History unfolds itself by strange and unpredictable paths. We have little control over the future; and none at all over the past.
There is no surer method of economizing and saving money than in the reduction of the number of officials.
They had bombed London, whether on purpose or not, and the British people and London especially should know that we could hit back. It would be good for the morale of us all.
From now on we shall bomb Germany on an ever-increasing scale, month by month, year by year, until the Nazi regime has either been exterminated by us or – better still – torn to pieces by the German people themselves.
Air power can either paralyze the enemy’s military action or compel him to devote to the defense of his bases and communications a share of his straitened resources far greater that what we need in the attack.
The cost of solving the Comet mystery must be reckoned neither in money nor in manpower.
You ask what the aim is? I tell you it is victory – total victory.
If you cannot read all your books, at any rate handle them, and, as it were, fondle them. Let them fall open where they will. Make a voyage of discovery, taking soundings of uncharted seas.
Those who plan do better than those who do not plan, even should they rarely stick to their plan.
In the past we have had a light which flickered, in the present we have a light which flames, and in the future there will be a light which shines over all the land and sea.
Everybody has always underrated the Russians. They keep their own secrets alike from foe and friends.
There was a man who sold a hyena skin while the beast still lived and who was killed in hunting it.
How little can we foresee the consequences either of wise or unwise action, of virtue or of malice. Without this measureless and perpetual uncertainty, the drama of human life would be destroyed.
I would tell myself that I was about to address the largest mass assembly of idiots ever gathered in the history of mankind.
Time is one thing that can never be retrieved. One may lose and regain friends. One may lose and regain money. Opportunity, once spurned, may come again. But the hours that are lost in idleness can never be brought back to be used in gainful pursuits.
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.
A man who gets the reputation of rising at dawn can sleep to noon.
There comes a special moment in everyone’s life, a moment for which that person was born. That special opportunity, when he seizes it, will fulfill his mission – a mission for which he is uniquely qualified. In that moment, he will find greatness. It is his finest hour.
May the pain you have known and the conflict you have experienced give you the strength to walk through life facing each new situation with courage and optimism.
The poor girl does not know how to have a conversation. Unfortunately, she does know how to speak.