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Winston Churchill issued some great quotes especially those aimed at the people he disliked. Lady Astor and Winston seemed to take every meeting as an opportunity to spit venom at each other.
Lady Astor, on seeing Winston a little weary for brandy one night remarked Winston you are drunk!' To which came the reply I may be drunk but in the morning I shall be sober and you will still be ugly.'

On another occasion when Winston had been annoying Lady Astor she uttered the phrase If I were married to you, I'd put poison in your coffee.' To which he retorted, madam, if I were married to you I'd drink it.'

Of his colleagues in parliament Winston took a particular dislike to Clement Atlee, the leader of the socialist Labour Party of whom he made the following remarks.

He is a sheep in sheep's clothing.'
The right honourable gentleman is a modest man, who has much to be modest about.'
An empty taxi arrived at 10 Downing Street recently, and when the door was opened, Atlee got out.'

Winston was more publicly famous for the morale boosting comments he made, that helped pull a nation back from the brink of collapse.
In May 1940, the British army, and nation, suffered the humiliation of having to evacuate as many soldiers as possible from the beaches of Dunkirk. A few weeks later Winston spoke to a House of Commons all too keen to throw the towel in. Winston had different ideas and rose to the challenge with his pen and delivered the following on the 4th of June 1940.

We shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans; we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air. We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets; we shall fight in the hills. We shall never surrender!'

It was just what Parliament and the country needed. Winston found just the right words to stop the nation from caving in, and gave it the resolve to take on the challenge it faced.

By August 1940 the Battle of Britain was at its height. Every day hundreds of bombers were sent across the English Channel to bomb cities to break the morale of the country. Trying to hold back this onslaught were the pilots of Fighter Command, less than 200 men. The country was at breaking point and once more Churchill had to find the right words to keep people going. On the 20th of August he offered thanks to those on whom the future relied.

"The gratitude of every home in our island, in our Empire, and indeed throughout the world, except in the abodes of the guilty, goes out to the British airmen who, undaunted by odds, unwearied in their constant challenge and mortal danger, are turning the tide of the world war by their prowess and by their devotion. Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few. "

18 months later in a speech delivered to the Canadian parliament in December 1941, a slightly more relieved Churchill took the opportunity to take a swipe at the French with the following comment.

"When I warned the French that Britain would fight on alone, whatever they did, their Generals told their Prime Minister and his divided cabinet: 'In three weeks, England will have her neck wrung like a chicken' Some chicken....Some neck!"

Churchill steered the world through a very dark passage in her history and died on the 24th of January 1965. In his papers and writings he left a huge legacy, not just for Britain, but for the world. I suppose a fitting epitaph to the great man would be his own words.

"I am easily satisfied with the very best."

Learn more about this author, Ian Pauley.
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