‘I would say to this House, as I said to those who have joined this Government: “I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.” We have before us an ordeal of the most grievous kind. We have before us many, many long months of struggle and of suffering. You ask what is our policy? I will say: It is to wage war by sea, land and air, with all our might and with all the strength that God can give us: to wage war against a monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark, lamentable catalogue of human crime. This is our policy. You ask: What is our aim? I can answer in one word: Victory – victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory, however long and hard the road may be; for without victory there is no survival.’
‘I have never accepted what many people have kindly said – namely, that I inspired the nation. Their will was resolute and remorseless and it proved unconquerable. It fell to me to express it, and if I found the right word you must remember that I have always earned my living by my pen and my tongue. It was the nation and the race dwelling all round the globe that had the lion’s heart. I had the luck to be called upon to give the roar.’
‘I am perhaps the only man who has passed through both the two supreme cataclysms of recorded history in high executive office… These thirty years of action and advocacy comprise and express my life-effort, and I am content to be judged upon them.’
