Quotes

The greatest tie of all is language.…Words are the only things that last for ever. The most tremendous monuments or prodigies of engineering crumble under the hand of Time. The Pyramids moulder, the bridges rust, the canals fill up, grass covers the railway track; but words spoken two or three thousand years ago remain with us now, not as mere relics of the past, but with all their pristine vital force.

‘How can I accept the Order of the Garter, when the people of England have just given me the Order of the Boot?’

-Winston S Churchill, September 1945.

‘The word “disinflation” has been coined in order to avoid the unpopular term “deflation”.…I suppose that presently when “disinflation” also wins its bad name, the Chancellor [Sir Stafford Cripps] will call it “non-undisinflation” and will start again.’

‘Blood, toil, tears and sweat (addendum) I stand by my original programme, blood, toil, tears and sweat…to which I added five months later, “many shortcomings, mistakes and disappointments.’

‘The Socialists have spared no expense in producing a policy for the next election. There is a great deal in it that is sound sense, as well as a lot more that is all sound and all nonsense.’

‘It is always an error in diplomacy to press a matter when it is quite clear that no further progress is to be made. It is also a great error if you ever give the impression abroad that you are using language which is more concerned with your domestic politics than with the actual fortunes and merits of the various great countries upon the Continent to whom you offer advice.’

Hugh Gaitskell, Minister of Fuel and Power in the Labour Government during the post Second World War period, was urging energy conservation; his advice proved too much for Churchill, renowned for his love of frequent bathing.

Gaitskell: ‘Personally, I have never had a great many baths myself, and I can assure those who are in the habit of having a great many that it does not make a great difference to their health if they have less.’

‘The right to guide the course of world history is the noblest prize of victory. We are still toiling up the hill; we have not yet reached the crest-line of it; we cannot survey the landscape or even imagine what its condition will be when that longed-for morning comes. The task which lies before us immediately is at once practical, more simple and more stern. I hope—indeed I pray—that we shall not be found unworthy of our victory if after toil and tribulation it is granted to us. For the rest, we have to gain the victory. That is our task.’

‘Statesmen are not called upon only to settle easy questions. These often settle themselves. It is where the balance quivers, and the proportions are veiled in mist, that the opportunity for world-saving decisions presents itself.’