Great Throughts Treasury

"The day may dawn when fair play, love for one's fellow men, respect for justice and freedom, will enable tormented generations to march forth triumphant from the hideous epoch in which we have to dwell. Meanwhile, never flinch, never weary, never despair."

"The destiny of mankind is not decided by material computation. When great causes are on the move in the world . . . we learn that we are spirits, not animals, and that something is going on in space and time, and beyond space and time, which, whether we like it or not, spells duty."

"The Dark Ages may return?the Stone Age may return on the gleaming wings of Science; and what might now shower immeasurable material blessings upon mankind may even bring about its total destruction. Beware! I say. Time may be short."

"The doctrines that by keeping out foreign goods more wealth, and consequently more employ-ment, will be created at home, are either true or they are not true. We contend that they are not true. We contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle."

"The eagle has ceased to scream, but the parrots will now begin to chatter. The war of the giants is over and the pigmies will now start to squabble."

"The era of procrastination, of half-measures, of soothing and baffling expedients, of delays is coming to its close. In its place we are entering a period of consequences."

"The essence and foundation of House of Commons debating is formal conversation. The set speech, the harangue addressed to constituents, or to the wider public out of doors, has never succeeded much in our small wisely-built chamber. To do any good you have got to get down to grips with the subject and in human touch with the audience."

"The English never draw a line without blurring it."

"The essence of good House of Commons speaking is the conversational style, the facility for quick, informal interruptions and interchanges. Harangues from a rostrum would be a bad substitute for the conversational style in which so much of our business is done. But the conversational style requires a fairly small space, and there should be on great occasions a sense of crowd and urgency. There should be a sense of the importance of much that is said and a sense that great matters are being decided, there and then, by the House... It has a collective personality which enjoys the regard of the public, and which imposes itself upon the conduct not only of individual Members but of parties."

"The farther backward you can look, the farther forward you are likely to see."

"The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property, either as a child, a wife, or a concubine, must delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men."

"The first duty of the university is to teach wisdom, not a trade; character, not technicalities. We want a lot of engineers in the modern world, but we do not want a world of engineers."

"The first quality that is needed is audacity."

"The failure to strangle Bolshevism at its birth and to bring Russia, then prostrate, by one means or another, into the general democratic system lies heavy upon us today."

"The foundation of the Germanic system was blood and kin."

"The further backward you look, the further forward you can see."

"The German dictator, instead of snatching the victuals from the table, has been content to have them served to him course by course."

"The garden gleams with summer jewelry. We live very simply?but with all the essentials of life well understood and well provided for?hot baths, cold champagne, new peas, and old brandy."

"The Germans have received back again that measure of fire and steel which they have so often meted out to others. Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning."

"The Government go on in strange paradox, decided only to be undecided, resolved to be irresolute, adamant for drift, solid for fluidity, all-powerful to be impotent."

"The game of life does not proceed like a mathematical calculation on the principle that two and two make four. Sometimes they make five, or minus four, and sometimes the blackboard topples over in the middle of the sum and the pedagogue is left with a black eye."

"The gift of a common tongue is a priceless inheritance and it may well some day become the foundation of a common citizenship."

"The Government simply cannot make up their mind or they cannot get the prime minister to make up his mind. So they go on in strange paradox, decided only to be undecided, resolved to be irresolute, adamant for drift, solid for fluidity, all powerful for impotency. And so we go on preparing more months more years precious perhaps vital for the greatness of Britain for the locusts to eat. - Speaking in the Address in Reply debate, after giving some specific instances of Germany's war preparedness"

"The government: go on in strange paradox, decided only to be undecided, resolved to be irresolute, adamant for drift, solid for fluidity."

"The great defense against the air menace is to attack the enemy's aircraft as near as possible to their point of departure."

