August 12, 2013

Finest Hour 118, Spring 2003

Page 13

HORSES

“There is something about the outside of a horse that’s good for the inside of a man” is not traced to WSC, but he did like horses…

• “Don’t give your son money; as far as you can afford it, give him horses. No one ever came to grief through riding horses. No hour of life is lost that is spent in the saddle. Young men have often been ruined through owning horses or through backing horses, but never through riding horses. Unless, of course, they break their necks. Which, taken at a gallop, is a very good death to die.” —My Early Life, 1930

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2025 International Churchill Conference

• “Man has parted company with his trusty friend the horse and has sailed into the azure with the eagles, eagles being represented by the infernal combustion engine [loud laughter]…er, I mean internal combustion engine, ah, engine!” —Harvard University, 6 Sep 43

• “I have always considered that the substitution of the internal combustion engine for the horse marked a very gloomy milestone in the progress of mankind.” —Commons, 24 Jun 52

• “Among our Socialist opponents there is great confusion. Some of them regard private enterprise as a predatory tiger to be shot. Others look on it as a cow they can milk. Only a handful see it for what it really is—the strong and willing horse that pulls the whole cart along.” —Woodford, Essex, 29 Sep 59

See also “Churchill and Polo,” FH 72; “Churchill and the Lure of the Turf,” FH 102; and “All the Horses Sir Winston Owned,” FH 103.