As a writer, an historian, an officer in the British army, an artist, a consummate statesman, and a man who understood the pleasures of a fine cigar and a handsome suit, Winston Churchill was one of the world’s last true renaissance men. High on the list of his many notable talents was his gift for moving and eloquent oratory. His mastery of words gave him equal skill in rousing a nation to action and putting a brainless cad in his place.
Churchill once said:
“It is a good thing for an uneducated man to read books of quotations. Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations is an admirable work, and I studied it intently. The quotations when engraved upon the memory give you good thoughts. They also make you anxious to read the authors and look for more.”
Of course, he himself became one of the most quotable men in history. So much so, that it was an impossible task to narrow down his incredible quotes to just one post. So we’ve broken this edition of our motivational poster series into two parts. Part II will be posted in the future.
For now, enjoy this first installment. Whether you’re educated or not, reading his quotes will light a fire under your bum and put a few more hairs on your chest.
If you enjoyed these posters, check out other entries in this series:
Motivational Posters: Theodore Roosevelt Edition
Motivational Posters: George S. Patton Edition
Motivational Posters: Ernest Hemingway Edition
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Motivational Posters: Winston Churchill Edition (Part II)
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Motivational Posters: Theodore Roosevelt Edition
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You can always learn something from Churchill’s quotes. One of my favorite quotes is the one for Fortitude. Another one is “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”
He is one of my heroes and he really was one, several times over. He had some faults, he made some mistakes, but great people have great faults.
Gotta love that guy. Thanks for this, it’s always a pleasure to read some good Churchill quotes.
If you are going through hell, keep going… ==> this was my favorite for a long time..
One tough old bastard! That guy lived and breathed conflict. How come Western world leaders today are such pussies?
I hadn’t seen his wife before. You’d think a man of that stature could have landed a beauty. Oh well, to each his own.
Here’s my Churchill shirt, for anyone who needs to remind the world that this man kicked ass:
http://www.murchadaoutfitters.com/murchada/Winston-Churchill-T-Shirt/_p_4202304
http://www.murchadaoutfitters.com
http://www.duncroftmasterworks.com
Churchill was one in a million, but why did you Brit’s vote him out as soon as he gave you victory in WWII?
yes persons like him comes once in a century.
One of my favorites from Churchill: ‘Keep buggering on.’ I have that on my bulletin board as a reminder.
@ Murchada,
It’s often difficult to see the ashes of beauty in the face of an old lady. But she must have had charm and a great mind as a young woman to ensnare such a man. And I praise the older generation of men who did not put away the wives who had stood by them and raised their children while they rose to power. Political wives are often too expendable and interchangeable these days.
Even though his role in history is debated by some, I think Churchill is the prime example of an excellent oratory and I admire him for that. Great to see these motovational posters here!
Churchill was one in a million, but why did you Brit’s vote him out as soon as he gave you victory in WWII?
I’m not a Brit, but for the most part Great Britain had become a fundamentally different place after WWII than it was before. One of the things that made Churchill great was his ability to recognize that Great Britain not only was changing, but had to change – the Empire could not stand as it had and the Conservative Party he lead was going to become obsolete. (The Labour movement had been a minority government before, but with the election of Clement Atlee the British government took on a radical new post-war direction which became the “post-war consensus”.)
I’m also struck by our (and I mean this as a nation) fascination with Churchill while often downplaying the other partner in the duo of “Franklin and Winston”.
“Confidence… thrives on honesty, on honor, on the sacredness of obligations, on faithful protection and on unselfish performance. Without them it cannot live.” – Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
Thanks for the inspiring Churchill quotes. As for the one on courage, though he may have said it, he was not the first. It’s a direct quotation from Aristotle’s Nichomachean Ethics.
Grant
“Churchill was one in a million, but why did you Brit’s vote him out as soon as he gave you victory in WWII?”
In 1945, the socialist Labour Party offered a welfare state, featuring universal unemployment benefit, a state pension and …. drumroll ….. healthcare free at the point of use!
Despite many problems, we could not imagine life without these now.
We did give Churchill another crack at being PM after that though.
Loris, that’s true. Beauty fades.
