Quotes from The Last Lion 2: Winston Spencer Churchill: Alone, 1932-40

“The present is never tidy, or certain, or reasonable, and those who try to make it so once it becomes the past succeed only in making it seem implausible.”
― William Manchester, quote from The Last Lion 2: Winston Spencer Churchill: Alone, 1932-40

“A baboon in a forest is a matter of legitimate speculation; a baboon in a Zoo is an object of public curiosity; but a baboon in your wife’s bed is a cause of the gravest concern.”
― William Manchester, quote from The Last Lion 2: Winston Spencer Churchill: Alone, 1932-40

“They were following their prime minister, matching their government's mood.”
― William Manchester, quote from The Last Lion 2: Winston Spencer Churchill: Alone, 1932-40

“Nazi aggression, one might think, should have lent support to Winston’s candidacy. At this, of all times, it seems inconceivable that Baldwin would pick a weak man to supervise the defense of England. Nevertheless, that was what he did. Baldwin said outright: “If I pick Winston, Hitler will be cross.” In his biography of Chamberlain, Keith Feiling writes that the Rhineland was “decisive against Winston’s appointment”; it was “obvious that Hitler would not like it.” As the prime minister’s heir apparent, Chamberlain encouraged Baldwin to think along these lines. He suggested that Baldwin choose a man “who would excite no enthusiasm” and “create no jealousies.” The prime minister agreed. On Saturday, March 14—exactly a week since German troops had crossed the Rhine—he announced that he was establishing, not a ministry of defense, but a ministry for coordination of defense. Its leader, the new cabinet member, would be Sir Thomas Inskip.”
― William Manchester, quote from The Last Lion 2: Winston Spencer Churchill: Alone, 1932-40

“In Parliament a fellow MP whispered to him that his trousers were unfastened. “It makes no difference,” Winston replied wryly. “The dead bird doesn’t leave the nest.”
― William Manchester, quote from The Last Lion 2: Winston Spencer Churchill: Alone, 1932-40

“Churchill warned them now: “When you are drifting down the stream of Niagara, it may easily happen that from time to time you run into a reach of quite smooth water, or that a bend in the river or a change in the wind may make the roar of the falls seem far more distant. But”—his voice dropped a register, and only those who strained could hear—“your hazard and your preoccupation are in no way affected thereby.”
― William Manchester, quote from The Last Lion 2: Winston Spencer Churchill: Alone, 1932-40

“The author points out that novices to total war, and this Hitler and the British press have in common, overreact to daily events and lose sight of overall strategy.”
― William Manchester, quote from The Last Lion 2: Winston Spencer Churchill: Alone, 1932-40

“éminence grise, the coalition government disciplined”
― William Manchester, quote from The Last Lion 2: Winston Spencer Churchill: Alone, 1932-40

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― Stephanie Laurens, quote from Devil's Bride

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― Mari Mancusi, quote from Stake That

“Children like Claudia, children who flee from relationships into a world of their own and who are unable to communicate verbally, need to be understood in a special way. It takes time and a great deal of attention, as well as wisdom and help from professionals, in order to learn how to interpret their cries and their body language which reveal the desires and needs they cannot name.”
― Jean Vanier, quote from Becoming Human

“It struck Hsing suddenly that Masada didn't even understand the nature of his own genius. To him the patterns of thought and motive that he sensed in the virus were self-explanatory, and those who could not see them were simply not looking hard enough. Yet he would readily admit to his own inability to analyze more human contact, even on the most basic level. That was part and parcel of being iru.

What a strange combination of skills and flaws. What an utterly alien profile. Praise the founders of Guera for having taught them all to nurture such specialized talent, rather than seeking to "cure" it. It was little wonder that most innovations in technology now came from the Gueran colonies, and that Earth, who set such a strict standard of psychological "normalcy," now produced little that was truly exciting. Thank God their own ancestors had left that doomed planet before they, too, had lost the genes of wild genius. Thank God they had seen the creative holocaust coming, and escaped it.”
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