Winston Churchill

[V-35]

An earlier thread on 'Favorite Quotes' IIRC had a quite a few by Winston Churchill. (One of my all time favorite people.)

I friend of mine gave me a Kindle for Christmas and I looked up books by and about him. One listed was "Memorable Quotations from Winston Churchill" by Jim Dell, for the princely sum of $0.99 for the Kindle download. A real bargain that I highly recommend.

Lots of laughs and great insight from a Master Statesman and Wit.


Art

 

[Texas Star]

My son made me a CD with his recorded radio speech about fighting the Germans on the beaches, in the hills, etc. and never, never, never surrendering. I especially liked a speech in which he spoke of moving from the darkness of the desperate days of 1940 into "broad, sunlit uplands".

On a couple of other (non gun) boards, I use his quote as a signature. "There is nothing quite so exhilarating as to be shot at without effect." He penned that soon after coming under fire in what is now Pakistan, as a young cavalry officer.

BTW, I read an article in, "Man at Arms" about his pistols. His Mauser M-96 was recovered when he was captured by the Boers. He wrote years later: "I have it by me now." But by the time he went to France in 1915, he was carrying a Colt Govt. Model .45. (Yes, a .45, not the .455 variant.) He often carried this .45 under his suit coat in WW II, as Prime Minister.
I think his awareness of its advantages in combat probably caused him to insist that his newly formed Commando units have the Colt .45 as their sidearm, rather than .38 revolvers. Later, some British paratroopers and special operations personnel also had Colt .45 autos. At least the early ones were BOUGHT by the British; they were not Lend-Lease.

 

[vigil617]

He had a razor wit. I like these two examples:

Bessie Braddock: "Sir, you are drunk."
Churchill: "Madam, you are ugly. In the morning, I shall be sober."

Nancy Astor: "Sir, if you were my husband, I would give you poison."
Churchill: "If I were your husband I would take it."

He also was a master of the inspiring, of saying exactly the right thing at the right time. As in:

"You ask, What is our policy? I will say; "It is to wage war, by sea, land and air, with all our might and with all the strength that God can give us: to wage war against a monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark lamentable catalogue of human crime. That is our policy." You ask, What is our aim? I can answer with one word: Victory—victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory however long and hard the road may be; for without victory there is no survival.

We shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and the oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender."

And last, a personal favorite:

"Courage is the first of human qualities because it is the quality that guarantees all the others."

 

[Texas Star]

Anyone who has not read, "My Early Life" should try to scrounge a copy. Very witty, and what the movie, "Young Winston" was based on.

This is where he related the incident in which he seriously ticked off a teacher by asking about a certain tense of Latin verb.

The schoolmaster said, "Well, you would use that tense when speaking to, say, a table."

Winston: "But I never do!"

The book also relates his use of the 7.63mm Mauser pistol in the cavalry charge at Omdurman.

 

[V-35]

Here is a couple of others that I especially like;

Politics is the ability to fortell what is going to happen tomorrow, next week, next month and next year.
and have the ability afterwards to explain why it didn't happen.


Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak;

Courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.



Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm.

 

[dbl barrel]

in one of his books he said that mohammadasim in a man is like hydrophobia in a dog

 

[Steve in Vermont]

The Britain of the 40's and the 21st Century are 2 different countries. Imagine asking Churchill (if he were alive today) about gun control and disarming the population.

 

[Roadtrash]

He'd probably shoot you with that 45.

 

[Bat Guano]

One of my heroes. Currently rereading his History of WWII. The above entry #4 about "My Early Life" and the movie is right on.

I would love to hear his opinion about what we are stuck with for political leadership today.

"Never, never, never give up."

 

[5-Shot]

Wife and I visited England this summer and while there dropped in on Winston's childhood home. Not a bad place at all.

 

[sheepdawg]

How can you not like someone that lived to be 90 while drinking a quart of gin and smoking as many as 20 cigars a day.

 

[Double-O-Dave]

I love his quotes, but one of my favorite stories about him was when he was attending a formal (state) dinner. He noticed the Head Waiter had a look of great concern on his face. Churchill pulled him to the side and asked what the problem was. The Head Waiter told him that he saw one of the guests steal one of the golden salt shakers, and that he didn't know how to handle such a delicate situation. Churchill asked that the light fingered diplomat be pointed out to him, and this was done. He then walked over to the diplomat and in front of him, he boldly grabbed the golden pepper mill and hid it under his coat. "Damn!" he said to the diplomat, "Head Waiter just saw what we did, so now we shall have to put them back." Churchill returned the pepper mill to the table top, and then glared at the diplomat until he returned the salt shaker. He made it a point to stay next to the diplomat throughout the rest of the dinner.

That guy had class!

