Triumph and Tragedy Quotes

“An iron curtain is drawn down upon their front. We do not know what is going on behind.”
― Winston S. Churchill, Triumph And Tragedy

“when the war of the giants is over the wars of the pygmies will begin.”
― Winston S. Churchill, Triumph And Tragedy

“It would be an ill day for all the world and for the pair of them if they did not go on working together and marching together and sailing together and flying together, whenever something has to be done for the sake of freedom and fair play all over the world. That is the great hope of the future.”
― Winston S. Churchill, Triumph and Tragedy, 1953

“In the square in front of the Chancellery there was however a considerable crowd. When I got out of the car and walked about among them, except for one old man who shook his head disapprovingly, they all began to cheer. My hate had died with their surrender and I was much moved by their demonstrations, and also by their haggard looks and threadbare clothes. Then”
― Winston S. Churchill, Triumph and Tragedy, 1953

“The moral principles of modern civilisation seem to prescribe that the leaders of a nation defeated in war shall be put to death by the victors. This will certainly stir them to fight to the bitter end in any future war, and no matter how many lives are needlessly sacrificed it costs them no more. It is the masses of the people who have so little to say about the starting or ending of wars who pay the additional cost. The Romans followed the opposite principle, and their conquests were due almost as much to their clemency as to their prowess.”
― Winston S. Churchill, Triumph and Tragedy, 1953

“For that very reason I deem it of the highest importance that a firm and blunt stand should be made at this juncture by our two countries in order that the air may be cleared and they realise that there is a point beyond which we will not tolerate insult. I believe this is the best chance of saving the future. If they are ever convinced that we are afraid of them and can be bullied into submission, then indeed I should despair of our future relations with them and much else.”
― Winston S. Churchill, Triumph and Tragedy, 1953

“The destruction of German military power had brought with it a fundamental change in the relations between Communist Russia and the Western democracies. They had lost their common enemy, which was almost their sole bond of union. Henceforward Russian imperialism and the Communist creed saw and set no bounds to their progress and ultimate dominion, and more than two years were to pass before they were confronted again with an equal will-power.”
― Winston S. Churchill, Triumph and Tragedy, 1953

“We can now see the deadly hiatus which existed between the fading of President Roosevelt’s strength and the growth of President Truman’s grip of the vast world problem. In this melancholy void one President could not act and the other could not know. Neither the military chiefs nor the State Department received the guidance they required. The former confined themselves to their professional sphere; the latter did not comprehend the issues involved. The indispensable political direction was lacking at the moment when it was most needed. The United States stood on the scene of victory, master of world fortunes, but without a true and coherent design. Britain, though still very powerful, could not act decisively alone. I could at this stage only warn and plead.”
― Winston S. Churchill, Triumph and Tragedy, 1953

“our common dangers and common loyalties have wiped all that out. The fire of war has burnt up the misunderstandings of the past. We feel we have a friend whom we can trust, and I hope he will continue to feel the same about us. I pray he may live to see his beloved Russia not only glorious in war, but also happy in peace.”
― Winston S. Churchill, Triumph and Tragedy, 1953

“precarious tranquillity had indeed been achieved in Greece, and it seemed that a free democratic Government, founded on universal suffrage and secret ballot, might be established there within a reasonable time. But Roumania and Bulgaria had passed into the grip of Soviet military occupation, Hungary and Yugoslavia lay in the shadow of the battlefield, and Poland, though liberated from the Germans, had merely exchanged one conqueror for another.”
― Winston S. Churchill, Triumph and Tragedy, 1953

“It is a hard thing to ask me to throw over a constitutional King acting on the true advice of his Ministers, apart from British pressure, in order to install a dictator who may very likely become the champion of the extreme Left.”
― Winston S. Churchill, Triumph and Tragedy, 1953

“I never had any doubts about it, for I saw quite plainly that Communism would be the peril civilisation would have to face after the defeat of Nazism and Fascism.”
― Winston S. Churchill, Triumph and Tragedy, 1953

