"I do not grudge our loyal, brave people, who were ready to do their duty no matter what the cost, who never flinched under the strain of last week—I do not grudge them the natural, spontaneous outburst of joy and relief when they learned that the hard ordeal would no longer be required of them at the moment; but they should know the truth. They should know that there has been gross neglect and deficiency in our defences; they should know that we have sustained a defeat without a war, the consequences of which will travel far with us along our road; they should know that we have passed an awful milestone in our history, when the whole equilibrium of Europe has been deranged, and that the terrible words have for the time being been pronounced against the Western democracies: "Thou art weighed in the balance and found wanting." And do not suppose that this is the end. This is only the beginning of the reckoning. This is only the first sip, the first foretaste of a bitter cup which will be proffered to us year by year unless by a supreme recovery of moral health and martial vigour, we arise again and take our stand for freedom as in the olden time."
React to this quote
More by Winston Churchill
See allResonant Thoughts
"We thought all the time that we were passing through time when we really weren’t, when we never have. We’ve just been moving along with time. We said, there’s another second gone, there’s another minu…"
"The background of my meeting with Prof. B.B. Lal is very interesting. Long back when I was Senior Superintendent of Police, Patna in 1983-84, I had an occasion to travel along with Dr. Kumar Suresh Si…"
Explore Further
Related Quotes
"You ask about the Great One whom we call the Christ, the Lord Maitreya, and about His work in the past and …"
— Charles Webster Leadbeater"Today, every inhabitant of this planet must contemplate the day when this planet may no longer be habitable…"
— John F. Kennedy"I was a history major at Bowdoin and as I looked at different movements in different stages in history, it …"
— Kenneth Chenault"Your brains have been rewired to process all this Net-based information. Your brains are dealing with the w…"
— Steve Blank"Dayton shook the leadership elite of post-Cold War Europe. The Europeans were grateful to the United States…"
— Richard Holbrooke"Today he won by the hands of "gorillas" in black masks. Already it is clear that there will be no Parliamen…"
— Vasil Bykaŭ