Great Throughts Treasury

"A love of tradition has never weakened a nation, indeed it has strengthened nations in their hour of peril; but the new view must come, the world must roll forward ? Let us have no fear of the future."

"A man does what he must - in spite of personal consequences, in spite of obstacles and dangers and pressures - and that is the basis of all human morality."

"A man can wear out a particular part of his mind by continually using and tiring it, just in the same way he can wear out the elbows of his coat."

"A man is about as big as the things that make him angry."

"A man must choose his own way of life, and?it is only by following out one?s own bent that there can be the really harmonious life."

"A man younger than 30 who's not a liberal has no heart and a man older than 30 who's not a conservative has no brain."

"A man may be poor; he may have nothing at all except his labor to sell; he may be a manual worker for a weekly wage, but in a free commonwealth he must enjoy as good a right as any lord, or prelate, or capitalist in the country to the integrity of his own political convictions."

"A man is as big as the things that can provoke it."

"A medal glitters but it also casts a shadow"

"A modest little person, with much to be modest about."

"A modest man, who has much to be modest about [on Clement Atlee]"

"A nation that forgets its past is doomed to repeat it."

"A nation that forgets its past has no future."

"A nation that thrive try raising taxes is like a man with his feet in a bucket trying to get up by the handle."

"A number of social problems arose. I had been told that neither smoking nor alcoholic beverages were allowed in the [Saudi] Royal Presence. As I was the host at luncheon I raised the matter at once, and said to the interpreter that if it was the religion of His Majesty [Ibn Saud] to deprive himself of smoking and alcohol I must point out that my rule of life prescribed as an absolutely sacred rite smoking cigars and also the drinking of alcohol before, after, and if need be during all meals and in the intervals between them. The King graciously accepted the position. His own cup-bearer from Mecca offered me a glass of water from its sacred well, the most delicious I had ever tasted."

"A preposition is a terrible thing to end a sentence with."

"A politician needs the ability to foretell what is going to happen tomorrow, next week, next month, and next year. And to have the ability afterwards to explain why it didn't happen."

"A prisoner of war is a man who tries to kill you and fails, and then asks you not to kill him."

"A remarkable and definite victory."

"A riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma. [on Russia]"

"A waitress goes up to Winston Churchill and says, 'Sir, your drunk.' To which he replies, 'I may be drunk, miss, but in the morning I will be sober and you will still be ugly."

"A woman is as old as she looks; a man is as old as he feels; and a boy is as old as he is treated."

"Adlai Stevenson, himself a notable speaker, often reminisced about his last meeting with Churchill. I asked him on whom or what he had based his oratorical style. Churchill replied, "It was an American statesman who inspired me and taught me how to use every note of the human voice like an organ." Winston then to my amazement started to quote long excerpts from Bourke Cockran's speeches of 60 years before. "He was my model," Churchill said. "I learned from him how to hold thousands in thrall.""

"A shadow has fallen upon the scenes so lately lighted by the Allied victory. From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the Continent."

"A sheep in sheep's clothing. [on Clement Atlee]"

"A small lie needs a bodyguard of bigger lies to protect it."

"A stubborn man can't change his mind and won't change the subject."

"A study of Disease?of Pestilences methodically prepared and deliberately launched upon man and beast?is certainly being pursue in the laboratories of more than one great country. Blight to destroy crops, Anthrax to slay horses and cattle, Plague to poison not armies but whole districts?such are the lines along which military science is remorselessly advancing."

"A vocabulary of truth and simplicity will be of service throughout your life"

"A vile race of quislings - to use the new word which will carry the scorn of mankind down the centuries. Vidkun Quisling, head of the Nasjonal Samling party in Norway, who cooperated and collaborated with Nazis when Germany invaded Norway on April 9, 1940. Quisling was executed on October 23, 1945."

"After all, a man?s Life must be nailed to a cross either of Thought or Action. Without work there is no play. When I am in the Socratic"

"After he had narrowly escaped a bomb attack during the London Blitz: "Our Labor colleagues [in the Cabinet] facetiously remarked: 'The devil looks after his own'""

"Ah, horrible war, amazing medley of the glorious and the squalid, the pitiful and the sublime, if modern men of light and leading saw your face closer, simple folk would see it hardly ever."

"All babies look like me. But then, I look like all babies."

"All I can say is that I have taken more out of alcohol than alcohol has taken out of me."

"All I want is compliance with my wishes, after reasonable discussion."

"Advertising mourishes the consuming power of men. It sets up before a man the goal of a better home, better clothing, better food for himself and his family. It spurs individual exertion and greater production."

"Air power can either paralyze the enemy's military action or compel him to devote to the defense of his bases and communications a share of his straitened resources far greater that what we need in the attack."

"All great empires of the future will be empires of the mind."

"All great things are simple, and many can be expressed in single words: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope."

"All men make mistakes, but only wise men learn from their mistakes."

"All of the great empires of the future will be empires of the mind."

"Although always prepared for martyrdom, I preferred that it should be postponed."

"Although personally I am quite content with existing explosives, I feel we must not stand in the path of improvement."

"All was there?the programme of German resurrection, the technique of party propaganda; the plan for combating Marxism; the concept of a National-Socialist State; the rightful position of Germany at the summit ofthe world. Here was the new Koran of faith and war: turgid, verbose, shapeless, but pregnant with its message."

"Almost the whole world is locked in deadly struggle, and with the most terrible weapons which science can devise the nations advance upon each other."

"Always remember that I have taken more out of alcohol than alcohol has taken out of me."

"Although prepared for martyrdom, I preferred that it be postponed."

"Although present on the occasion, I have no clear recollection of the events leading up to it."

"Always remember, a cat looks down on man, a dog looks up to man, but a pig will look man right in the eye and see his equal."