With International Literacy Day on 8 September and the Open Book Cape Town Literary Festival from 20-24 September, we thought we’d bring you some inspiration in how to use words to great effect, whether written or spoken.

There are few men in history that can top Winston Churchill for a killer quote:

1. Lady Nancy Astor to Winston Churchill: “If you were my husband, I’d 
    poison your tea.”Churchill: “If I were your husband, I’d drink it.

2. “Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm.”

3. “We are masters of the unsaid words, but slaves of those we let slip
     out”

4. A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the
    opportunity in every difficulty.”

5. “I may be drunk, Miss, but in the morning I will be sober and you will still
     be ugly.”