“No one left…without feeling a braver man.”
I’m searching for a quote about William Pitt, used also about Churchill in 1940: something like, “No one left his presence who did not feel braver,” but more eloquent. —M.M., Indiana
The quote about Pitt is from the 30 May 1940 diary of John Martin, one of Churchill’s private secretaries, first published in Martin Gilbert’s Official Biography, Winston S. Churchill, vol. VI, Finest Hour 1939-1941 (London: Heinemann, 1983), 435-36:
During May 30 [1940] Desmond Morton sent Churchill a seven page note by the Australian High Commissioner in London, Stanley Bruce, arguing, in one of its paragraphs, in favour of an international conference “to formulate a peace settlement.” Churchill struck out this paragraph, and wrote in the margin: “No.” Crossing out Bruce’s final point, that “the further shedding of blood and the continuance of hideous suffering is unnecessary” and that the belligerents should “cease the struggle,” Churchill wrote: “Rot,” and went on to note, for Morton: “The end is rotten.” That night one of Churchill’s private secretaries, John Martin, wrote home: “The PM’s confidence and energy are amazing.…
