As the will of God is in Heaven, even so let it be.'” Centuries ago words were written to be a call and a spur to the faithful servants of Truth and Justice: ‘Arm yourselves, and be ye men of valour, and be in readiness for the conflict for it is better for us to perish in battle than to look upon the outrage of our nation and our altar. Churchill first used the phrase “blood and sweat” in 1900 “Blood, sweat and tears” came together in his 1939 article, “Can Franco Restore Unity and Strength to Spain.” “Be Ye Men of Valour” First speech as Prime Minister, House of Commons. For without victory there is no survival.” Victory however long and hard the road may be. “You ask what is our aim? I can answer in one word: Victory. I will say, it is to wage war with all our might, with all the strength that God can give us, to wage war against a monstrous tyranny never surpassed in the dark, lamentable catalogue of human crime. We have before us many long months of toil and struggle. We have before us an ordeal of the most grievous kind. “I would say to the House, as I said to those who have joined this Government, I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat. The rest of that unhappy country was swallowed by Hitler six months later. House of Commons, 5 October 1938, after the Munich agreement began the dismemberment of Czechoslovakia. “I will begin by saying what everybody would like to ignore or forget but which must nevertheless be stated, namely that we have sustained a total and unmitigated defeat, and France has suffered even more than we have….the German dictator, instead of snatching the victuals from the table, has been content to have them served to him course by course.” The argument was rendered moot when Fred Shapiro, in The Yale Book of Quotations, tracked the origins of the phrase to a joke line from a 1900 edition of The Chicago Tribune. But both Consuelo Vanderbilt (The Glitter and the Gold ) and Christopher Sykes (Nancy: The Life of Lady Astor ) say the riposte was by Churchill. Smith, Lord Birkenhead, a notorious acerbic wit. Churchill biographer Sir Martin Gilbert said this exchange was more likely to have occurred between Lady Astor and Churchill’s good friend F.E. Reply: “If I were married to you, I’d drink it.” Lady Astor: “If I were married to you, I’d put poison in your coffee.” Edinburgh Scotland, 5-7 October 2023 More “I’d Drink ” (Apocryphal) Join us for the 40th International Churchill Conference. Churchill, as First Lord of the Admiralty, had taken it upon himself to order the fleet to its stations as war loomed between France and Germany. 1923, recalling the passage of the Royal Navy to its war stations at the outbreak of World War I, in The World Crisis ,vol. We may picture them again as darkness fell, eighteen miles of warships running at high speed and in absolute blackness through the narrow Straits, bearing with them into the broad waters of the North the safeguard of considerable affairs…The King’s ships were at sea.” “We may now picture this great Fleet, with its flotillas and cruisers, steaming slowly out of Portland Harbour, squadron by squadron, scores of gigantic castles of steel wending their way across the misty, shining sea, like giants bowed in anxious thought. 1923, recalling the possibility of war between France and Germany after the Agadir Crisis of 1911, in The World Crisis, vol. Such a mistake could only be made once-once for all.” Are you quite sure? It would be a pity to be wrong. The interdependence of nations in trade and traffic, the sense of public law, the Hague Convention, Liberal principles, the Labour Party, high finance, Christian charity, common sense have rendered such nightmares impossible. Civilization has climbed above such perils. Or is it fire and murder leaping out of the darkness at our throats, torpedoes ripping the bellies of half-awakened ships, a sunrise on a vanished naval supremacy, and an island well-guarded hitherto, at last defenceless? No, it is nothing. It is too foolish, too fantastic to be thought of in the twentieth century. “So now the Admiralty wireless whispers through the ether to the tall masts of ships, and captains pace their decks absorbed in thought. SeptemRead a selection of Winston Churchill’s most famous quotes “No One Would Do Such Things”
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