The World Crisis, Volume I Quotes

“Blake: ‘Think in the morning; act in the noon; eat in the evening; sleep in the night.”
― Winston S. Churchill, The World Crisis Volume I: 1911-1914

“In war all repetitions are perilous. You can do many things with impunity if you do not keep on doing them over and over again.”
― Winston S. Churchill, The World Crisis Volume I: 1911-1914

“The camel once swallowed, the gnats went down easily enough.”
― Winston S. Churchill, The World Crisis Volume I: 1911-1914

“Wave after wave, dark with storm, crested with foam, surged towards the harbour in which we still sheltered. Should we drive out into the teeth of the gale, or should we bide contented where we were? Yet beyond the breakers was a great hope.”
― Winston S. Churchill, The World Crisis Volume I: 1911-1914

“exchanging practically all the British infantry and artillery in India for Territorial batteries and battalions, and the formation of the 27th, 28th and 29th Divisions of regular troops. The New Zealand contingent must be escorted to Australia and there, with 25,000 Australians, await convoys to Europe. Meanwhile the leading troops of the Canadian Army, about 25,000 strong, had to be brought across the Atlantic. All this was of course additional to the main situation in the North Sea and to the continued flow of drafts, reinforcements and supplies across the Channel. Meanwhile the enemy’s Fleet remained intact, waiting, as we might think, its moment to strike; and his cruisers continued to prey upon the seas. To strengthen our cruiser forces we had already armed and commissioned twenty-four liners as auxiliary cruisers, and had armed defensively fifty-four merchantmen. Another forty suitable vessels were in preparation. In order to lighten the strain in the Indian Ocean and to liberate our light cruisers for their proper work of hunting down the enemy, I proposed the employment of our old battleships (Canopus class) as escorts to convoys. Besides employing these old battleships on convoy, we had also at the end of August sent three others abroad as rallying points for our cruisers in case a German heavy cruiser should break out: thus the Glory was sent to Halifax, the Albion to”
― Winston S. Churchill, The World Crisis Volume I: 1911-1914

“Once more now in the march of centuries Old England was to stand forth in battle against the mightiest thrones and dominations. Once more in defence of the liberties of Europe and the common right must she enter upon a voyage of great toil and hazard across waters uncharted, towards coasts unknown, guided only by the stars. Once more ‘the far-off line of storm-beaten ships’ was to stand between the Continental Tyrant and the dominion of the world.”
― Winston S. Churchill, The World Crisis: 1911–1914

“I do most earnestly beg you not to be diverted from the highway of sound policy in this part of the world, both during the war and at the settlement, by wanderings into the labyrinth of Turkish duplicity and intrigue.”
― Winston S. Churchill, The World Crisis Volume I: 1911-1914

“there followed a period lasting for about three months of Turkish hesitation and delay, having the effect of consummate duplicity”
― Winston S. Churchill, The World Crisis Volume I: 1911-1914

“Now mark me well—it is provided in the essence of things, that from any fruition of success, no matter what, shall come forth something to make a greater struggle necessary.’ —WALT WHITMAN, The Open Road.”
― Winston S. Churchill, The World Crisis Volume I: 1911-1914

“All comes out even at the end of the day, and all comes out still more even when all the days are over.’ —VOLTAIRE”
― Winston S. Churchill, The World Crisis Volume I: 1911-1914

“Eaten bread is soon forgotten. Dangers which are warded off by effective precautions and foresight are never even remembered.”
― Winston S. Churchill, The World Crisis Volume I: 1911-1914

“Silence is the secret of war.’ —PRIOR”
― Winston S. Churchill, The World Crisis Volume I: 1911-1914

