"Politics is 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."

Rating:

  rate this quote
Topic: none  help us select a topic for this quote

More quotes from: Winston Churchill

• "A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject. "
• "A joke is a very serious thing. "
• "A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get ..."
• "A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every ..."
• "A politician needs the ability to foretell what is going to happen tomorrow, next week, ..."
• "A prisoner of war is a man who tries to kill you and fails, and ..."
• "All the great things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word: ..."
• "Although personally I am quite content with existing explosives, I feel we must not stand ..."
• "Although prepared for martyrdom, I preferred that it be postponed. "
• "Although present on the occasion, I have no clear recollection of the events leading up ..."
• "An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last. "
• "Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference. "
• "Baldwin thought Europe was a bore, and Chamberlain thought it was only a greater Birmingham. "
• "Battles are won by slaughter and maneuver. The greater the general, the more he contributes ..."
• "Before Alamein we never had a victory. After Alamein we never had a defeat. "
• "Broadly speaking, the short words are the best, and the old words best of all. "
• "By swallowing evil words unsaid, no one has ever harmed his stomach. "
• "Clement Attlee is a modest man who has a good deal to be modest about. "
• "Courage is rightly esteemed the first of human qualities... because it is the quality which ..."
• "Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it ..."
• "Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfils the same function as ..."
• "Danger - if you meet it promptly and without flinching - you will reduce the ..."
• "Death came very easily to her. She had lived such an innocent and loving life ..."
• "Dictators ride to and fro upon tigers which they dare not dismount. And the tigers ..."
• "Difficulties mastered are opportunities won. "
• "Do not let spacious plans for a new world divert your energies from saving what ..."
• "Don't talk to me about naval tradition. It's nothing but rum, sodomy and the lash. "
• "Eating words has never given me indigestion. "
• "Ending a sentence with a preposition is something up with which I will not put. "
• "Everyone has his day and some days last longer than others. "
• "For good or for ill, air mastery is today the supreme expression of military power ..."
• "For my part, I consider that it will be found much better by all parties ..."
• "From now on, ending a sentence with a preposition is something up with which I ..."
• "From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended ..."
• "He has all of the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire. "
• "He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire. "
• "He is a modest little man who has a good deal to be modest about. "
• "History will be kind to me for I intend to write it. "
• "However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results. "
• "I also hope that I sometimes suggested to the lion the right place to use ..."
• "I always avoid prophesying beforehand, because it is a much better policy to prophesy after ..."
• "I always seem to get inspiration and renewed vitality by contact with this great novel ..."
• "I am always ready to learn although I do not always like being taught. "
• "I am an optimist. It does not seem too much use being anything else. "
• "I am bored with it all. "
• "I am certainly not one of those who need to be prodded. In fact, if ..."
• "I am easily satisfied with the very best. "
• "I am fond of pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. ..."
• "I am never going to have anything more to do with politics or politicians. When ..."
• "I am prepared to meet my Maker. Whether my Maker is prepared for the great ..."
• "I cannot pretend to be impartial about the colours. I rejoice with the brilliant ones, ..."
• "I got into my bones the essential structure of the ordinary British sentence-which is a ..."
• "I have been brought up and trained to have the utmost contempt for people who ..."
• "I have never developed indigestion from eating my words. "
• "I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat. "
• "I have taken more out of alcohol than alcohol has taken out of me. "
• "I like a man who grins when he fights. "
• "I may be drunk, Miss, but in the morning I will be sober and you ..."
• "I never worry about action, but only inaction. "
• "I was only the servant of my country and had I, at any moment, failed ..."
• "I'm just preparing my impromptu remarks. "
• "If Hitler invaded hell I would make at least a favorable reference to the devil ..."
• "If I was your wife Sir, I'd poison you! Madam, if you were my wife, ..."
• "If the Almighty were to rebuild the world and asked me for advice, I would ..."
• "If the human race wishes to have a prolonged and indefinite period of material prosperity, ..."
• "If we open a quarrel between past and present, we shall find that we have ..."
• "If you are going through hell, keep going. "

