One of the great joys of my life was writing my biography of Winston Churchill. What a pleasure it was to write that book! I had so many complicated things (both praise and blame) to say about Churchill, and the problems of biography, and human nature, and I felt that I managed to express them all — to my own satisfaction, anyway.
When I feel a little blue, I often console myself by thinking of some of my favorite passages of Churchill’s writing. So many examples stand out in my mind. One, for instance, is the extraordinary eulogy to Neville Chamberlain.
Another is a passage from Their Finest Hour, the second volume in Churchill’s six-volume history of World War II. Of a visit to a very poor London neighborhood that had been devastated by the Blitz, he wrote:
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What an enormously *brave* undertaking to write this.
That voice Gretchen, I listened to it many times. Always it triggered off *in* me. My late husband (born 1916) was a (compulsory)WW2 RAF Squadron Leader. Churchill was his hero, the encouragement for these young pilots to set out night after night to fight the enemy. Without that GREAT man honestly Hitler would have won. I am from The Netherlands (1941) and the day he died (December 1964) I still remember exactly where I was on that dreary winter morning, when BBC gave the news, AND at once began broadcasting some of his most famous powerful speeches. We were both so sad. How infuriating – unacceptable that such genius cannot continue living forever. Had he continued – always way ahead of his time: I am sure now !! this world would have made spectacular advancements. No wishy washy politicians with just smooth-talk would have had a chance to rise to fame/power. What would he have done about Saddam Hussein, Gaddafi as a European strategist, I am suddenly wondering? Don’t allow such creeps to rise to such heights, aided by us the capitalistic free world, he would have *barked*
definitely. Anyway, I just adore this great man.
Sincerely, Willy
the book the power of one always has me thinking like this. my two favorite quotes are
“Always in life an idea starts small, it is only a sapling idea, but the vines will come and they will try to choke your idea so it cannot grow and it will die and you will never know you had a big idea, an idea so big it could have grown thirty meters through the dark canopy of leaves and touched the face of the sky.’ He looked at me and continued. ‘The vines are people who are afraid of originality, of new thinking. Most people you encounter will be vines; when you are a young plant they are very dangerous.’ His piercing blue eyes looked into mine.’ Always listen to yourself, Peekay. It is better to be wrong than simply to follow convention. If you are wrong, no matter, you have learned something and you grow stronger. If you are right, you have taken another step toward a fulfilling life.”
— Bryce Courtenay (The Power of One)
“The power of one is above all things the power to believe in yourself, ofen well beyond any latent ability you may have previously demonstrated. The mind is the athlete, the body is simply the means it uses to run faster or longer, jump higher, shoot straighter, kick better, swim harder, hit further, or box better.”
— Bryce Courtenay (The Power of One)
Dear Gretchen Rubin,
I look forward to reading your book and how wonderful that you enjoyed writing it; it sounds marvelous. Thank you for writing it.
My daughter, Katie, had Churchill’s courage, “Conquer we must, conquer we shall.”
The movie, Into The Storm http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1nHXxqcTMQ was one of the finest films I have ever seen.
Kind regards,
Mary Jane Hurley Brant, M.S., CGP