"People say we ought not to allow ourselves to be drawn into a theoretical antagonism between Nazidom and democracy; but the antagonism is here now. It is this very conflict of spiritual and moral ideas which gives the free countries a great part of their strength. You see these dictators on their pedestals, surrounded by the bayonets of their soldiers and the truncheons of their police. On all sides they are guarded by masses of armed men, cannons, aeroplanes, fortifications, and the like — they boast and vaunt themselves before the world, yet in their hearts there is unspoken fear. They are afraid of words and thoughts; words spoken abroad, thoughts stirring at home — all the more powerful because forbidden — terrify them. A little mouse of thought appears in the room, and even the mightiest potentates are thrown into panic. They make frantic efforts to bar our thoughts and words; they are afraid of the workings of the human mind. Cannons, airplanes, they can manufacture in large quantities; but how are they to quell the natural promptings of human nature, which after all these centuries of trial and progress has inherited a whole armoury of potent and indestructible knowledge?"
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Nobel laureates in LiteraturePeople from OxfordPrime Ministers of the United KingdomPoliticians from EnglandHistorians from England
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
"The Defence of Freedom and Peace (The Lights are Going Out)", radio broadcast to the United States and to London (16 October 1938).
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Winston_Churchill
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Winston Churchill
1874 – 1965
britischer Politiker
689 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Winston Churchill →
Related Quotes
"...throughout the world, except in the abodes of the guilty, goes out to the British airmen who, undaunted by odds, u…"
"ChceÅ¡-li z pole bráti, musÃÅ¡ na nÄ› dáti."
"The soul of Poland is indestructible... she will rise again as a rock, which may for a spell be submerged by a tidal …"
"There are few virtues which the Poles do not possess and there are few errors they have ever avoided."
"History repeats itself."
"1919: but two years later Mr. Winston Churchill was entrusted by our harassed Cabinet with the settlement of the Midd…"
"It will take a great deal of patience to undo the harm that Churchill has done."
"You know the difference between a politician and a statesman? Here is the LeMay definition: a politician is a high-pr…"
"As I look at the Europe Hitler has devastated, I know very intimately that, as an Englishman of Jewish origin, I owe …"
"While vague about the hereafter, Churchill always held that "man is spirit," and believed in a kind of spiritual conn…"