• "If you go on with this nuclear arms race, all you are going to do ..."
• "If you have an important point to make, don't try to be subtle or clever. ..."
• "If you have ten thousand regulations you destroy all respect for the law. "
• "If you're going through hell, keep going. "
• "In the course of my life, I have often had to eat my words, and ..."
• "In those days he was wiser than he is now; he used to frequently take ..."
• "In war as in life, it is often necessary when some cherished scheme has failed, ..."
• "In war, you can only be killed once, but in politics, many times. "
• "In wartime, truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard ..."
• "It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the ..."
• "It is a fine thing to be honest, but it is also very important to ..."
• "It is a good thing for an uneducated man to read books of quotations. "
• "It is a mistake to look too far ahead. Only one link of the chain ..."
• "It is a remarkable comment on our affairs that the former prime minister of a ..."
• "It is all right to rat, but you can't re-rat. "
• "It is always wise to look ahead, but difficult to look further than you can ..."
• "It is more agreeable to have the power to give than to receive. "
• "It is no use saying, 'We are doing our best.' You have got to succeed ..."
• "It was the nation and the race dwelling all round the globe that had the ..."
• "It's no use saying, "We are doing our best." You have got to succeed in ..."
• "Kites rise highest against the wind - not with it. "
• "Let our advance worrying become advance thinking and planning. "
• "Man will occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of the time he will pick ..."
• "Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of ..."
• "Meeting Franklin Roosevelt was like opening your first bottle of champagne; knowing him was like ..."
• "Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry ..."
• "Moral of the Work. In war: resolution. In defeat: defiance. In victory: magnanimity. In peace: ..."
• "Most people stumble over the truth, now and then, but they usually manage to pick ..."
• "Mr. Gladstone read Homer for fun, which I thought served him right. "
• "My hand seemed arrested by a silent veto. "
• "My most brilliant achievement was my ability to be able to persuade my wife to ..."
• "My rule of life prescribed as an absolutely sacred rite smoking cigars and also the ..."
• "My wife and I tried two or three times in the last 40 years to ..."
• "Never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never, in nothing, great or small, ..."
• "Never hold discussions with the monkey when the organ grinder is in the room. "
• "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to ..."
• "Never, never, never give up. "
• ""No comment" is a splendid expression. I am using it again and again. "
• "No crime is so great as daring to excel. "
• "No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. "
• "No idea is so outlandish that it should not be considered with a searching but ..."
• "No lover ever studied every whim of his mistress as I did those of President ..."
• "No part of the education of a politician is more indispensable than the fighting of ..."
• "Nothing can be more abhorrent to democracy than to imprison a person or keep him ..."
• "Nothing in life is so exhilarating as to be shot at without result. "
• "Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. ..."
• "One does not leave a convivial party before closing time. "
• "One ought never to turn one's back on a threatened danger and try to run ..."
• "Out of intense complexities intense simplicities emerge. "
• "Perhaps it is better to be irresponsible and right, than to be responsible and wrong. "
• "Personally I'm always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught. "
• "Play the game for more than you can afford to lose... only then will you ..."
• "Politics are very much like war. We may even have to use poison gas at ..."
• "Politics is almost as exciting as war, and quite as dangerous. In war you can ..."
• "Politics is not a game. It is an earnest business. "
• "Really I feel less keen about the Army every day. I think the Church would ..."
• "Russia is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma. "
• "Short words are best and the old words when short are best of all. "
• "Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, ..."
• "Solitary trees, if they grow at all, grow strong. "
• "Some people regard private enterprise as a predatory tiger to be shot. Others look on ..."
• "Some regard private enterprise as if it were a predatory tiger to be shot. Others ..."
• "Study history, study history. In history lies all the secrets of statecraft. "
• "Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm. "
• "Success is going from failure to failure without a loss of enthusiam. "
• "Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that ..."

