Category: Quotations

baths
Churchill’s habits (and the occasional experiences of his secretaries) were well known to the Nazis, who lampooned him in “Illustrerter Beobachter” for June 1941. Translation: “Take this down: In my current situation, I fear German U-boats even less than before.”
“Lousy”: Winston S. Churchill on Baths and Bathtubs

“Lousy”: Winston S. Churchill on Baths and Bathtubs

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"When Ministers of the Crown speak like this [there is] no need to wonder why they are getting increasingly into bad odour. I had even asked myself whether you, Mr. Speaker, would admit the word LOUSY as a Parliamentary expression in referring to the Administration, provided, of course, it was not intended in a contemptuous sense but purely as one of factual narration."

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crodociles
Crocodile analogies weren’t new to Churchill. In 1798 after the Battle of the Nile at Aboukir Bay, cartoonist James Gillray depicted Nelson (with a club of “British oak”) slaying “Revolutionary Crocodiles” colored with the French Tricolor. The original caption read: “The British hero cleansing the mouth of the Nile.” (Wikimedia Commons)
Crocodiles: Churchill’s Animal Analogies

Crocodiles: Churchill’s Animal Analogies

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"[The Bolshevik] crocodiles with master minds entered upon their responsibilities upon November 8 [1917]. Many tears and guttural purrings were employed in inditing the decree of peace.… But the Petrograd wireless stirred the ether in vain. The crocodiles listened attentively for the response; but there was only silence."

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evacuate
Operation Sea Lion invasion routes. (Italian Wikimedia Commons)
Would the Royal Family and Churchill Had Left if the Germans Invaded?

Would the Royal Family and Churchill Had Left if the Germans Invaded?

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“Would the Roy­al Fam­i­ly and Chrchill Evac­u­ate?” is excerpt­ed from an arti­cle for the Hills­dale Col­lege Churchill Project. For the orig­i­nal text with end­notes, please click here.

Q: Evacuate the Royals?

I am argu­ing with a per­son in anoth­er forum that there was a plan in the Sec­ond World War to evac­u­ate Churchill and the Roy­al Fam­i­ly to Cana­da if the Nazis invad­ed.  I believe it was called Oper­a­tion Coates, but the ref­er­ence I found doesn’t men­tion Churchill.

Churchill doesn’t seem like the sort of per­son to evac­u­ate. At Sid­ney Street he was in the front line.…

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criticism
Plenty of criticism went around among these…. Churchill with his Chiefs of Staff, Anfa Villa, Casablanca, 14 January 1943. L-R: Air Chief Marshal Sir Charles Portal, Admiral Sir Dudley Pound, WSC, General Sir Alan Brooke and Lord Louis Mountbatten. (Imperial War Museum, public domain)
Winston Churchill’s Rule of Criticism after the Fact

Winston Churchill’s Rule of Criticism after the Fact

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Churchill claimed he never criticized a policy later that he had not publicly criticized when it was first raised. True, he was often on both sides of issues, and could pick his criticisms accordingly. But he in time he usually arrived at the right conclusions.

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National Geographic
Churchill on Foreign Aliens: Did He Say, “Collar the Lot”?

Churchill on Foreign Aliens: Did He Say, “Collar the Lot”?

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"The power of the Executive to cast a man into prison without formulating any charge known to the law, and particularly to deny him judgement by his peers for an indefinite period, is in the highest degree odious….Nothing can be more abhorrent to democracy than to imprison a person or keep him in prison because he is unpopular. This is really the test of civilisation." —WSC

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National Debt
Budget Day, 15 April 1929. The Chancellor of the Exchequer en route Parliament to present his fifth budget. His task: to reduce the £8 billion National Debt. L-R: Detective Walter Thompson; Parliamentary Private Secretary Bob Boothby; Winston, Clementine, Sarah and Randolph Churchill. (Crown copyright expired, public domain)
Churchill on the Annual Crisis of the National Debt

Churchill on the Annual Crisis of the National Debt

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"There are two ways in which a gigantic debt may be spread over new decades and future generations. There is the right and healthy way; and there is the wrong and morbid way. The wrong way is to fail to make the utmost provision for amortisation which prudence allows, to aggravate the burden of the debts by fresh borrowings, to live from hand to mouth and from year to year, and to exclaim with Louis XV: 'After me, the deluge!'” —WSC, 1927

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enemy
British tommies of the Machine Gun Corps fire at German aircraft during the Battle of Arras, 1917. (Photo by John Warwick Brooke, 1886-1929, public domain)
Churchillian Maxims: “Take the Enemy into Consideration”

Churchillian Maxims: “Take the Enemy into Consideration”

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"The German General Staff called this long-prepared operation by the code name Alberich, after the malicious dwarf of the Nibelungen legend. They left their opponents in the crater fields of the Somme,"

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death
Oscar Nemon’s sculpture of Clementine and Winston at Chartwell. (Photo by Gaius Cornelius, Creative Commons)
“To be opened in the event of my death…” Winston Churchill to his Wife, 1915

“To be opened in the event of my death…” Winston Churchill to his Wife, 1915

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Q: The goodbye letter

I am doing some work for my Eng­lish AS course and  need a com­par­a­tive piece to go with a poem I am study­ing. I have tried look­ing  for Win­ston Churchill’s good­bye let­ter to his wife but have been unsuc­cess­ful. Is there any way I could even have a part of the text of the let­ter for my stud­ies? —A.S., UK

A: “In the event of my death…”

This was a great and mem­o­rable let­ter. After his removal as First Lord of the Admi­ral­ty in 1915, Churchill spent six uneasy months in a sinecure posi­tion, unable to influ­ence war pol­i­cy.…

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Christmas Eve
The White House, 24 December: FDR at the microphones, Churchill to follow. (White House Archives, public domain)
Christmas Eve, Washington, 1941: Eighty Years On

Christmas Eve, Washington, 1941: Eighty Years On

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"Here, in the midst of war, raging and roaring over all the lands and seas, creeping nearer to our hearts and homes, here, amid all the tumult, we have tonight the peace of the spirit in each cottage home and in every generous heart. Therefore we may cast aside for this night at least the cares and dangers which beset us, and make for the children an evening of happiness in a world of storm." —WSC

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Baldwin
Churchill and his wife (right) dedicating the Baldwin Memorial marker at Astley, Worcestershire, 20 May 1950. At left is Baldwin’s son Oliver and an unidentified woman, who might be one of Baldwin’s daughters. (Astley and Dunley Parish Council)
Churchill’s Magnanimity: Stanley Baldwin (1867-1947)

Churchill’s Magnanimity: Stanley Baldwin (1867-1947)

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Churchill’s cen­so­ri­ous remark about Prime Min­is­ter Stan­ley Bald­win was not, I was pleased to learn, his last words. Once again his char­ac­ter­is­tic mag­na­nim­i­ty pre­vailed. My thanks to my col­league Dave Tur­rell for this information.

June, 1947

Sir Mar­tin Gilbert pub­lished the arrest­ing asser­tion by Churchill in 1947 (In Search of Churchill, 1995, 106). In June, WSC was invit­ed to send a let­ter (I would think for a festschrift) on Baldwin’s 80th birth­day, August 3rd. Writ­ing to an inter­me­di­ary, Churchill refused. “I wish Stan­ley Bald­win no ill, but it would have been much bet­ter if he had nev­er lived.”…

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