I’m not sure what you mean by political wives being expendable. Most world leaders that I’m aware of have divorced and gotten a new woman. The only person who comes to mind might be Bersculoni of Italy.
“Most world leaders that I’m aware of have divorced and gotten a new woman. The only person who comes to mind might be Bersculoni of Italy.”
Is that the definition of expendable?
Winston Churchill is one of the men I respect the most and wish more of our leaders in the US would emulate him. You Englishmen were profoundly blessed to have a man such as him at the helm of Great Britain during those dark years of World War II.
Murchada, I’m not thinking of presidential wives. I’m thinking of Congressional on down to local levels, etc, because there are a lot more of those to look at. John McCain divorced his first wife, who had stood by him through Vietnam. Rudy Giuliani is thrice married. And so on.
I agree with most things I read on AoM, but I cannot abide by this. I understand that a majority of people love Winston Churchill, but at the very least he was a vindictive man who needlessly slaughtered 300,000 people. Think about that for one moment: 10 times the number of people killed on 9/11. This number was gleaned from the saturation bombing of Dresden, Germany which had no military signifigance whatsoever and was historicaly known to be a haven for artists and craftsmen. He knew that the city was unprotected and went forward with the bombing campaign. In addition, he was a known anti-semite, claiming that “Jews were behind world revolutions everywhere.”
Of course, I do not expect anyone to believe me or simply take my word for it. I would suggest that you do some research on Churchill and come to your own conclusion. Many men deserve our attention and respect. Winston churchill is not one of them.
You present one side of the debate as if they were conclusive facts that are not in dispute. But what you say is very much in dispute. I have in fact done much research on this subject and come to completely different conclusions on just about every one of your points. What you have presented is one way of looking at the issue. It’s the same thing with the atomic bomb-you can say that Truman was a needless murderer or you can say he was a wise leader, all depending on your point of view. What deserves respect is being able to see both sides of a question; history is rarely black and white.
“he was a known anti-semite”
Would that be the same Churchill who described himself as a Zionist?
Just read Pat Buchanan’s new work, “Churchill, Hitler and the Unnecessary War.” It puts what we’ve all learned in a different light. A must read for anyone entralled with Churchill and the lost greatness of Britain.
Great posters. That is one man who looks incredibly natural with a cigar in his mouth.
He certainly was the right man in the right place at the right time. And his ability to sum things up in such succinct and quotable ways is something I aspire to, but I still generally ending up waffling…
The picture are beautiful and the post is great
Great job on these, very enjoyable.
A pedantic critique: The “Respect” poster seems to be mis-interpretive. That organ-ginder quote is about taking care in selecting the right audience or timing for a particular argument or discussion – e.g. you’ll hardly be able to persuade an employee to your side of a disagreement against the company if his boss is sitting there next to him. It is *not* advice about being respectful to a superior by not speaking to his underlings instead of him.
@John-
From whence are drawing your authoritative interpretation for the monkey grinder quote? Without context, the quote can sensibly be interpreted either way. If you know the speech from where it it is derived, please share it.
“I agree with most things I read on AoM, but I cannot abide by this. I understand that a majority of people love Winston Churchill, but at the very least he was a vindictive man who needlessly slaughtered 300,000 people.”
Outdated propaganda. The latest figures put the death toll at Dresden at between 20,000 and 40,000. Which was comparable to many other Allied bombing efforts at the time. Furthermore there is no real evidence that Churchill was in any way anti-semitic.
Dave Z, my sympathies lie more with Germany’s millions of victims, including the innocent people of Belgium, the Netherlands, etc. etc. who did not want to submit to German rule. First the Kaiser, then the Fuhrer — Germany caused untold misery during the first half of the 20th century by invading virtually all of its neighbors.
Be grateful that you’re still allowed to speak English.
I remember taking time out from a slumber party at a friend’s house to watch Churchill’s funeral parade. It was quite a switch for bunch of giggly 12-year-old girls, but even we were wise enough to know that someone of great importance had passed into history.