Regards,

Dave

 

[jaykellogg]

Once in Parliament he was criticized for ending a sentence with a preposition. His reply on the floor of Parliament "This is an outrage, up with which I shall not put!"

Gun control started in GB in 1824 and really got rolling in 1920. Then in 1937 the laws got stricter and self defense was no longer a valid reason to get a firearm certificate. I doubt that Sir Winston Churchill violated British law when he carried the .45 auto, but I am also sure that it was political power that got him the legal right to carry it. By WWII there were relatively few small arms in Great Britain and they begged the USA to send weapons over because they feared imminent invasion by Germany.

 

[Texas Star]

Wife and I visited England this summer and while there dropped in on Winston's childhood home. Not a bad place at all.

Is this Blenheim Palace? If so, I think it was built for John Churchill by the nation (via Royal decree) for defeating the enemy at Blenheim. I think he was also made Duke of Marlborough.

Nice pad. Hate to have the electric bill. Many aristocrats now allow paid tours of all but the most private living quarters of their estates, to pay the utility bills and taxes.

BTW, Sir Winston's mother was an American socialite, Jenny Jerome. Came from one of those Yankee places. I could probably recall which, but thinking about that area of the country gives me indigestion.

And he tried to arm his detective/bodyguard with a .45 auto, but the man preferred the lighter Webley .32 auto. I suspect he saw his duties as mainly ceremonial.

Have any of you seen the photos of Churchill firing a Tommy gun and trying the then-new No. 4 .303 rifle? I saw a CBS series about him when I was a kid and they showed his personal weapons that he kept near at hand as Prime Minister. They included his .45, a .38 Webley MK IV revolver, a Thompson, and a 6.5mm Mannlicher-Schonauer carbine.

Didn't know about the gin. I know that he liked brandy.

I believe that I still have a 1965 issue of, National Geographic that covered his State funeral. Has a good ad for the Parker 75 fountain pen, too, one of my favorite writing instruments. I don't know if Churchill used Parkers, but some members of the present Royal family do, inc. Charles, Prince of Wales.
I believe the Queen also uses Parker pens.

Incidentally, the Royals were not behind the 1997 gun law, and Prince Phillip spoke out bitterly against it, saying that it would have little effect on crime. It was Tony Blair's liberals who wanted that, and the masses who wanted to end gun ownership because they saw it as being a class privilege.

 

[luangtom]

My father, a WWII vet with 39-months of combat, was not a real fan of Winston Churchill. I asked him why he was not? His response was that at a speech, with many Americans in attendance, he told the audience, "We will fight the Germans to the last bloody American." From that day forth, my father said he lost his respect for the man. But, that was Pop.

 

[Texas Star]

My father, a WWII vet with 39-months of combat, was not a real fan of Winston Churchill. I asked him why he was not? His response was that at a speech, with many Americans in attendance, he told the audience, "We will fight the Germans to the last bloody American." From that day forth, my father said he lost his respect for the man. But, that was Pop.

Sounds like he was making a joke. I laughed. But he was indeed pretty casual with Anzac lives at Gallipoli in WW I and was unhappy when the Aussies pulled their troops out of North Africa to defend their home island from the Japanese. Many Australians dislike the "poms" for that sort of thing.

It was the USA who joined with the Anzacs to defeat Japan. To be sure, we had plenty of British help in Burma. But not too much in the Pacific until late in the war.

 

[cptdco]

I read his account of WWII: six volumes, over 2 million words. Very interesting, although at times it was a bit of work. It took me 5 months over a 6 month period. Volume five ends with the ships launched for the D-Day invasion and I needed to take a little break before I finished it up. One of the things it did for me was to re-emphasis the concept of a World War, with discussions of events in Turkey, Persia, the Nordic countries and Eastern Europe and Egypt. It also reminded me that the war was underway for several years (especially in the Pacific) before the US got involved. I also recently read a biography of Jenny Jerome, Winston's American mother...what a character.

 

[5-Shot]

Yes, Texas Star, that is indeed Blenheim. The picture only shows part of it.

Ed

 

[Lew Archer]

Great thread...thanks for all the anecdotes and quotations.

I believe I shall have a cigar, a Churchill, of course, and toast that wonderful half-American with a little gin...

 

[vigil617]

I was going to say the only thing wrong with Churchill was that he wasn't an American , but thanks to you guys, I know now that he was half-American, on his mom's side of the family.

Somehow, I think there must be some Twain (Clemens) blood in that gene pool too.

Gotta consider him one of the greatest men of the Twentieth Century, though. Maybe the greatest, since he led Great Britain in holding off the Nazis on their side of the continent until we declared war on the Axis powers.

I know he'd be one of the people I would invite to my dinner table if I could have my choice of any, say, six from human history.