Darkest Hour Quotes

Winston Churchill: You can not reason with a tiger when your head is in its mouth.

Winston Churchill: Will you stop interrupting me while I am interrupting you!

Winston Churchill: [Referring to Clement Attlee] He's a sheep in sheep's clothing.

Winston Churchill: [In the toilet] Please tell the Privy Seal that I'm sealed in the privy and I can only deal with one shit at a time.

Winston Churchill: [Preparing to exit the toilet] I'm coming out in a state of nature!

Winston Churchill: I'm getting the job only because the ship is sinking. It's not a gift, it's revenge.

Winston Churchill: My poor judgement.

Winston Churchill: My father was like God. Busy elsewhere.

Viscount Halifax: The deadly danger here is this romantic fantasy of fighting to the end. What is "the end" if not the destruction of all things? There's nothing heroic in going down fighting if it can be avoided. Nothing even remotely patriotic in death or glory if the odds are firmly on the former. Nothing inglorious in trying to shorten a war we are clearly losing.

Clemmie: You are strong because you are imperfect. You are wise because you have doubts

Winston Churchill: Nations which go down fighting rise again, and those that surrender tamely are finished.

Winston Churchill: There is no doubt that if we falter at all in the leading of the nation we should all be hurled out of office.

Winston Churchill: Those who never change their mind never change anything.

Winston Churchill: [shouting at a photo of Hitler] HOUSEPAINTER!

Title Card: Hitler has invaded Czechoslovakia, Poland, Denmark, and Norway. 3 million German troops are now poised on the Belgian border, ready to conquer the rest of Europe. In Britain, Parliament has lost faith in its leader Neville Chamberlain. The search for a replacement has already begun...

Winston Churchill: [in his first speech as Prime Minister] But now one bond unites us all. To wage war until victory is won, and never to surrender ourselves to servitude and shame. Whatever the cost and the agony may be, conquer we must, as conquer we shall.

King George VI: Go to the people. Let them instruct you. Quite silently, they usually do. But tell them... the truth unvarnished.

Winston Churchill: [riding the train] What are you all staring at? Have you never seen, uh, the prime minister ride the Underground before?

Clemmie: Here is a woman who's always tired, for she lives a life where too much is required.

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

Winston Churchill: I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.

Winston Churchill: Turning once again to the question of invasion I would observe that there has never been a period in all these long centuries of which we boast, when an absolute guarantee against invasion could have been given to our people. I have, myself full confidence that if all do their duty, if nothing is neglected, and if the best arrangements are made, as they are being made, we shall prove ourselves once more able to defend our island home, to ride out the storm of war, and to outlive the menace of tyranny if necessary for years, if necessary alone. At any rate, that is what we are going to try to do. That is the resolve of His Majesty's Government every man of them. That is the will of Parliament and the nation. The British Empire and the French Republic, linked together in their cause and in their need, will defend to the death their native soil, aiding each other like good comrades to the utmost of their strength. Even though large tracts of Europe and many old and famous States have fallen or may fall into the grip of the Gestapo and all the odious apparatus of Nazi rule, 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, and if, which I do not for a moment believe, this island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in God's good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old!

Clement Atlee: [on Neville Chamberlain] Owing to his years of inactivity and incompetence, we find him personally responsible... personally responsible for leaving this nation ruinously unprepared to face the present Nazi peril! We are at war, Mr. Speaker, at war. And leaving aside whether he is fit to be a leader in peacetime, he has proved himself incapable of leading us in wartime!

King George VI: [to Churchill] I confess I had some reservations about you at first. But while some in this country dreaded your appointment, none dreaded it like Adolf Hitler. Whoever can strike fear into that brute's heart is worthy of all our trust.

Winston Churchill: D'you know, I've never ridden a bus? I've never queued for bread. I believe I can boil an egg... but only because I've seen it done. The only time I tried riding the Underground was during the General Strike. Clemmie dropped me off at South Kensington station. I went down but got lost. I came straight back up! It was awful.