Briton or Boer
Fighting is vigorously proceeding, and
we shall see who can stand the bucketing best — Briton or Boer.
Churchill, London to Ladysmith
via Pretoria
We must do our duty
One would have thought that if there was one cause in the world
which the Conservative party would have hastened to defend, it would be the
cause of the British Empire in India … Our fight is hard. It will also be long
… But win or lose, we must do our duty. If the British people are to lose their
Indian Empire, they shall do so with their eyes open.
Churchill, 18 March 1931
Re-rat
Anyone can rat, but it takes a certain amount of ingenuity to
re-rat.
Sir John Colville’s diary, The Fringes of Power,
paraphrases this well-known phrase of Churchill’s, which may, in fact, be
manufactured since no direct attribution can be found, but Richard M. cited in
Langworth, editor of Churchill:
In His Own Words, feels that ‘re-rat’ has been mentioned by too many
sources to doubt that Churchill coined it.
War
has taught us to make these vast strides
It may seem strange that a great advance in the world in
industry, in controls of all kinds, should be made in time of war … War has
taught us to make these vast strides forward towards a far more complete
equalisation of the parts to be played by men and women in society.
Churchill, 29 September 1943, Royal Albert Hall, London
Unteachable
from infancy to tomb
Unteachable from infancy to tomb — There
is the first and main characteristic of mankind.
Churchill, 21 May 1928 (cited in Langworth, Churchill: In His Own Words)
Abstain from
reading it.
I have consistently urged my friends to
abstain from reading it.
Churchill, My Early Life, writing about his only novel Savrola
Superior
eye of critical passivity
Do not turn the superior eye of critical
passivity upon these efforts …. We must not be ambitious. We cannot aspire to
masterpieces. We may content ourselves with a joy ride in a paint-box.
Churchill, Painting as a
Pastime
Mustard
‘A gentleman does not have a ham sandwich without mustard.’
Dinner with Churchill: Policymaking at the Dinner Table,
Cita Stelzer, p 94.
Captain of Our Souls
“The mood of Britain is wisely and rightly averse from every
form of shallow or premature exultation. This is no time for boasts or glowing
prophecies, but there is this—a year ago our position looked forlorn, and well
nigh desperate, to all eyes but our own. Today we may say aloud before an
awe-struck world, ‘We are still masters of our fate. We still are captain of
our souls.'”
—House of Commons, 9
September 1941
Linchpin
of the English-Speaking World
“Canada is the linchpin of the English-speaking world. Canada,
with those relations of friendly, affectionate intimacy with the United
States on the one hand and with her unswerving fidelity to
the British Commonwealth and the Motherland on the other, is the link
which joins together these great branches of the human family, a link which,
spanning the oceans, brings the continents into their true relation and will
prevent in future generations any growth of division between the proud and the
happy nations of Europe and the great countries which have come into
existence in the New World.”
—Mansion House, London, 4 September 1941, at a
luncheon in honour of Mackenzie King, Prime Minister of Canada.
No comments:
Post a Comment