Lady Clementine Quotes

“The risks of the conflict never overwhelmed me, only the fear of marginalization.”
― Marie Benedict, Lady Clementine

“What is it about a crisis that draws us closer to our loved ones? Why do the differences between us—minuscule and vast—seem to disappear against the backdrop of mounting catastrophe?”
― Marie Benedict, Lady Clementine

“In comparison to them and countless others, I had no right to suffer. But suffering came whether or not I was worthy.”
― Marie Benedict, Lady Clementine

“I simply recall a dark hollow within me into which I crawled when the anxiety overwhelmed.”
― Marie Benedict, Lady Clementine

“Strange how I thrive under the stress of crisis and falter under the weight of normal existence.”
― Marie Benedict, Lady Clementine

“How can I leave when my every move is watched as if I’m some sort of bellwether of the nation’s fortunes?”
― Marie Benedict, Lady Clementine

“Funny how he slips between uncanny self-awareness and an inability to think of anyone but himself.”
― Marie Benedict, Lady Clementine

“How distinct are the lenses through which we each perceive the world,”
― Marie Benedict, Lady Clementine

“The only way to achieve and maintain peace is to improve the living conditions of the people in all countries,” she replies,”
― Marie Benedict, Lady Clementine

“He only thinks about my identity and my worth in terms of the possessive, in terms of what I mean and what I do for him. I realize for the first time how dependent I’ve been on Winston for his admiration and how reliant I am for his permission to assume my own power, even if it is power derived from his own. No longer.”
― Marie Benedict, Lady Clementine

“He makes me feel loved and respected for myself—not for what I can do for him and not for who he wants me to be. It is a different sort of love and admiration than Winston has for me. And I feel a new person under his gaze.”
― Marie Benedict, Lady Clementine

“but I now realize the lengths to which average citizens will go in the national interest. Is it acceptable to change—or even lose—one’s moral compass in the miasma of wartime?”
― Marie Benedict, Lady Clementine

“Why do the maneuverings of battleships and naval men seem an easier task than the managing of two small children and an elderly woman? Perhaps I am not suited to the usual work of a woman.”
― Marie Benedict, Lady Clementine

“None of us are what we seem at first, I remind myself. No one sees that my nerves are stretched near to splintering behind my own composed exterior after all.”
― Marie Benedict, Lady Clementine

“what I actually adore most about Terence is the courageous, exuberant woman I become in his company, not weighed down by others’ cares and not rushing to judgment of others.”
― Marie Benedict, Lady Clementine

“in this final hour of the war, we were not being troubled again by my awful Mitford cousins, some of whom had been pro-Nazi during the war and one of whom had actually married her husband at the home of Nazi leader Joseph Goebbels, with Hitler in attendance no less.”
― Marie Benedict, Lady Clementine

“Once Roosevelt and Stalin became more closely aligned—an inevitability that I’d worried about for months—the balance of power tipped in their favor, away from Winston, and my husband sensed Stalin and Roosevelt had already decided on this mass invasion of Normandy. This development did not surprise me, because I’d seen Roosevelt for the tactical game player and inveterate politician he is instead of the steadfastly loyal friend Winston believed him to be for too long.”
― Marie Benedict, Lady Clementine

“What choice does Britain have but to withstand this marginalization, dependent as we are on these countries for our survival in this war and beyond? But it saddens me beyond measure to think that our country, for so long the only one courageous enough to fight against the monstrous Hitler, must now take a secondary role. Winston is in the process of becoming fully immersed in the developments about the alignment of America and Russia when General de Gaulle insists on visiting.”
― Marie Benedict, Lady Clementine

“hear a whisper pass through them: “The Churchills are here.” I realize that from this moment forward, every decision we make and action we take will serve as an example for the people who only now acknowledge the truth of the warnings Winston has been issuing for years.”
― Marie Benedict, Lady Clementine

“I’d have grown used to the scoffing after so many years of my husband advocating unpopular positions—his immovable stance on keeping India under imperial rule as one example, and his support of King Edward VIII’s right to remain on the throne even though he planned to marry twice-divorced Wallis Simpson as another”
― Marie Benedict, Lady Clementine

“in 1918, an act passed allowing a limited category of women to vote, and finally, ten years later, all women in England had the same right to vote as men.”
― Marie Benedict, Lady Clementine

“mean by that?” “Your whole existence focuses upon him and his requirements. He demands all of you, and there is no space left for your children to have needs.” I know this, of course; I’ve always known this. But it is one matter to understand a terrible truth deep within the darkness of yourself and quite another to have someone else say it aloud.”
― Marie Benedict, Lady Clementine

“The Treaty of Versailles prohibits Germany from assembling an army of certain size, among other restrictions. It says nothing about political parties forming military groups for”
― Marie Benedict, Lady Clementine

“It suits him to ignore my foibles and view me as a sculpture of a perfect wife and mother, because a sculpture doesn’t have needs or desires. A sculpture doesn’t ask anything”
― Marie Benedict, Lady Clementine

“Political wives are seldom seen and rarely heard.”
― Marie Benedict, Lady Clementine

“rumored”
― Marie Benedict, Lady Clementine

“these souls, we will not prevail. He cannot, indeed does not, fight alone.”
― Marie Benedict, Lady Clementine

“decide that, in order for him to vanquish the Nazis, I must serve as the lens through which he views and treats humankind, almost as his social barometer and conscience. Without the consideration of all”
― Marie Benedict, Lady Clementine

“Ralph Wigram, a lovely young man whose despondency over these terrible times led to his untimely death nearly two years ago, provided intelligence to us at great risk to himself and his position in the Foreign Office.”
― Marie Benedict, Lady Clementine

“King Edward VIII’s right to remain on the throne even though he planned to marry twice-divorced Wallis Simpson as another.”
― Marie Benedict, Lady Clementine