“Democracy is not based on violence or terrorism, but on reason, on fair play, on freedom, on respecting the rights of other people. Democracy is no harlot to be picked up in the street by a man with a tommy gun. I trust the people, the mass of the people, in almost any country, but I like to make sure that it is the people and not a gang of bandits who think that by violence they can overturn constituted authority,”
― Winston S. Churchill, Triumph and Tragedy, 1953

“This was the first time that the British Ambassador had succeeded in making such an arrangement. Every precaution was taken by the police. One of my guests, M. Vyshinsky, on passing some of the N.K.V.D. armed guards on our staircase, remarked, “Apparently the Red Army has had another victory. It has occupied the British Embassy.”
― Winston S. Churchill, Triumph and Tragedy, 1953

“A bomber force of no mean size could be made available, and would feel honoured to share with their American colleagues the dangers of striking at the heart of the enemy.”
― Winston S. Churchill, Triumph and Tragedy, 1953

“All are invited to the headquarters. Babel, tempered by skilful lobbying, is all that has resulted up to the present. But we must persevere.”
― Winston S. Churchill, Triumph And Tragedy

“On July 1 the United States and British Armies began their withdrawal to their allotted zones, followed by masses of refugees. Soviet Russia was established in the heart of Europe. This was a fateful milestone for mankind.”
― Winston S. Churchill, Triumph And Tragedy

“I should be unworthy of your confidence and generosity if I did not still cry: Forward, unflinching, unswerving, indomitable, till the whole task is done and the whole world is safe and clean.”
― Winston S. Churchill, Triumph And Tragedy

“The Second World War had indeed been fought to the bitter end in Europe. The vanquished as well as the victors felt inexpressible relief. But for us in Britain and the British Empire, who had alone been in the struggle from the first day to the last and staked our existence on the result, there was a meaning beyond what even our most powerful and most valiant Allies could feel. Weary and worn, impoverished but undaunted and now triumphant, we had a moment that was sublime. We gave thanks to God for the noblest of all His blessings, the sense that we had done our duty.”
― Winston S. Churchill, Triumph And Tragedy

“the famous lines of Longfellow: Sail on, O ship of State! Sail on, O Union, strong and great! Humanity with all its fears, With all the hopes of future years, Is hanging breathless on thy fate.”
― Winston S. Churchill, Triumph And Tragedy

“Mr. Martin and Mr. Rowan,”
― Winston S. Churchill, Triumph And Tragedy

“I saw quite plainly that Communism would be the peril civilisation would have to face after the defeat of Nazism and Fascism.”
― Winston S. Churchill, Triumph And Tragedy

“Democracy is not based on violence or terrorism, but on reason, on fair play, on freedom, on respecting the rights of other people.”
― Winston S. Churchill, Triumph And Tragedy

“I stand upon the foundation of free elections based on universal suffrage, and that is what we consider the foundation for democracy. But I feel quite differently about a swindle democracy, a democracy which calls itself democracy because it is Left Wing. It takes all sorts to make democracy, not only Left Wing, or even Communist. I do not allow a party or a body to call themselves democrats because they are stretching farther and farther into the most extreme forms of revolution. I do not accept a party as necessarily representing democracy because it becomes more violent as it becomes less numerous.”
― Winston S. Churchill, Triumph And Tragedy

“But the more firmly Russia can establish herself in the saddle now the farther she will ride in the future and the more precarious our holdfast will become.”
― Winston S. Churchill, Triumph And Tragedy

“the result will require that the U.S.A. and the United Kingdom should exert all their influence to get Russia to act moderately and sensibly and not to flout world opinion.”
― Winston S. Churchill, Triumph And Tragedy

“In the autumn of 1942, at the peak of the struggle for Guadalcanal, only three American aircraft-carriers were afloat; a year later there were fifty; by the end of the war there were more than a hundred.”
― Winston S. Churchill, Triumph And Tragedy