My favorite Churchill anecdote:
One day, Mr Churchill came into the House of Commons men’s room to find Clement Atlee, the Labor Leader, at the first urinal. Church stormed off to the further one down the row do to his own business. “Feeling a little standoff-ish today, Winston?”
“That’s right, Clement. Every time you see something big, you want to nationalize it.”
The Moderation one is incorrect. Churchill was something of a drinker…
The inspiring quotes would be more inspiring if they were accurate. Quite a few are misquoted, and five or six are words Churchill never said. Nice posters, though…
Editor, FINEST HOUR MAGAZINE & CHURCHILL BY HIMSELF
Churchill one of the great man in mankind history.
a lovely man and my ideal.
Churchill inspires me very much.
“I agree with most things I read on AoM, but I cannot abide by this. I understand that a majority of people love Winston Churchill, but at the very least he was a vindictive man who needlessly slaughtered 300,000 people. Think about that for one moment: 10 times the number of people killed on 9/11.”
Dave, if you want people to pay attention to you, proofread what you write. The number of people killed on 9/11 was about 3,000. 3,000 x 10 is 30,000, not 300,000. There may be legitmate reasons to criticize Churchill, but there’s no reason to discuss them if you can’t get your facts straight.
is it true that he killed so many people??? i never listen it before.
Is there a way I can get a high quality file of these posters? I want to print them out on a 11 1/2″ x 15 1/4″ photo quality print and frame in a picture frame in my foyer.
Thanks!
Wow! Beautiful and amazing stuff :) Thanks so much for sharing these Brett and Kate. Did you create them as well? I’m super impressed! Churchill is definitely a master of succinctness :D
Churchill rox!
beautiful thoughts many things we can learn out of this…it was very interesting really i loved that………………..
Wow, this pictures are beautiful.
Churchill was a good leader for Britain at the time.
He was also vindictive as all fuck. From the Dresden bombing to being a proponent of gassing colonials like the Arabs.
There’s also the memo where he says how we’d need numbers showing it’s profitable before drenching german cities in poison gas.
he got a state funeral god bless him
You left out his best zinger, the famous response to a woman who accused him of being drunk: “And you, madam, are ugly. In the morning, I’ll be sober.”
After reading some of the above comments, I wanted to direct peoples’ attention to the following links. Dave and anon (Posting something negative under the name of “anon” makes me think of the line in “Ben Hur” when the Roman makes a disparaging remark about Arabs while surrounded by about 50 of his friends – the Arab smiles and says, simply, “Bravely spoken.”), especially, may be interested in checking the page for the Churchill Center out. (www.winstonchurchill.org) It debunks myths, deals with misquotes and is a great source of information.
Also, a question – why, when you post something about a figure of history, does it seem invariably that those people come crawling out of the woodwork to point out negatives, as though they were the sum total of who the person was? Do you, the reader, have negative points about you? I know I do. Those bad points do not negate any good that I have done, or try to do, any more than they do yours – why should it be so for figures of history? For myself, I feel it stems from a sense of jealousy – as though we have to knock them down and say “They weren’t so good.” In my humble opinion, all it does is demonstrate our own lack of self-worth and class when we engage in it.
And Dave Z – the Dresden myth has indeed been disputed and dis-proven. Dresden was, according to records, one of the targets chosen by “Bomber” Harris as being of strategic importance for one reason or another.
http://www.winstonchurchill.org/learn/myths/myths/he-bombed-dresden-as-payback-for-coventry
This deserves the same amount of respect as the idea that he abused alcohol or was saved from drowning by Alexander Fleming: none.
One of my favorites was a response to, I believe, being asked how he maintains his vitality. His response was quick and as always brilliant (I may be paraphrasing as I am reciting from memory):
“Economy of effort! Never stand when you can sit and never sit when you can lay down.”
Also for those who are interested if you go to archive.org and search for Wiinston Churchill in the audio section you will find around 100 of his speeches free of charge. I put them on my Mp3 player as I’m a bit of an enthusiast of great speakers.
We have knocked all the great men down, we put them on pedestals only to smash tehm with the wonderful gift of retrospection. He was a man of his time and nothing detractors say can take that away. Unfortunately men of this calibre are have been neutered by the rise of political correctness.
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