Luke Mohan’s Reviews > The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz > Status Update

“We seek no treasure, “Churchill said, “we seek no territorial gains, we seek only the right of man to be free; we seek his right to worship his God, to lead his life in his own way, secure from persecution.

I felt I still loved London deeply. Shorn of her smartness – in wartime attire – I suddenly loved her very much. (Mary Churchill)

Goebbels, meanwhile, fretted about moral decay. In addition to guiding Germany’s propaganda program, he served as minister of popular culture, and saw it as his mission to vanquish forces that threatened to undermine public morality.

“In these days,” he [Churchill] said,” I often think of our Lord.” He could say no more… I [Cowles] have never forgotten those simple words and if he enjoyed waging the war let it be remembered that he understood the anguish of it as well.

Let us vow before God to be better friends and neighbors in the future, because we have suffered this together and have stood here today. - Bishop of Coventry after bombing

There are times when it is equally good to live or to die.

he [Churchill] fertilizes a phrase or a line of poetry for weeks and then gives birth to it in a speech.

There are certain things that a woman can say to a man that a man cannot say.

The speech set a pattern that he would follow throughout the war, offering a sober appraisal of facts, tempered with reason for optimism. “It would be foolish to disguise the gravity of the hour,“ he said. “It would be still more foolish to lose heart and courage.“

“I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, and sweat.”