Enjoy fast, free delivery, exclusive deals, and award-winning movies & TV shows with Prime
Try Prime and start saving today with fast, free delivery

Kindle
$13.99

Available instantly

Hardcover
$23.25

Paperback
$14.29

$14.29 with 11 percent savings

List Price: $15.99

Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime FREE Returns

FREE delivery Tuesday, May 14 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35

Or fastest delivery Thursday, May 9. Order within 16 hrs 9 mins

Select delivery location

In Stock

$$14.29 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details

Ships from

Amazon.com

Ships from

Amazon.com

Sold by

Amazon.com

Sold by

Amazon.com

Returns

Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt

Returns

Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt

This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt.

Read full return policy

Payment

Secure transaction

Payment

Secure transaction

We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more

Details

Add a gift receipt for easy returns

$6.17

Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime FREE Returns

This item shows wear including moderate wear to edges and cover. This item shows wear including moderate wear to edges and cover. See less

FREE delivery Tuesday, May 14 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35

Or fastest delivery Thursday, May 9. Order within 16 hrs 9 mins

Select delivery location

Only 1 left in stock - order soon.

$$14.29 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details

Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items.

Enhancements you chose aren't available for this seller. Details

${cardName} not available for the seller you chose

${cardName} unavailable for quantities greater than ${maxQuantity}.

Sold by Jenson Books Inc and Fulfilled by Amazon.

Other sellers on Amazon

New & Used (106) from $5.11 & FREE Shipping

Follow the author

James C. Humes

+ Follow

More books from this author

The Wit & Wisdom of Winston Churchill Paperback – January 1, 1995

by James C. Humes (Author), Richard M. Nixon (Foreword)

4.5 283 ratings

See all formats and editions

{"desktop_buybox_group_1":[{"displayPrice":"$14.29","priceAmount":14.29,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"14","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"29","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"ANG8gGBpjvryVuIR%2BTszVPlJqUz%2Fv%2FnW%2BYr8bxjpeCWJk%2F0XsLjD%2FEAjlRaqfdc1%2ByGG3poR%2BX0ZDa9I1cVyRRRQxxjWhZF%2FuwwMgwQNc6Vjrw6AsZIZDtbhxDxB%2FILZd3t7axUdgCg%3D","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"NEW","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":0}, {"displayPrice":"$6.17","priceAmount":6.17,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"6","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"17","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"ANG8gGBpjvryVuIR%2BTszVPlJqUz%2Fv%2FnWBCzaqhP0w4Ii6WST8sXTccKM%2BngF70iMdS2eZ%2FkvoUfz%2Fh67ZNCT%2B9wqNi43x1JBj6X5KEoY%2FSdQxkuaRGqmXOWD9MZ6qvkhbQ0MgAoFkFbZ55slBtngqcFsXX%2FZEjKME20eCv%2F4oUxFkCFt8Orird3NS%2FOKyiSc","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"USED","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":1}]}

Purchase options and add-ons

"Courageous, bellicose and humorous. . . . To anyone who wishes to have a generous source of quotations, this is the one. Churchill address audiences for seven decades. To those who follow World War II, this is an inspiring book to read and keep on your shelves." — Indianapolis Star

A treasury of more than 1,000 quotations by and anecdotes about one of the most erudite, clever, and eloquent statesmen in history, Sir Winston Churchill. This entertaining compendium of bon mots and trivia is ideal for speakers, students of history, World War II buffs, and general readers.

Frequently bought together

$14.29

Get it as soon as Tuesday, May 14

In Stock

Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.

+

The Smart Words and Wicked Wit of Winston Churchill

$12.99

Get it as soon as Monday, May 13

In Stock

Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.

+

$14.99

Only 4 left in stock (more on the way).

Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.

Total price:

To see our price, add these items to your cart.

Try again!

Details

Added to Cart

Some of these items ship sooner than the others.

Show details Hide details

Choose items to buy together.

