"It was the nation and the race dwelling all round the globe that had the lion's heart. I had the luck to be called upon to give the roar. I also hope that I sometimes suggested to the lion the right place to use his claws."
"We are all worms. But I do believe that I am a glow-worm."
"I suppress with difficulty an impulse to become sententious."
"Eating my words has never given me indigestion."
"I am certainly not one of those who need to be prodded. In fact if anything, I am a prod."
While addressing the US congress in 1941: "I cannot help reflecting that if my father had been an American and my mother British, instead of the other way around, I might have got here on my own."
"I am not usually accussed even by my friends of a modest or retiring disposition."
"Madam, all babies look like like me."
"I do not resent criticism, even when, for the sake of emphasis, it parts for the time with reality."
"I am easily satisfied with the best."
"I always manage somehow to adjust to any new level of luxury without whimper or complaint. It is one of my more winning traits."
"I have in my life concentrated more on self-expression than on self-denial."
"Unpunctuality is a vile habit, and all my life I have tried to break myself of it."
"Do stop interrupting me while I am interrupting you!"
"I am always ready to learn, though I do not always like being taught."
"I am ready to meet my Maker. Whether my Maker is ready for the ordeal of meeting me is another matter."
"Of course I am an egoist. Where do you get if you aren't?"
"History will bear me out. Particularly as I shall write that history myself."
"Although always prepared for martyrdom, I preferred that it should be postponed."
"I realised that I should be on my best behaviour - punctual, subdued, reserved - in short, display all the qualities with which i am least endowed."
"My idea of a good dinner is, first to have good food, then discuss good food, and after this good food has been elaborately discussed, to discuss a good topic - with me as chief conversationalist."
"At Blenheim I took two very important decisions; to be born and to marry. I am content with the decision I took on both occasions."
"My wife and I tried two or three times in the last few years to have breakfast together but it was so disagreeable we had to stop."
On being told by a curvaceous female fan at the unveiling of a his sculpture "Mr Churchill, I want you to know that I got up at dawn and drove a hundred miles for the unveiling of your bust", Winston replied, no doubt with a twinkle in his eye: "Madam, I want you to know that I would happily reciprocate the honour"
When Nancy Astor said to Churchill: "If I were your wife I would put poison in your coffee.", Winston riposted with: "Nancy, if I were your husband, I would drink it."
On being acosted as he left a House of Commons bar by Bessie Braddock who said to him: "Winston, you're drunk!" he replied with "Madam, you're ugly. But tomorrow I shall be sober."
"My most brilliant achievement was to persuade my wife to marry me."
When Field Marshall Viscount Montgomery said to him: "I neither drink nor smoke and am a hundred percent fit", Churchill's reply was: "I drink and smoke and I am two hundred percent fit."
"Always remember Clemmie, that I have taken more out of alcohol than alcohol has taken out of me."
"When I was younger I made it a rule never to take strong drink before lunch. It is now my rule never to do so before breakfast."
