"Let our advance worrying become advance thinking and planning"
About this Quote
The intent is political as much as psychological. Churchill knew morale was a resource: panic wastes it, preparation multiplies it. By reframing worry as raw material for planning, he gives civilians and officials a role beyond endurance. Anxiety becomes participation. That move also protects him rhetorically. If outcomes go badly, he can argue the proper response was never hand-wringing but readiness - a subtle redistribution of responsibility from fate to collective discipline.
The subtext carries a Churchillian moral hierarchy: emotion is inevitable, but it must be governed. "Advance" does double duty, evoking military movement and temporal foresight. Worry is passive anticipation; planning is agency. In the shadow of air raids, rationing, and strategic uncertainty, the sentence offers a bracing kind of hope - not optimism that things will be fine, but confidence that competence can blunt disaster. It’s stoicism with a clipboard.
Quote Details
| Topic | Motivational |
|---|---|
| Source | Later attribution: Planning Your Get Away (Craig West, 2005) modern compilationISBN: 9780975776506 · ID: k34NDvO3vXsC
Evidence:
... Let our advance worrying become advance thinking and planning. Winston Churchill – – disputes among the parties about value • failure to properly transfer functional control and management • poor communication during the implementation ... |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Churchill, Winston. (2026, February 7). Let our advance worrying become advance thinking and planning. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/let-our-advance-worrying-become-advance-thinking-87135/
Chicago Style
Churchill, Winston. "Let our advance worrying become advance thinking and planning." FixQuotes. February 7, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/let-our-advance-worrying-become-advance-thinking-87135/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"Let our advance worrying become advance thinking and planning." FixQuotes, 7 Feb. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/let-our-advance-worrying-become-advance-thinking-87135/. Accessed 13 Feb. 2026.