Max Morris
593
Hardcover
40 offers from $2.55
Winston Churchill
659
Paperback
77 offers from $4.57
Richard Langworth
130
Paperback
43 offers from $5.00
Press Association
136
Hardcover
23 offers from $12.70
Stan Hardy
184
Paperback
12 offers from $7.95
Sir Winston S. Churchill
30
Hardcover
47 offers from $14.18

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

An extremely entertaining compendium of bon mots, anecdotes, and trivia about Winston Churchill from a leading Churchill lecturer and performer -- useful for speakers, students, of history, and World War II buffs, as well as general readers.

About the Author

James C. Humes is a former speechwriter for Presidents Eisenhower, Nixon, Ford, and Reagan. He has written numerous books, including Instant Eloquence, Podium Humor, The Sir Winston Method, Citizen Shakespeare, and The Wit & Wisdom of Winston Churchill. He lives in Philadelphia.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ 0060925779
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Harper Perennial; Harper Perennia edition (January 1, 1995)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 256 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9780060925772
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0060925772
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 6.1 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.38 x 0.64 x 6.25 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #592,841 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #484 in Quotation Reference Books
- #728 in Historical British Biographies
- #2,946 in Political Leader Biographies

Customer Reviews:
4.5 283 ratings

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Videos

Help others learn more about this product by uploading a video!

Upload your video

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.

James C. Humes

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5

283 global ratings

How customer reviews and ratings work

Reviews with images

See all photos

Sort reviews by

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

James Tavegia

Great read.

Reviewed in the United States on March 11, 2024

Verified Purchase

Not all of his quotes are memorable, but most are. A nice short read that you will keep coming back to.

Helpful

soldier

wit and wisdom of winston churchill

Reviewed in the United States on January 27, 2014

Verified Purchase

I was a British war child who from the very start had great admiration for this man. He was so honoured that upon upon his death he lay in state where thousands filed past to pay their last respects. My interest in his life began just a few short years ago but I'd never read this book. I purchased it and found how truly he was about wit and wisdom. Some of his wit made me LOL and some of his wisdom was food for thought. I enjoyed the book so much I sent a copy to my brother in England. A great statesman, negotiator, orator, visionary and honorary American citizen. Before his death his final vision was to see Europe as the United States of Europe and who would have thought that fifty years after his death the European Union was to be founded. This is a quick read and so interesting that it could easily be read in a day but I found that I put it down leaving about 10 pages to be read. Why? Because I didn't want it to end. For those who consider reading this book especially if you like me are one of the war children it will make you so proud to be British and have ever known this amazing statesman and human being.

9 people found this helpful

Helpful

Kai Lee

An interesting portrait of “The Largest Human Being of Our Time.”

Reviewed in the United States on November 19, 2022

Verified Purchase

The author served as speech writer for Presidents Eisenhower, Nixon, Ford, and Reagan. He had shaken the hands of Winston Churchill in May 1953 when he was an exchanged scholar in London. Churchill told him “Young man, study history, study history. In history lie all the secrets of statecraft.“. The author also claimed that he had a dance with Queen Elizabeth II.

It is a pleasant surprise that, to this reader, there are no shortage of new materials about Winston Churchill just in the author’s Introduction. Among them:
- When Churchill swore his oath as a Member of Parliament in 1900, it was under Queen Victoria. When he decided not to stand again for his constituency in 1964, Queen Elizabeth II expressed her regret. In between, there were four monarchs: Edward VII, George V, Edward VIII, George VI.
- As an author, he has had more words published than Dickens and Sir Walter Scott combined.
- He originated the concept of “artificial harbor” in World War I. These were built and used on D-Day in World War II.