• "Sure I am of this, that you have only to endure to conquer. "
• "Sure I am of this, that you have only to endure to conquer. You have ..."
• "The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter. "
• "The British nation is unique in this respect. They are the only people who like ..."
• "The empires of the future are the empires of the mind. "
• "The farther backward you can look, the farther forward you are likely to see. "
• "The first quality that is needed is audacity. "
• "The great defense against the air menace is to attack the enemy's aircraft as near ..."
• "The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of ..."
• "The latest refinements of science are linked with the cruelties of the Stone Age. "
• "The length of this document defends it well against the risk of its being read. "
• "The maxim of the British people is "Business as usual." "
• "The nose of the bulldog has been slanted backwards so that he can breathe without ..."
• "The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty. "
• "The power of an air force is terrific when there is nothing to oppose it. "
• "The power of man has grown in every sphere, except over himself. "
• "The price of greatness is responsibility. "
• "The problems of victory are more agreeable than those of defeat, but they are no ..."
• "The reserve of modern assertions is sometimes pushed to extremes, in which the fear of ..."
• "The short words are best, and the old words are the best of all. "
• "The truth is incontrovertible, malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the ..."
• "There are a terrible lot of lies going about the world, and the worst of ..."
• "There are two things that are more difficult than making an after-dinner speech: climbing a ..."
• "There is no finer investment for any community than putting milk into babies. "
• "There is no such thing as a good tax. "
• "There is no such thing as public opinion. There is only published opinion. "
• "There is nothing more exhilarating than to be shot at without result. "
• "There was unanimous, automatic, unquestioned agreement around our table. "
• "These are not dark days: these are great days - the greatest days our country ..."
• "They are decided only to be undecided, resolved to be irresolute, adamant for drift, solid ..."
• "They told me that Gladstone read Homer for fun, which I thought served him right. "
• "This is no time for ease and comfort. It is time to dare and endure. "
• "This report, by its very length, defends itself against the risk of being read. "
• "Those who can win a war well can rarely make a good peace and those ..."
• "To build may have to be the slow and laborious task of years. To destroy ..."
• "To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often. "
• "To jaw-jaw is always better than to war-war. "
• "Too often the strong, silent man is silent only because he does not know what ..."
• "True genius resides in the capacity for evaluation of uncertain, hazardous, and conflicting information. "
• "Truth is incontrovertible; malice may attack it and ignorance may deride it; but, in the ..."
• "Victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory however long and hard ..."
• "War is a game that is played with a smile. If you can't smile, grin. ..."
• "War is mainly a catalogue of blunders. "
• "We are all worms. But I believe that I am a glow-worm. "
• "We are stripped bare by the curse of plenty. "
• "We have a lot of anxieties, and one cancels out another very often. "
• "We have always found the Irish a bit odd. They refuse to be English. "
• "We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what ..."
• "We must beware of needless innovations, especially when guided by logic. "
• "We occasionally stumble over the truth but most of us pick ourselves up and hurry ..."
• "We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the ..."
• "We shall draw from the heart of suffering itself the means of inspiration and survival. "
• "We shape our buildings; thereafter they shape us. "
• "We shape our dwellings, and afterwards our dwellings shape us. "
• "When I am abroad, I always make it a rule never to criticize or attack ..."
• "When I look back on all these worries, I remember the story of the old ..."
• "When the eagles are silent the parrots begin to jabber. "
• "When the war of the giants is over the wars of the pygmies will begin. "
• "When you are winning a war almost everything that happens can be claimed to be ..."
• "When you have to kill a man, it costs nothing to be polite. "
• "When you took your seat I felt as if a woman had come into my ..."
• "Without a measureless and perpetual uncertainty, the drama of human life would be destroyed. "
• "Without tradition, art is a flock of sheep without a shepherd. Without innovation, it is ..."
• "Writing a book is an adventure. To begin with, it is a toy and an ..."
• "You can always count on Americans to do the right thing - after they've tried ..."
• "You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life. "