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

William Manchester ·  800 pages

Rating: (6.9K votes)


“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


About the author

William Manchester
Born place: in Springfield, Massachusetts, The United States
Born date April 1, 1922
See more on GoodReads

Popular quotes

“You're going to find Tigerstar. Against that fiend, every cat is helpless.”
― Erin Hunter, quote from Fading Echoes


“Still, though reading absorbed her, what the Queen had not expected was the degree to which it drained her of enthusiasm for anything else.”
― Alan Bennett, quote from The Uncommon Reader


“I certainly didn’t feel like writing anymore. I couldn’t explain why, but the only emotion that I could arouse were feelings of anger and after staying mad all day and half the night, I was just plain tired. Mad at what? Just about everything, for just about everything was done wrong or it wasn’t done perfectly. Since nothing but perfection was acceptable, I stayed mad.”
― Dick Winters, quote from Beyond Band of Brothers: The War Memoirs of Major Dick Winters


“I'd once read somewhere that is takes about half as long to recover from a deep relationship as the relationship lasted.”
― Cate Tiernan, quote from Sweep: Volume 1


“Picture all experts as if they were mammals. Never be a spectator of unfairness or stupidity. Seek out argument and disputation for their own sake; the grave will supply plenty of time for silence”
― Christopher Hitchens, quote from Letters to a Young Contrarian


Interesting books

The Lady With the Little Dog and Other Stories, 1896-1904
(4.2K)
The Lady With the Li...
by Anton Chekhov
Shake Hands with the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda
(9.1K)
Shake Hands with the...
by Roméo Dallaire
Black and Blue
(71.9K)
Black and Blue
by Anna Quindlen
Bleeding Violet
(5.2K)
Bleeding Violet
by Dia Reeves
Demon Lord of Karanda
(33.8K)
Demon Lord of Karand...
by David Eddings
The Humans
(29.4K)
The Humans
by Matt Haig

About BookQuoters

BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.