An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last.

Churchill used this vivid metaphor in the late 1930s as he campaigned against British “appeasement” of Adolf Hitler’s Germany. From the backbenches, he warned that conceding territory and making repeated compromises to avert war would not satisfy an expansionist dictatorship but instead encourage further demands. The image of feeding a crocodile captures his view that appeasement buys only a temporary reprieve for the appeaser while strengthening the aggressor. The remark circulated widely in political commentary as Europe moved from the Munich Agreement (1938) toward the outbreak of the Second World War (1939).

The quote argues that appeasement is not a strategy for peace but a wager on being the last victim. By “feeding” the crocodile, the appeaser supplies resources, legitimacy, or concessions that make the predator stronger and more dangerous. The hope of being “eaten last” underscores the moral and strategic bankruptcy Churchill saw in sacrificing others’ security to postpone one’s own peril. The line’s enduring force lies in its generalizable warning: when confronting actors driven by conquest or coercion, incremental concessions can convert short-term calm into long-term catastrophe.