Listmania! - Part I
Subject: my favourite Winston Churchill quotes
As many of you out there may have already deduced, I'm a big fan of the late Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965), prime minister of Great Britain during the Second World War. Indeed, your first hint to this fact about me is the very title of my blog! It's derived from a noted quotation made by Churchill during a speech he gave at Harvard University on September 6, 1943: "The empires of the future are the empires of the mind."
I could write essays - books even - on why I like old Winston so much, why I consider him one of my heroes and idols. In a nutshell, though, I believe that he was one of the most courageous, inspired and effective leaders in world history. Certainly I regard him as one of the best - if not THE best - British prime ministers ever to walk the halls of Parliament. I still get goosebumps whenever I read or hear excerpts of his wartime speeches. The man was simply a master of rhetoric; he had a real way with words! Very few public figures both past and present could match his simple yet strong eloquence, in my opinion. This achievement is all the more amazing given the fact Churchill had to overcome a severe stuttering problem from his childhood!
Pretty language aside, I also think he was a damn good leader and politician in his own right. Actions speak louder than words, and Winston was no slouch on either count. He almost single-handedly guided the British people through the earliest and darkest days of the war. When England stood alone against the Nazi menace - when many in the highest circles of government and society thought she was doomed to defeat - Churchill stood in bold defiance of the odds and rallied his countrymen to stand firm against tyranny. A lesser man might easily have capitulated to German aggression and made a fatal compromise peace with Hitler. One shudders to think how the war, not to mention history itself, would have turned out differently had that been the case! Winston was the right person at the right time.
Below are some of my most favourite quotes of his, ranging from funny to philosophical. Hopefully you might find a few you like and take to heart yourselves...
“All the great things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word: freedom, justice, honour, duty, mercy, hope.”
“Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.”
Lady Astor to Churchill: “If you were my husband, I'd put arsenic in your coffee."
Churchill: “Madam, if I were your husband, I'd drink it!”
“A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject.”
“A love of tradition has never weakened a nation, indeed it has strengthened nations in their hour of peril; but the new view must come, the world must roll forward.”
“Although prepared for martyrdom, I preferred that it be postponed.”
“An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last.”
“Every day you may make progress. Every step may be fruitful. Yet there will stretch out before you an ever-lengthening, ever-ascending, ever-improving path. You know you will never get to the end of the journey. But this, so far from discouraging, only adds to the joy and glory of the climb.”
“From now on, ending a sentence with a preposition is something up with which I will not put.”
“He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire.”
“I have always felt that a politician is to be judged by the animosities he excites among his opponents.”
“I like pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals.”
“It's not enough that we do our best; sometimes we have to do what's required.”
“Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened.”
“Personally I'm always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught.”
“Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.”
“The price of greatness is responsibility.”
“The reserve of modern assertions is sometimes pushed to extremes, in which the fear of being contradicted leads the writer to strip himself of almost all sense and meaning.”
“There are a terrible lot of lies going around the world, and the worst of it is half of them are true.”
“To build may have to be the slow and laborious task of years. To destroy can be the thoughtless act of a single day.”
“Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.”
“I am prepared to meet my Maker. Whether my Maker is prepared for the great ordeal of meeting me is another matter.”
“A joke is a very serious thing.”
“A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.”
“A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.”
“Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.”
“By swallowing evil words unsaid, no one has ever harmed his stomach.”
“Courage is rightly esteemed the first of human qualities... because it is the quality which guarantees all others.”
“Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfils the same function as pain in the human body. It calls attention to an unhealthy state of things.”
“In the course of my life, I have often had to eat my words, and I must confess that I have always found it a wholesome diet.”
“Everyone has his day and some days last longer than others.”
“I'm just preparing my impromptu remarks.”
“It is always wise to look ahead, but difficult to look further than you can see.”
“No crime is so great as daring to excel.”
“No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism.”
“No idea is so outlandish that it should not be considered with a searching but at the same time a steady eye.”
“Solitary trees, if they grow at all, grow strong.”
“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”
“Sure I am of this, that you have only to endure to conquer. You have only to persevere to save yourselves.”
“The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.”
“The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.”
“The length of this document defends it well against the risk of its being read.”
“The power of man has grown in every sphere, except over himself.”
“The truth is incontrovertible, malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end; there it is.”
“There is no such thing as a good tax.”
“There is no such thing as public opinion. There is only published opinion.”
“To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.”
“True genius resides in the capacity for evaluation of uncertain, hazardous, and conflicting information.”
“Without a measureless and perpetual uncertainty, the drama of human life would be destroyed.”
“Without tradition, art is a flock of sheep without a shepherd. Without innovation, it is a corpse.”
