“Above all, Sir Winston carried about him a certain JOYOUS HUMANITY. Asked what he most admired about him, Marshal Tito, a most perceptive man, said:
‘His humanity. He is so human.’ On that at least I agree with Marshal Tito.” —RML
“A Good House of Commons Man”: Robert Rhodes James
Randolph Churchill had sacked Robert from his research team on the Official Biograhy, and Robert never forgave him (or his dislike of Eden). He maintained that Randolph just repeated the “case for the defence” Sir Winston had already made in his own books. Robert always said exactly what he believed—in the most forceful terms available to a gentleman. In an age of prevaricating phonies of Left and Right, such a character is rare. Winston Churchill would have loved him.
“Is [the Prime Minister] aware that...the Iver Heath Conservative Party Association held a fete to raise money for party purposes to which it invited American Service baseball teams to participate for a ‘Winston Churchill’ trophy?” WSC: “I read in the Daily Worker some account of this. I had not, I agree, fully realised the political implications that might attach to the matter, and in so far as I have erred I express my regret. [If the situation were reversed] I hope we should all show an equal spirit of tolerance and good humour.”
"I was glad to be able sometimes to lean on him. He did not fail. This was his hour. Time has but added to the intensity of what I then felt, and to my regard and affection." —Sir Winston Churchill on the 85th birthday of Lord Beaverbrook, 25 May 1964.
"He made himself useful at a critical moment." Nigel arrived at one of those periodic crises of the Old Guard. The Churchill Centre UK Branch had unexpectedly lost its chairman, and we were at a loss over whom to send for. Celia Sandys had the answer: a retired Army colonel. We expected a severe taskmaster, perhaps even an officious mandarin. We found instead a warm-hearted collaborator and devotee of the Churchill saga.
On the 79th anniversary of D-Day, this quote is likely to come up again. Neither Churchill's nor Orwell's, it nevertheless resounds with their sentiments. Quote Investigator provides a vast subtext to the various appearances and credits of “Rough men stand ready” over the years. Their conclusion is that no one specifically said the words. But Kipling may have inspired them, and Orwell paraphrased them, and they are in the Churchill spirit.
Yes, credit OMG to Admiral Fisher. He had a flamboyant writing style, often signing his letters to Churchill, “Yours till a cinder” or "Yours till Hell freezes over." Many other other loquacious salutations made his lexicon of salubrious sign-offs. Given his sudden resignation and disappearance from the Admiralty in May 1915, they were rather less than sincere.
It sounds irreligious, but I’ve never been able to relate to Ferraris. Give me a quirky English rig with an interesting pedigree and a shape you don’t see every day. There’s something about the smell of leather, the way the rain beads on the bonnet, that reminds you of the day when almost anybody in England could build a sports car, and most of them did. A worker in Coventry once said to me about the Triumph TR6: "It rides hard and smells of oil, mate. They just don't make cars like that any more!"
Margaret Thatcher's biographer and Churchill’s bodyguard each knew of one Churchill-Thatcher meeting but not the other. The story of their two encounters demonstrates Lady Thatcher’s lifelong respect, and Churchill’s words on the regulatory state could have been her own words, 30 years later. When it came to liberty, neither were for turning.
"I warned the Americans before Potsdam not to withdraw from any of the part of Germany we occupied until we had a satisfactory understanding. They would not listen. And they will not listen now when I warn them about Germany. At Potsdam I wanted Prussia isolated and Germany divided horizontally and not vertically." —Churchill according to Moran
Manfred Weidhorn: "The law of averages dictates that some of these dreamers succeed. Churchill was one of them. Hence he is the hero of our hypothetical non-realistic novel. As a young man, Churchill put the world on notice with his memorably declared resolve to be an achiever by either notability or notoriety."
