Winston's Wonderful Words

image: © markwr | dreamstime.com

With all today's politicians regularly opening their mouths and putting their foot in it, here's a flashback to the past - when one particular politician seems to have had a real way with words.

Mind you, I guess in the days before 24/7 news and social media, he had more time to think up these gems before he actually had to utter them.

But still I can't help thinking how well some of these would have worked as tweets!

All credit to Winston Churchill for bringing a bit of honesty (...and humour) into the dry world of politics all those years ago...

• "The best argument against democracy is a 5 minute conversation with the average voter."

• "If you're going through hell, keep going!"

• "We can always count on the Americans to do the right thing - after they have exhausted all the other possibilities.

• "A lie can get halfway round the world before the truth even has a chance to get its pants on.

• "Men occasionally stumble over the truth - but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had ever happened."

• "A politician needs to be able to foretell what is going to happen tomorrow, next week, next month, and next year. And be able to explain afterwards why it didn't happen."

• "Success is stumbling from failure to failure - with no loss of enthusiasm."

• "Show me a young Conservative, and I'll show you someone with no heart. Show me an old Liberal and I'll show you someone with no brains."

• "Courage may be what it takes to stand up and speak - but it is also what it takes to sit down and listen."

• "A prisoner of war is a man who tries to kill you and fails - and then asks you not to kill him."

• "He has all of the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire."

• "Don't interrupt me when I'm interrupting!"

• "An appeaser is someone who feeds a crocodile, in the hope that it will eat him last.

• "The greatest lesson in life is to realise that even fools are right sometimes.

• "If you've got an important point to make, don't try to be clever or subtle. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then hit it again. Then hit it a third time - with a tremendous whack."

• "Some people's idea of free speech is that they should be free to say what they like, but if anyone else says anything back, that is an outrage."

• "A nation trying to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle."

• "We are masters of our unsaid words, but slaves of those we let slip out."

• "In the course of my life, I have often had to eat my words, and I must confess that I have always found it a rather wholesome diet." 

And the last word...

• "I am ready to meet my Maker. Whether my Maker is prepared for the great ordeal of meeting me is entirely another matter."