The book was organized into five parts: Observations and Opinions, Orations and Perorations, Coiner of Phrases, Saints and Sinners, and Escapades and Encounters. Orations and Perorations were excerpts of some of his speeches, each with a brief note about the date and the occasion that it was given. It included the first and the last of Churchill’s public speeches, his famous oratories during World War II as well as the Iron Curtain Speech, which was actually titled “Sinews of Peace“ by Churchill. The Saints and Sinners section was about his opinions on the various people he met over his long and active life on the world stage, including US Presidents, statesmen of several countries, military generals, writers, and a few celebrities. The section on Coiner of Phrases was interesting and refreshing, as it opened our eyes to the not well-known fact that several commonly used words were coined by Churchill. When he was First Lord of Admiralty in World War I, he changed “aero-plane” to airplane, “hydroplane” to seaplane, “light search and destroy vessel” to destroyer. The word “summit” and the phrase “business as usual” were also coined by him.

Escapades and Encounters was about anecdotes, mostly amusing, which illustrated the fun and satire loving side of Churchill. In one example, a younger member of Parliament once sought the great orator’s advice on speaking. “Mr. Churchill,” he began, “you heard my talk yesterday. Can you tell me how I could have put more fire in my speech?” “What you should have done,” replied Churchill “is to have put your speech into the fire.”

The section Observations and Opinions contained the quotes of Churchill. According to author Humes, next to the Bible and Shakespeare, Churchill is the most frequent source of quotations. In this section, these quotes are arranged in alphabetical order in terms of topic, beginning with “Action” and ending with “Zionism”. This is the longest section, 109 pages long. Below are several witty but perhaps not well-known ones:

- “It’s an extraordinary business this way of bringing babies into the world. I don’t know how God thought of it.”

- “Tact is the ability to tell someone to go to hell in such a way that they look forward to the trip.”

- “Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak, it’s also what it takes to sit down and listen.”

- “It is wonderful how well men can keep secrets they have not been told.”

I was surprised that two of my favorite Churchill quotes, one amusing and one serious, are not included in this book. They are:

- On New York City: “Newspaper too thick, toilet paper too thin.”

- On religion: “You can believe or not to believe, but it is wicked to take away the hope of people”.

The book had a forward by President Richard M. Nixon. He stated that:
“James Humes has selected close to a thousand excerpts of Churchill’s insight and wisdom. With the voice and authority of his experience, Churchill offers invaluable and indispensable lessons….
Any student of politics, aspiring world leader, or lover of history will find this wit and wisdom of Churchill both a pleasure and an education, and will come to a clearer understanding of why Churchill was the ‘largest human being of our time’”

Nixon was not my favorite President, but I will say: “Well said, President Nixon.”

Reviewed in the United States on September 20, 2020

Verified Purchase

Lovely little book of some of Churchill’s best quotes and anecdotes. Churchill was an amazing man and he wrote of all his own speeches.

Here is my favorite anecdote:
“At a formal banquet in London, the attending dignitaries asked the question, ‘If you could not be who you are, who would you like to be?’ Naturally everyone was curious as to what Churchill, who was seated next to his beloved Clemmie, would say. Would Churchill say Julius Caesar or Napoleon? When it finally came Churchill’s turn, the old man, who was the dinner’s last respondent to the question, rose and give his answer.
‘If I could not be who I am, I would most like to be …’ and here he paused to take his wife’s hand, ‘Mrs. Churchill’s second husband.’”

6 people found this helpful

Helpful

Busy Executive

Gotta love Churchill...

Reviewed in the United States on September 6, 2010

Verified Purchase

I've always been a Churchill fan - not only did he possess exceptional oratory and writing skill, he was also a man of remarkable vision. Still, Churchill knew that vision without execution is merely hallucination, and all through his life we see a man with a clear moral compass willing to take his principled stands far beyond just talking, no matter what the cost.

As for the book, yes, it includes many of Churchill's most famous quips, arranged according to subject. Taken together, they reveal much about the man and his values, as well as his ability to speak colorfully and powerfully on a wide range of topics, in ways that should shame many of today's leaders.

I've read quite a bit about Churchill, including his own works as well as several biographies. This little book, however, remains one of my favorites. It uniquely boils down the essence of Churchill to a series of simple one-liners (okay, some are longer), leaving you feeling that you are really getting to know the man.

Highly recommended to all Churchill fans, and to those who should be.

8 people found this helpful

Helpful