Month: May 2012

Churchill on Taxes

Churchill on Taxes

Espe­cial­ly nowa­days, politi­cians fre­quent­ly  quote Churchill as say­ing, “There is no such thing as a good tax.” Fas­tid­ioius search­es of his pub­lished words reveal no such state­ment; and here at least is proof that he con­sid­ered at least one tax a good one.

Per­haps the House may remem­ber that only sev­en or eight years ago I got into some trou­ble myself about the Kerosene Tax. It was a very good tax. I was quite right about it. My Rt. Hon. Friend [Neville Cham­ber­lain] slipped it through a year or two lat­er with­out the slight­est trou­ble and it nev­er ruined the homes of the peo­ple at all.…

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Churchill’s Religion: “Optimistic Agnostic”

Churchill’s Religion: “Optimistic Agnostic”

Although he had some very reli­gious friends, like Lord Hugh Cecil, Win­ston Churchill was not a reli­gious man. Intro­duced to reli­gious diver­si­ty ear­ly, he was brought up “High Church,” but had a nan­ny “who enjoyed a very Low Church form of piety.” When in rebel­lious mood he would tell Nan­ny Ever­est “the worst thing that he could think of…that he would go out and ‘wor­ship idols.’”

After his self-edu­ca­tion as a young offi­cer in India, when he read all the pop­u­lar chal­lenges to ortho­dox reli­gion, like Charles Darwin’s The Ori­gin of Species and William Win­wood Reade’s The Mar­tyr­dom of Man, Churchill evolved into what we might term an “opti­mistic agnos­tic.” He…

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New Churchill Phrase & Quote Index

New Churchill Phrase & Quote Index

A new Phrase Index to Churchill quotes is available.

My Churchill quo­ta­tions book, Churchill By Him­self, is being updat­ed and cor­rect­ed for a new edi­tion called Churchill in His Own Words, with an even­tu­al e-book ver­sion as well. It con­tains a new Key Phrase Index that will great­ly assist read­ers in find­ing the quo­ta­tion they require.

Since the pag­i­na­tion of the new book will not change (we found only one quote which had to be removed as fic­ti­tious), the Phrase Index can also be used by present own­ers of Churchill By Him­self. For a copy please con­tact me.…

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