As many of you out there may have already deduced, I'm a big fan of the late Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965), prime minister of Great Britain during the Second World War. Indeed, your first hint to this fact about me is the very title of my blog! It's derived from a noted quotation made by Churchill during a speech he gave at Harvard University on September 6, 1943: "The empires of the future are the empires of the mind."
I could write essays - books even - on why I like old Winston so much, why I consider him one of my heroes and idols. In a nutshell, though, I believe that he was one of the most courageous, inspired and effective leaders in world history. Certainly I regard him as one of the best - if not THE best - British prime ministers ever to walk the halls of Parliament. I still get goosebumps whenever I read or hear excerpts of his wartime speeches. The man was simply a master of rhetoric; he had a real way with words! Very few public figures both past and present could match his simple yet strong eloquence, in my opinion. This achievement is all the more amazing given the fact Churchill had to overcome a severe stuttering problem from his childhood!
Pretty language aside, I also think he was a damn good leader and politician in his own right. Actions speak louder than words, and Winston was no slouch on either count. He almost single-handedly guided the British people through the earliest and darkest days of the war. When England stood alone against the Nazi menace - when many in the highest circles of government and society thought she was doomed to defeat - Churchill stood in bold defiance of the odds and rallied his countrymen to stand firm against tyranny. A lesser man might easily have capitulated to German aggression and made a fatal compromise peace with Hitler. One shudders to think how the war, not to mention history itself, would have turned out differently had that been the case! Winston was the right person at the right time.
Below are some of my most favourite quotes of his, ranging from funny to philosophical. Hopefully you might find a few you like and take to heart yourselves...
“All the great things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word: freedom, justice, honour, duty, mercy, hope.”
“Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.”
Lady Astor to Churchill: “If you were my husband, I'd put arsenic in your coffee."
Churchill: “Madam, if I were your husband, I'd drink it!”
“A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject.”
“A love of tradition has never weakened a nation, indeed it has strengthened nations in their hour of peril; but the new view must come, the world must roll forward.”
“Although prepared for martyrdom, I preferred that it be postponed.”
“An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last.”
“Every day you may make progress. Every step may be fruitful. Yet there will stretch out before you an ever-lengthening, ever-ascending, ever-improving path. You know you will never get to the end of the journey. But this, so far from discouraging, only adds to the joy and glory of the climb.”
“From now on, ending a sentence with a preposition is something up with which I will not put.”
“He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire.”
“I have always felt that a politician is to be judged by the animosities he excites among his opponents.”
“I like pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals.”
“It's not enough that we do our best; sometimes we have to do what's required.”
“Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened.”
“Personally I'm always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught.”
“Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.”
“The price of greatness is responsibility.”
“The reserve of modern assertions is sometimes pushed to extremes, in which the fear of being contradicted leads the writer to strip himself of almost all sense and meaning.”
“There are a terrible lot of lies going around the world, and the worst of it is half of them are true.”
“To build may have to be the slow and laborious task of years. To destroy can be the thoughtless act of a single day.”
“Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.”
“I am prepared to meet my Maker. Whether my Maker is prepared for the great ordeal of meeting me is another matter.”
“A joke is a very serious thing.”
“A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.”
“A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.”
“Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.”
“By swallowing evil words unsaid, no one has ever harmed his stomach.”
“Courage is rightly esteemed the first of human qualities... because it is the quality which guarantees all others.”
“Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfils the same function as pain in the human body. It calls attention to an unhealthy state of things.”
“In the course of my life, I have often had to eat my words, and I must confess that I have always found it a wholesome diet.”
“Everyone has his day and some days last longer than others.”
“I'm just preparing my impromptu remarks.”
“It is always wise to look ahead, but difficult to look further than you can see.”
“No crime is so great as daring to excel.”
“No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism.”
“No idea is so outlandish that it should not be considered with a searching but at the same time a steady eye.”
“Solitary trees, if they grow at all, grow strong.”
“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”
“Sure I am of this, that you have only to endure to conquer. You have only to persevere to save yourselves.”
“The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.”
“The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.”
“The length of this document defends it well against the risk of its being read.”
“The power of man has grown in every sphere, except over himself.”
“The truth is incontrovertible, malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end; there it is.”
“There is no such thing as a good tax.”
“There is no such thing as public opinion. There is only published opinion.”
“To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.”
“True genius resides in the capacity for evaluation of uncertain, hazardous, and conflicting information.”
“Without a measureless and perpetual uncertainty, the drama of human life would be destroyed.”
“Without tradition, art is a flock of sheep without a shepherd. Without innovation, it is a corpse.”
posted by Blake @ 11:46 p.m.
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