William Manchester · 800 pages
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“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
William Manchester
Born place: in Springfield, Massachusetts, The United States
Born date April 1, 1922
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“I met Jose Angelico the way I meet many of my customers. I have a workshop on the cemetery road, just past the coffin makers. I specialize in the small, simple stone. I am very aware that my clients have next to nothing, and renting the grave has often taken most of their money. So I modify and modify and get down to the very lowest cost. The dead, however, must have that stone: the reminder, the eternal reminder, that this man, this woman, this child---existed. On some of the graves the name is marked in paint, or even pen, and everyone knows how sad that is. Make something out of stone, I say, and noone touches the grave.The poor are not buried, you see. There is not enough ground here any more, so in the Naravo they build upwards. The graves of the poor are concrete boxes, each just big enough for the coffin. They go up and up---in some parts twenty boxes high. A funeral here is to slide the coffin in and watch the sealing of the compartment. Part of my service is that I cement the stone that I've made into place, and thus seal the chamber.”
― Andy Mulligan, quote from Trash
“My veracity is dearer to me than my life," said the peasant; "nor would I purchase the one by forfeiting the other.”
― Horace Walpole, quote from The Castle of Otranto
“That's the tragedy of falling in love; it brings with it the potential for loss.”
― Sarah Rayner, quote from One Moment, One Morning
“Sicarius had the personality of a particularly bland, pointy stick.”
― Lindsay Buroker, quote from Deadly Games
“What are you doing?” Sicarius’s voice floated from his tree perch.
“The usual night-watch activities.” She tried to keep her tone light. Neither the creepy forest nor the creepy wolves were going to make her nervous, thank you very much.
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