“This battle fares like to the morning’s war, When dying clouds contend with growing light; What time the shepherd, blowing of his nails, Can neither call it perfect day, nor night. Nor sways it this way, like a mighty sea Forc’d by the tide to combat with the wind; Nor sways it that way, like the self-same sea Forc’d to retire by fury of the wind: Sometime, the flood prevails, and then, the wind: Now, one the better; then, another, best; Both tugging to be victors, breast to breast, Yet neither conqueror, nor conquerèd: So is the equal poise of this fell war.’ —KING HENRY VI (PART III).”
― Winston S. Churchill, The World Crisis Volume I: 1911-1914

“General Paris received from the representative of the Admiralty the command of the Royal Naval Division which he was destined to hold with so much honour until he fell grievously wounded in his trenches after three years’ war. This was the most important military command exercised in the great war by an officer of the Royal Marines.”
― Winston S. Churchill, The World Crisis Volume I: 1911-1914

“He was a cut flower in a vase; fair to see, yet bound to die, and to die very soon if the water was not constantly renewed.”
― Winston S. Churchill, The World Crisis Volume I: 1911-1914

“at a touch of external difficulties or menace all these fierce internal controversies would disappear for the time being, and we should be brought into line and into tune. But why is it that men are so constituted that they can only lay aside their own domestic quarrels under the impulse of what I will call a higher principle of hatred?…”
― Winston S. Churchill, The World Crisis Volume I: 1911-1914

“The problems of the second year of war must be dealt with by the experience of the first year of war. The problems of the third year of war must be met by results observed and understood in the second, and so on.”
― Winston S. Churchill, The World Crisis Volume I: 1911-1914

“Whatever may be your surmises about the enemy or the future, your own action is circumscribed within practical limits. There are only a certain number of alternatives open. Also, you live in a world of reality where theories are constantly being corrected and curbed by experiment. Resultant facts accumulate and govern to a very large extent the next decision.”
― Winston S. Churchill, The World Crisis Volume I: 1911-1914

“The great impediment to action is not discussion, but the want of that knowledge which is gained by discussion preparatory to action.’—PERICLES.”
― Winston S. Churchill, The World Crisis Volume I: 1911-1914

“Guard them well, admirals and captains, hardy tars and tall marines; guard them well and guide them true.”
― Winston S. Churchill, The World Crisis Volume I: 1911-1914

“The most damnable thing in the world is a servile copyist!”
― Winston S. Churchill, The World Crisis Volume I: 1911-1914

“Everything was duty. It was not merely that nothing else mattered. There was nothing else. One did one’s duty as well as one possibly could, be it great or small, and naturally one deserved no reward.”
― Winston S. Churchill, The World Crisis Volume I: 1911-1914

“I feared the wish was father to the thought.”
― Winston S. Churchill, The World Crisis Volume I: 1911-1914

“they meant to test the ground; and in so doing they were prepared to go to the very edge of the precipice. It is so easy to lose one’s balance there: a touch, a gust of wind, a momentary dizziness, and all is precipitated into the abyss.”
― Winston S. Churchill, The World Crisis Volume I: 1911-1914

“Thus we see a succession of partisan actions continuing without intermission for nearly twenty years, each injury repeated with interest, each oscillation more violent, each risk more grave, until at last it seemed that the sabre itself must be invoked to cool the blood and the passions that were rife.”
― Winston S. Churchill, The World Crisis Volume I: 1911-1914

“The growth of the great antagonisms abroad was accompanied by the progressive aggravation of party strife at home.”
― Winston S. Churchill, The World Crisis Volume I: 1911-1914

“Enmities which are unspoken and hidden are more to be feared than those which are outspoken and open.’ —CICERO.”
― Winston S. Churchill, The World Crisis Volume I: 1911-1914

“The determination of the greatest military Power on the Continent to become at the same time at least the second naval Power was an event of first magnitude in world affairs.”
― Winston S. Churchill, The World Crisis Volume I: 1911-1914

“It has been well said, ‘there is always more error than design in human affairs.”
― Winston S. Churchill, The World Crisis Volume I: 1911-1914

“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 these were of doubtful utility.”
― Winston S. Churchill, The World Crisis Volume I: 1911-1914