Year: 2012

Churchill on Taxes

Churchill on Taxes

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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”

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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

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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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Connie Marrero: Oldest Players

Connie Marrero: Oldest Players

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¡Ex ligamayorista Marrero cumple 102 años!

“He threw every­thing toward the plate but the ball.” —Ted Williams

Con­ra­do Euge­nio Mar­rero, the old­est liv­ing major league base­ball play­er, cel­e­brat­ed his 102nd birth­day in Havana on April 25, 2013 with one of his patent­ed cig­ars. Con­nie passed away just short of his 103rd birth­day on April 23, 2014.

Con­nie Mar­rero pitched 735 innings for the Wash­ing­ton Sen­a­tors in 1950-54, com­pil­ing a W-L record of 39-40. He was named to the 1951 All-Star team but did not play. He left after being scratched from the 1955 ros­ter.…

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Mussolini’s Consolation (Churchill Quotes)

Mussolini’s Consolation (Churchill Quotes)

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Is Wikipedia right that Churchill admired Ital­ian dic­ta­tor Ben­i­to Mus­soli­ni for hav­ing the “good sense to shoot his son-in-law”?

It’s a great crack, but it is not verified.

Churchill had called Mus­soli­ni every name in his book: ”whipped jackal”…”organ grinder’s monkey”…”absurd imposter.” In 1944, after Mus­soli­ni exe­cut­ed his son-in-law, for­mer Ital­ian for­eign min­is­ter Count Galeaz­zo Ciano, Churchill said in a broadcast:

 …the suc­cess­ful cam­paign in Sici­ly brought about the fall of Mus­soli­ni and the heart­felt repu­di­a­tion by the Ital­ian peo­ple of the Fas­cist creed. Mus­soli­ni indeed escaped, to eat the bread of afflic­tion at Hitler’s table, to shoot his son-in-law, and help the Ger­mans wreak vengeance upon the Ital­ian mass­es whom he had pro­fessed to love….…

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“If God Wearied of Mankind…”

“If God Wearied of Mankind…”

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From Churchill’s last major speech in the House of Com­mons comes a quo­ta­tion devoid of his usu­al optimism.

For some rea­son I can’t pos­si­bly imag­ine, this has come up late­ly with regard for the cur­rent affairs of the world:

Which way shall we turn to save our lives and the future of the world? It does not mat­ter so much to old peo­ple; they are going soon any­way; but I find it poignant to look at youth in all its activ­i­ty and ardour and, most of all, to watch lit­tle chil­dren play­ing their mer­ry games, and won­der what would lie before them if God wea­ried of mankind.…

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Why Churchill Shunned Pipes and Cigarettes

Why Churchill Shunned Pipes and Cigarettes

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A friend sent me a Dun­hill fea­ture from the Dai­ly Tele­graph, stat­ing that Churchill occa­sion­al­ly smoked a pipe as a hol­i­day from cig­ars: “I can find no ref­er­ence to him hav­ing ever smoked a pipe, can you?”

I think Dun­hills are stretch­ing. I can find no tes­ti­mo­ny to Churchill ever smok­ing a pipe. There are indi­ca­tions that he deplored pipe smok­ing (though he tol­er­at­ed it from Sir Arthur Ted­der). Per­haps this arose through his antipa­thy (which grew in the ear­ly 1930s) to Prime Min­is­ter Stan­ley Bald­win.

By look­ing for Bald­win ref­er­ences, I found a key cig­ar-and-pipe stand­off between Churchill and “SB” in 1924, when they were on bet­ter terms, in Mar­tin Gilbert’s Win­ston S.…

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How much did Churchill drink?

How much did Churchill drink?

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Andy Klein asks whether William Man­ches­ter was being fac­tu­al or just cute when he wrote that Churchill was not a heavy drinker, despite the quan­ti­ties Man­ches­ter enumerated:

…the leg­end that he is a heavy drinker is quite untrue. Churchill is a sen­si­ble if unortho­dox drinker. There is always some alco­hol in his blood­stream and it reach­es its peak in the evening after he has had two or three scotch­es, sev­er­al glass­es of cham­pagne, at least two brandies, and a highball.

Man­ches­ter was right in the sense but wrong in the details. Churchill had an impres­sive capac­i­ty for alco­hol, but nobody saw him put that much away of an evening.…

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Churchill as Racist: A Hard Sell

Churchill as Racist: A Hard Sell

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Racist still? In “To See Humans’ Progress, Zoom Out”  (The New York Times, 26 Feb­ru­ary 2012), Pro­fes­sor Steven Pinker asserts that for all their faults, edu­cat­ed peo­ple today are get­ting better:

Ideals that today’s edu­cat­ed peo­ple take for grant­ed — equal rights, free speech, and the pri­ma­cy of human life over tra­di­tion, trib­al loy­al­ty and intu­itions about puri­ty — are rad­i­cal breaks with the sen­si­bil­i­ties of the past. These too are gifts of a widen­ing appli­ca­tion of reason.

Fair enough, but to con­trast what edu­cat­ed peo­ple were like in the bad old days, Prof.…

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Winston Churchill, Myth and Reality

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