Famous WW2 Quotes
Courage is the first of human qualities because it is the quality that guarantees all the others. - Winston Churchill
Powerful Quotes From WWII
Here’s a collection of inspirational WW2 quotes from Winston Churchill, General Patton, and President Roosevelt. Also, you’ll hear the powerful speech by General Eisenhower, “The Great Crusade.”
Those who lived through World War II are known as the Greatest Generation. Read the incredible, rarely told story of WW2 in FLYING FILLIES, available on Amazon.
This historical adventure book honors the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP), who proved that courage has no gender. The coming-of-age story is set in Sweetwater, Texas, USA, during WW2.
President Roosevelt's Famous WW2 Speech
"A Date Which Will Live in Infamy"
United States President Franklin Roosevelt addressed the nation after the attack on Pearl Harbor, December 1941.
"High Flight" — Aviation's Greatest Anthem
WWII aviator John Magee’s poem united pilots worldwide. President Ronald Reagan immortalized the poem’s opening lines in his 1986 Challenger disaster speech: “We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for their journey and waved goodbye and ‘slipped the surly bonds of Earth‘ to ‘touch the face of God.‘”
"To Touch the Face of God"
The first World War II poem was penned by John Magee. He was only 19 years old when he wrote it, inspired by his first high-altitude test flight in 1941.
Born in Shanghai to missionary parents, John Magee received a scholarship from Yale University, but left for Canada to join the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) for the war effort.
Sadly, John Magee died from a mid-air collision a few months after he penned the poem. “High Flight” is the most quoted aviation poem. Even today, first-year cadets at the U.S. Air Force Academy are required to memorize it.
"Slipped the Surly Bonds of Earth"
FIRST MIGHTY WWII POET JOHN MAGEE
Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
of sun-split clouds,-and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of-wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there,
I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air….
Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark nor ever eagle flew-
And, while with silent lifting mind I’ve trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.
Inspiring WW2 Quotes
“… 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…”
– Winston Churchill
“You don’t win wars by dying for your country. You win by making the other guy die for his.”
– General George Patton (paraphrase)
“The enemy win their battles from the air! They knock out my panzers with American armor-piercing shells.”
– Erwin Rommel, top general for Adolf Hitler on the fighting power of American WW2 planes
“I say that the delivery of needed supplies to Britain is imperative. I say that this can be done; it must be done; and it will be done…
The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”
– President Franklin D. Roosevelt
“If everyone is thinking alike, someone isn’t thinking.”
– General George Patton
"The Great Crusade"
"You Are About to Embark Upon the Great Crusade"
General Dwight D. Eisenhower’s D-Day order to Allied forces before the Normandy invasion, June 6, 1944. Watch this historic speech alongside stunning aerial footage of Operation Overlord—the largest amphibious invasion in history.
Churchill's First Speech as Prime Minister
"I Have Nothing to Offer But Blood, Toil, Tears and Sweat"
Sir Winston Churchill delivered this powerful speech on May 13, 1940—his first address to Parliament as Prime Minister. Just three days into office, with Nazi Germany sweeping across Europe, Churchill rallied Britain with words that would define the nation’s resolve throughout the darkest days of WW2.