Sunday, January 7, 2018

Winston Churchill Quotes

I recently saw the motion picture “Darkest Hour” about the early days of World War II, when the fall of France was imminent and Britain was facing its darkest hour as the threat of a Nazi invasion loomed. As the seemingly unstoppable German Panzer forces advanced, and with the Allied army of over 300,000 soldiers trapped on the beaches of Dunkirk, the fate of Western Europe seemingly rested on the shoulders of the newly-appointed, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. While maneuvering his political rivals, and cajoling a reluctant War Cabinet and Parliament, Churchill confronts a fateful choice: negotiate with Hitler and potentially save the British people at an unimaginable cost, or rally the courage his country to fight against tyranny and incredible odds. Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtJ60u7SUSw.
I highly recommend this film and agree with this review: “Some movies are so good they make us feel grateful.” -- San Francisco Chronicle. Whether or not you have seen the movie or choose to, here are a few memorable quotes from this great statesman, historian, and leader:

“It is no use saying, ‘We are doing our best.’ You have got to succeed in doing what is necessary.”

“To build may have to be the slow and laborious task of years. To destroy can be the thoughtless act of a single day.”

“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”

“To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.”

“In war, resolution; in defeat, defiance; in victory, magnanimity.”

“A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.”

“When the eagles are silent, the parrots begin to jabber.”

“If you have ten thousand regulations you destroy all respect for the law.”

“Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.”

“Character may be manifested in the great moments, but it is made in the small ones.”

“Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing has happened.”

“An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile—hoping it will eat him last.”

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

“If you are going through hell, keep going.”

“You have enemies? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.”

“Never give in–never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.”

World War II Quotes:
“Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.”

“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.”

“If you will not fight for right when you can easily win without blood shed; if you will not fight when your victory is sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance of survival. There may even be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves.”

“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.”

“Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be free and life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands. But if we fall, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science. Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and its Commonwealth lasts for a thousand years, men will still say, ‘This was their finest hour!’”
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Quote Source: https://townhall.com/columnists/johnhawkins/2013/01/19/the-40-greatest-quotes-from-winston-churchill-n1492794

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