9 Winston Churchill Quotes on Diplomacy

Winston Churchill quotes on diplomacy

23. The choice was clearly open: crush them with vain and unstinted force, or try to give them what they want. These were the only alternatives and most people were unprepared for either. Here indeed was the Irish spectre - horrid and inexorcisable.

39. Britain and France had to choose between war and dishonour. They chose dishonour. They will have war.

72. The very first thing the President did was to show me the new Presidential Seal, which he had just redesigned. He explained, 'The seal has to go everywhere the President goes. It must be displayed upon the lectern when he speaks. The eagle used to face the arrows but I have re-designed it so that it now faces the olive branches: what do you think?' I said, 'Mr. President, with the greatest respect, I would prefer the American eagle's neck to be on a swivel so that it could face the olive branches or the arrows, as the occasion might demand.'

73. From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic an iron curtain has descended across the Continent.

84. To jaw-jaw is always better than to war-war.

105. We have seen that Alfred in his day had never hesitated to use money as well as arms. Ethelred used money instead of arms. He used it in ever-increasing quantities, with ever-diminishing returns...There is the record of a final payment to the Vikings in 1012. This time forty-eight thousand pounds' weight of silver was extracted, and the oppressors enforce the collection by the sack of Canterbury, holding Archbishop Alphege to ransom, and finally killing him at Greenwich because he refused to coerce his flock to raise the money. The Chronicle states: 'All these calamities fell upon us through evil counsel, because tribute was not offered to them at the right time, nor yet were they resisted; but, when they had done the most evil, then was peace made with them. And notwithstanding all this peace and tribute they went everywhere in companies, harried our wretched people, and slew them'

173. The reason for having diplomatic relations is not to confer a compliment, but to secure a convenience.

181. The United States invariably does the right thing, after having exhausted every other alternative.

193. When I am abroad, I always make it a rule never to criticise or attack the government of my own country. I make up for lost time when I come home.