"The gratitude of every home in our Island, in our Empire, and indeed throughout the world, except in the abodes of the guilty, goes out to the British airmen who, undaunted by odds, unwearied in their constant challenge and mortal danger, are turning the tide of the World War by their prowess and by their devotion. Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few. All hearts go out to the fighter pilots, whose brilliant actions we see with our own eyes day after day; but we must never forget that all the time, night after night, month after month, our bomber squadrons travel far into Germany, find their targets in the darkness by the highest navigational skill, aim their attacks, often under the heaviest fire, often with serious loss, with deliberate careful discrimination, and inflict shattering blows upon the whole of the technical and war-making structure of the Nazi power."

"The Great War differed from all ancient wars in the immense power of the combatants and their fearful agencies of destruction, and from all modern wars in the utter ruthlessness with which it was fought. ... Europe and large parts of Asia and Africa became one vast battlefield on which after years of struggle not armies but nations broke and ran. When all was over, Torture and Cannibalism were the only two expedients that the civilized, scientific, Christian States had been able to deny themselves: and they were of doubtful utility."

"The greatest cross I have to bear is the cross of Lorraine. [on Charles de Gaulle]"

"The happy warrior of Squandermania. [on Lloyd George]"

"The hour has come; kill the Hun."

"The House of Commons has lifted our affairs above the mechanical sphere into the human sphere. It thrives on criticism, it is perfectly impervious to newspaper abuse or taunts from any quarter, and it is capable of digesting almost anything or almost any body of gentlemen, whatever be the views with which they arrive. There is no situation to which it cannot address itself with vigor and ingenuity. It is the citadel of British liberty; it is the foundation of our laws; its traditions and its privileges are as lively today it broke the arbitrary power of the Crown and substituted that Constitutional Monarchy under which we have enjoyed so many blessings."

"The human story does not always unfold like a mathematical calculation on the principle that two and two make four. Sometimes in life they make five or minus three; and sometimes the blackboard topples down in the middle of the sum and leaves the class in disorder and the pedagogue with a black eye."

"The heights of great men reached and kept, Were not attained by sudden flight, But they, while their companions slept, Were toiling upwards in the night."

"The high roads of the future will be clear, not only for us but for all, not only for our time but for a century to come."

"The influence of the religion paralyzes the social development of its faithful There is no more powerful force in the retrograde monde. Christianity was protected by the strong arms of science, the civilization of modern Europe may fall, as fell that of ancient Rome."

"The improvement argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter."

"The influence of each human being on others in this life is a kind of immortality."

"The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal distribution of wealth; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of misery."

"The invaders brought into Britain a principle common to all Germanic tribes, namely, the use of the money power to regulate all the legal relations of men. If there was any equality it was equality within each social grade. If there was liberty it was mainly liberty for the rich. If there were rights they were primarily the rights of property. There was no crime committed which could not be compounded by a money payment."

"The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries. We contend that for a nation to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle. The whole history of the world is summed up in the fact that, when nations are strong, they are not always just, and when they wish to be just, they are no longer strong."

"The late M. Venizelos observed that in all her wars England - he should have said Britain, of course - always wins one battle - the last."

"The length of this document defends it well against the risk of its being read."

"The love of a foster mother for her charge appears absolutely irrational."

"The lights of Saxon England were going out, and in the gathering darkness a gentle, grey-beard prophet foretold the end. When on his death-bed Edward spoke of a time of evil that was coming upon the land his inspired mutterings struck terror into the hearers."

"The latest refinements of science are linked with the cruelties of the Stone Age."

"The loyalties which center upon number one are enormous. If he trips he must be sustained. If he makes mistakes they must be covered. If he sleeps he must not be wantonly disturbed. If he is no good he must be pole-axed. But this last extreme process cannot be carried out every day; and certainly not in the days after he has been chosen."

"The Italians lose football games as if they were wars and lose wars as if they were football matches."

"The Magna Carta provided a system of checks and balances which would accord the monarchy its necessary strength, but would prevent its perversion by a tyrant or a fool."

"The malice of the wicked was reinforced by the weakness of the virtuous."

"The main vice of capitalism is the uneven distribution of prosperity. The main vice of socialism is the even distribution of misery."