Winston Churchill once joked: “When I was young, I had one rule: no alcohol before lunch.
Now that I’m no longer young, I strictly follow the rule: no alcohol… before breakfast.”
Churchill remains the only British Prime Minister to ever receive the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Reading him reminds you that you don’t need to write massive novels to be a brilliant writer — or a philosopher, for that matter.
Here are some of his reflections that still hit surprisingly well today:
1. If you’re going through hell, keep going.
2. You have enemies? Good. That means you stood up for something at some point.
3. A crisis is simply an opportunity in disguise.
4. A wise person doesn’t make all the mistakes alone — they let others have some.
5. The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.
6. Success is the ability to go from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm.
7. Kites fly highest against the wind, not with it.
8. Only a fool never changes his mind.
9. The flaw of capitalism is inequality; the flaw of socialism is the equal sharing of misery.
10. When eagles are silent, parrots begin to chatter.
11. Everyone gets their big chance once — most people just stand up, dust themselves off, and walk away as if nothing happened.
12. Don’t wish for health and wealth — wish for luck. On the Titanic, everyone was healthy and wealthy. Only a few were lucky.
13. A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes.
14. My tastes are simple: I am easily satisfied with the best.
15. Want to have the last word in an argument? Tell your opponent, “You may be right.”
16. Those who get ahead are often the ones who made their mistakes early — and learned from them.
17. People are excellent at keeping secrets they don’t know.
18. I like pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals.
19. The greatest lesson in life is that sometimes even fools are right.
20. It’s easier to govern a nation than to raise four children.
21. We live in an age of great events and small people.
22. From wooden shoes to wooden shoes in four generations:
the first makes it, the second grows it, the third spends it, the fourth starts over.
23. In difficult times, nations run on myths far more than we care to admit.
24. The fastest way to ruin a relationship is to start “figuring it out.”
25. When two fight — the third wins.
26. A pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees opportunity in every difficulty.
27. A nation that forgets its past loses its future.
28. Even the brightest light casts a shadow.
29. A star cannot shine without someone holding up a dark backdrop behind it.
And then there’s the story from one of his speeches.
Someone once asked: “Sir Winston, does it feel good to know that every time you speak, the hall is full?”
Churchill smiled and replied: “It does. But I can’t help thinking — if instead of giving a speech I were being led to the gallows, twice as many people would show up.”
— Enduring British humor at its finest.