Winston Churchill on Business Quotes

"Among our Socialist opponents there is great confusion. Some of them regard private enterprise as a predatory tiger to be shot. Others look on it as a cow they can milk. Only a handful see it for what it really is—the strong and willing horse that pulls the whole cart along. The Unwritten Alliance: Speeches 1953-1959, London: Cassell, (1961), p. 324, Woodford, Essex, (1959, 29 September)"

"I have taken more out of alcohol than alcohol has taken out of me. As cited in The Forbes Book of Business Quotations (2007), Ed. Goodwin, Black Dog Publishing, p. 49, ISBN 1579127215"

"In the course of my life, I have often had to eat my words, and I must confess that I have always found it a wholesome diet."

"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."

"It is better to be making the news than taking it; to be an actor rather than a critic."

"I am an optimist. It does not seem too much use being anything else."

"Some people regard private enterprise as a predatory tiger to be shot. Others look upon it as a cow they can milk. Only a handful see it for what it really is—the strong and willing horse that pulls the whole cart along."

"Without an adequate British industry, we should have to live by our wits, or by our charity."

"Saving is a very fine thing. Especially when your parents have done it for you."

"Continuous effort—not strength or intelligence—is the key to unlocking our potential."

"Plans are of little importance, but planning is essential."

"Out of intense complexities, intense simplicities emerge."

"Nothing in life is so exhilarating as to be shot at without result."

"We shape our buildings; thereafter they shape us."

"I am fond of pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals."

"Healthy citizens are the greatest asset any country can have."

"One always tends to overstate a case when one is very much in earnest."

"Ending a sentence with a preposition is something up with which I will not put."

"The price of greatness is responsibility."

"Socialism is, in its essence, an attack not only upon British enterprise, but upon the right of the ordinary man or woman to breathe freely without having a harsh, clumsy, tyrannical hand clapped across their mouths and nostrils. A Free Parliament—look at that—a Free Parliament is odious to the Socialist doctrinaire. Broadcast for the 1945 general election (4 June 1945), quoted in Martin Gilbert, 'Never Despair': Winston S. Churchill, 1945–1965 (1988), p. 33"

"To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often."

"Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts."

"There is no such thing as a good tax."

"Lord Moran, Winston Churchill: The Struggle for Survival, 1940-1965 (London: Constable & Company, 1966), p. 167."

"We shall not fail or falter; we shall not weaken or tire."

"Some people regard private enterprise as a predatory tiger to be shot. Others look on it as a cow they can milk. Not enough people see it as a healthy horse, pulling a sturdy wagon. As quoted in the United States of America Congressional Record: Proceedings and Debates of the 105th Congress Second Session, Government Printing Office, Vol. 144, Part 4, p. 5738"

"The enthronement in office of a Socialist Government will be a serious national misfortune such as has usually befallen great States only on the morrow of defeat in war. It will delay the return of prosperity; it will check enterprise and impair credit; it will open a period of increasing political confusion and disturbance. Letter to a correspondent shortly before the Labour Party formed its first government (17 January 1924), quoted in The Times (18 January 1924), p. 14"

"Let them [Socialists] abandon the utter fallacy, the grotesque, erroneous, fatal blunder of believing that by limiting the enterprise of man, by riveting the shackles of a false equality... they will increase the well-being of the world. Winston S. Churchill, His Complete Speeches 1897-1963, Vol. IV, p. 3821, (21 January 1926)"

"However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results."

"When I see the present Socialist Government denouncing capitalism in all its forms, mocking with derision and contempt the tremendous free enterprise capitalist system on which the mighty production of the United States is founded, I cannot help feeling that as a nation we are not acting honourably or even honestly. Churchill By Himself: The Definitive Collections of Quotations, ed. Richard Langworth, 2008, p. 124, (1948, 10 July) Woodford, Essex, Europe, 374)"

"If you have an important point to make, don't try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver."

"It's not enough that we do our best; sometimes we have to do what's required. As cited in The Forbes Book of Business Quotations (2007), Ed. Goodwin, Black Dog Publishing, p. 168, ISBN 1579127215"

"We may indeed ask ourselves how it is that capitalism and free enterprise enable the United States not only to support its vast and varied life and needs, but also to supply these enormous sums to lighten the burden of others in distress. Churchill By Himself: The Definitive Collections of Quotations, ed. Richard Langworth, 2008, p. 124 (1948, 21 April)"