getting hungry.” Winston Churchill

“Do not let spacious plans for a new world divert your energies from saving what is left of the old.” Winston Churchill

“From now on, ending a sentence with a preposition is something up with which I will not put.” Winston Churchill

“History will be kind to me for I intend to write it.” Winston Churchill

“However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.” Winston Churchill

“I always avoid prophesying beforehand, because it is a much better policy to prophesy after the event has already taken place.” Winston Churchill

“I am an optimist. It does not seem too much use being anything else.” Winston Churchill

“I am easily satisfied with the very best.” Winston Churchill

“I am prepared to meet my Maker. Whether my Maker is prepared for the great ordeal of meeting me is another matter.” Winston Churchill

“I cannot pretend to be impartial about the colours. I rejoice with the brilliant ones, and am genuinely sorry for the poor browns.” Winston Churchill

“I got into my bones the essential structure of the ordinary British sentence-which is a noble thing.” Winston Churchill

“I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.” Winston Churchill

“I'm just preparing my impromptu remarks.” Winston Churchill

“If the Almighty were to rebuild the world and asked me for advice, I would have English Channels round every country. And the atmosphere would be such that anything which attempted to fly would be set on fire.” Winston Churchill

“If you have an important point to make, don't try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time-a tremendous whack.” Winston Churchill

“In those days he was wiser than he is now; he used to frequently take my advice.” Winston Churchill

“In war, you can only be killed once, but in politics, many times.” Winston Churchill

“It is a good thing for an uneducated man to read books of quotations.” Winston Churchill

“Man will occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of the time he will pick himself up and continue on.” Winston Churchill

“Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except all those others that have been tried from time to time.” Winston Churchill

“"No comment" is a splendid expression. I am using it again and again.” Winston Churchill

“No idea is so outlandish that it should not be considered with a searching but at the same time a steady eye.” Winston Churchill

“Nothing in life is so exhilarating as to be shot at without result.” Winston Churchill

“Out of intense complexities intense simplicities emerge.” Winston Churchill

“Perhaps it is better to be irresponsible and right, than to be responsible and wrong.” Winston Churchill

“Solitary trees, if they grow at all, grow strong.” Winston Churchill

“Some people regard private enterprise as a predatory tiger to be shot. Others look on it as a cow they can milk. Not enough people see it as a healthy horse, pulling a sturdy wagon.” Winston Churchill

“The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.” Winston Churchill

“The British nation is unique in this respect. They are the only people who like to be told how bad things are, who like to be told the worst.” Winston Churchill

“The farther backward you can look, the farther forward you are likely to see.” Winston Churchill

“The great defense against the air menace is to attack the enemy's aircraft as near as possible to their point of departure.” Winston Churchill

“The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.” Winston Churchill

“The length of this document defends it well against the risk of its being read.” Winston Churchill

“The power of an air force is terrific when there is nothing to oppose it.” Winston Churchill

“The problems of victory are more agreeable than those of defeat, but they are no less difficult.” Winston Churchill

“There are a terrible lot of lies going about the world, and the worst of it is that half of them are true.” Winston Churchill

“There are two things that are more difficult than making an after-dinner speech: climbing a wall which is leaning toward you and kissing a girl who is leaning away from you.” Winston Churchill

“There is no finer investment for any community than putting milk into babies.” Winston Churchill

“They are decided only to be undecided, resolved to be irresolute, adamant for drift, solid for fluidity, all-powerful to be impotent.” Winston Churchill

“Too often the strong, silent man is silent only because he does not know what to say, and is reputed strong only because he has remained silent.” Winston Churchill

“We are all worms. But I believe that I am a glow-worm.” Winston Churchill

“When I look back on all these worries, I remember the story of the old man who said on his deathbed that he had had a lot of trouble in his life, most of which had never happened.” Winston Churchill

“When the eagles are silent the parrots begin to jabber.” Winston Churchill

“When the war of the giants is over the wars of the pygmies will begin.” Winston Churchill

“You can always count on Americans to do the right thing - after they've tried everything else.” Winston Churchill

“You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life.” Winston Churchill