Great Throughts Treasury

"Human beings are of three classes: those who are toiled to death, those who are worried to death, and those who are bored to death."

"Human beings are of two classes: those whose work is work and whose pleasure is pleasure; and those whose work and pleasure are one."

"I accumulated in those years so fine a surplus in the Book of Observance that I have been drawing confidently upon it ever since."

"I also hope that I sometimes suggested to the lion the right place to use his claws."

"I always avoid prophesying beforehand because it is much better to prophesy after the event has already taken place."

"I am a child of the House of Commons. I was brought up in my father's house to believe in democracy. 'Trust the people'?that was his message....I owe my advancement entirely to the House of Commons, whose servant I am. In my country, as in yours, public men are proud to be the servants of the State and would be ashamed to be its masters. Therefore I have been in full harmony all my life with the tides which have flowed on both sides of the Atlantic against privilege and monopoly....By the way, I cannot help reflecting that if my father had been American and my mother British, instead of the other way around, I might have got here on my own!"

"I always seem to get inspiration and renewed vitality by contact with this great novel land of yours which sticks up out of the Atlantic."

"I always manage somehow to adjust to any new level of luxury without whimper or complaint. It is one of my more winning traits."

"I am a man of simple tastes easily satisfied with the best"

"I am a sporting man. I always give them a fair chance to get away."

"I am an optimist. It does not seem too much use being anything else."

"I am bored with it all."

"I am certainly not one of those who need to be prodded. In fact, if anything, I am the prod."

"I am always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught."

"I am easily satisfied with the very best."

"I am fond of pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals."

"I am enclosing two tickets to the first night of my new play; bring a friend... if you have one."

"I am finished."

"I am going to tell you something you must not tell to any human being. We have split the atom. The report of the great experiment has just come in. A bomb was let off in some wild spot in New Mexico. It was only a thirteen-pound bomb, but it made a crater half a mile across. People ten miles away lay with their feet towards the bomb; when it went off they rolled over and tried to look at the sky. But even with the darkest glasses it was impossible. It was the middle of the night, but it was as if seven suns had lit the earth; two hundred miles away the light could be seen. The bomb sent up smoke into the stratosphere...It is the Second Coming. The secret has been wrested from nature...Fire was the first discovery; this is the second."

"I am not invested with dictatorial powers. If I were, I should be quite ready to dictate."

"I am in favor of deliberately spreading methodically prepared bacteria among people and animals -- mildew ... to destroy the harvests, anthrax to destroy horses and livestock, and the plague, in order to kill not only entire armies, but also the inhabitants of large regions."

"I am never going to have anything more to do with politics or politicians. When this war is over I shall confine myself entirely to writing and painting."

"I am most anxious that in dealing with matters which every Member knows are extremely delicate matters, I should not use any phrase or expression which would cause offence to our friends and Allies on the Continent or across the Atlantic Ocean."

"I am prepared to meet my Maker. Whether my Maker is prepared for the great ordeal of meeting me is another matter."

"I am not sure I should have dared to start; but I am sure that I should not have dared to stop."

"I am reminded of the professor who, in his declining hours, was asked by his devoted pupils for his final counsel. He replied, 'Verify your quotations.'"

"I am sure it would be sensible to restrict as much as possible the work of these gentlemen, who are capable of doing an immense amount of harm with what may very easily degenerate into charlatanry. The tightest hand should be kept over them, and they should not be allowed to quarter themselves in large numbers among Fighting Services at the public expense."

"I cannot help reflecting that if my father had been American and my mother British instead of the other way around, I might have gotten here on my own."

"I cannot forecast to you the action of Russia. It is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma; but perhaps there is a key. That key is Russian national interest."

"I cannot pretend to be impartial about the colors. I rejoice with the brilliant ones, and am genuinely sorry for the poor browns."

"I began my education at a very early age ? in fact, right after I left college."

"I cannot but think we have much to be thankful for, and more still to hope for in the future."

"I comforted myself by the old German saying: 'The trees do not grow up to the sky.'"

"I decline utterly to be impartial as between the fire brigade and the fire."

"I declare to you, from the bottom of my heart, that no Socialist system can be established without a political police?No Socialist Government conducting the entire life and industry of the country could afford to allow free, sharp, or violently-worded expressions of public discontent. They would have to fall back on some form of Gestapo, no doubt very humanely directed in the first instance."

"I did not suffer from any desire to be relieved of my responsibilities. All I wanted was compliance with my wishes after a reasonable discussion."

"I do not agree that the dog in a manger has the final right to the manger even though he may have lain there for a very long time. I do not admit that right. I do not admit for instance, that a great wrong has been done to the Red Indians of America or the black people of Australia. I do not admit that a wrong has been done to these people by the fact that a stronger race, a higher-grade race, a more worldly wise race to put it that way, has come in and taken their place."

"I do not at all resent criticism, even when, for the sake of emphasis, it for a time parts company with reality."

"I do not resent criticism, even when, for the sake of emphasis, it parts for the time with reality."

"I do not hold that we should rearm in order to fight. I hold that we should rearm in order to parley."

"I do not understand this squeamishness about the use of gas. I am strongly in favor of using poisoned gas against uncivilized tribes. The moral effect should be good ? and it would spread a lively terror."

"I do not presume to explain how to paint, but only how to get enjoyment."

"I do not understand this squeamishness about the use of gas. We have definitely adopted the position at the Peace Conference of arguing in favor of the retention of gas as a permanent method of warfare. It is sheer affectation to lacerate a man with the poisonous fragment of a bursting shell and to boggle at making his eyes water by means of lachrymatory gas. I am strongly in favor of using poisoned gas against uncivilized tribes. The moral effect should be so good that the loss of life should be reduced to a minimum. It is not necessary to use only the most deadly gases: gases can be used which cause great inconvenience and would spread a lively terror and yet would leave no serious permanent effects on most of those affected ? We cannot, in any circumstances acquiesce to the non-utilization of any weapons which are available to procure a speedy termination of the disorder which prevails on the frontier."

"I do not suppose that at any moment of history has the agony of the world been so great or widespread. Tonight the sun goes down on more suffering than ever before in the world."

"I do think unpunctuality is a vile habit, and all my life I have tried to break myself of it."

"I do not wonder that British youth is in revolt against the morbid doctrine that nothing matters but the equal sharing of miseries; that what used to be called the submerged tenth can only be rescued by bringing the other nine-tenths down to their le"

"I don't like mixing up moralities with mathematics."

"I don't see why not, young man. You look reasonably fit to me."

"I gather, young man, that you wish to be a Member of Parliament. The first lesson that you must learn is, when I call for statistics about the rate of infant mortality, what I want is proof that fewer babies died when I was Prime Minister than when anyone else was Prime Minister. That is a political statistic."

"I felt as if I were walking with destiny, and that all my past life had been but a preparation for this hour and for this trial... I thought I knew a good deal about it all, I was sure I should not fail."