World War Quotes

The Home Guard overtopped the million mark, and when rifles were lacking grasped lustily the shotgun, the sporting rifle, the private pistol, or, when there was no firearm, the pike and the club. No Fifth Column existed in Britain, though a few spies were carefully rounded up and examined. What few Communists there were lay low. Everyone else gave all they had to give.

Duty and prudence alike command, first, that the germ-centres of hatred and revenge should be constantly and vigilantly surveyed and treated in good time, and, secondly, that an adequate organisation should be set up to make sure that the pestilence can be controlled at its earliest beginnings before it spreads and rages throughout the entire earth.

At the summit the stamina and valour of our fighter pilots remained unconquerable and supreme.

Mankind has never been in this position before. Without having improved appreciably in virtue or enjoying wiser guidance, it has got into its hands for the first time the tools by which it can unfailingly accomplish its own extermination.

In all our long history we have never seen a greater day than this.

Where every step is fraught with grave consequences and with real peril to the cause, deliberate and measured action is not merely prudent, but decent.

As the man whose mother-in-law had died in Brazil replied, when asked how the remains should be disposed of, "Embalm, cremate and bury. Take no risks!

The productive capacity of the human race is greater this afternoon than it ever was before.

The devoted onset of the Russian armies which saved Paris in 1914; the mastered agony of the munitionless retreat....has [Nicholas II] no share in these?

These gentlemen of the press were listening carefully to every word you said-all eagerly anxious for a tiny morsel of cheese which they could publish. And you go and give them a whole ruddy Stilton!

It is only the continuance of the war and the extraordinary conditions which it imposes and forces upon us all that justifies us in remaining together as a Parliament. I certainly could not take the responsibility of making far-reaching controversial changes which I am not convinced are directly needed for the war effort, without a Parliament refreshed by contact with the electorate.

It is true that American thought is at least disinterested in matters which seem to relate to territorial acquisitions, but when wolves are about the shepherd mustguard his flock, even if he does not himself care for mutton.

Since 1911 much more than a quarter of a century had passed, and still mortal peril threatened us at the hands of the same nation.....once again we must fight for life and honour against all the might and fury of the valiant, disciplined, and ruthless German race. Once again! So be it.

The world on the verge of its catastrophe was very brilliant. Nations and Empires crowned with princes and potentates rose majestically on every side, lapped in theaccumulated treasures of the long peace. All were fitted and fastened-it seemed securely-into an immense cantilever.

The House will feel profound sorrow at the fate of the great French nation and people to whom we have been joined so long in war and peace, and whom we have regarded as trustees with ourselves for the progress of a liberal culture and tolerant civilization of Europe.

I am going to give you a warning: be on your guard, because I am going to speak, or try to speak, in French, a formidable undertaking and one which will put great demands on your friendship for Great Britain.

The Frogs are getting all they can for nothing, and we are getting nothing for all we can.

I had hoped that we were hurling a wild cat on to the shore, but all we got was a stranded whale.

We have come to the conclusion that this particular method of warning [church bells] was redundant and not in itself well adapted to the present conditions of war. For myself, I cannot help feeling that anything like a serious invasion would be bound to leak out.

When imagining the horrors of a Hun invasion, there rose that last consoling thought which rises naturally in unconquerable races and in unenslavable men resolved to go down fighting-"you can always take one with you."