Quote source: "Let our advance worrying become advance thinking and planning."
756 views
Skip to first unread message
Matt Hern
Nov 14, 2011, 8:49:27 PM11/14/11
to church...@googlegroups.com
An internet search shows that "Let our advance worrying become advance thinking and planning" is an often quoted statement attributed to Winston Churchill.
However I have been unable to verify the source and that in fact it is a Churchill quote. None of the quoters appear to reference the source.
It is a great, insightful phrase and I'd love to quote it too. But I like to ensure I correctly attribute such brilliance.
Does anyone know of the reference for when Churchill made this statement please? If so, any links to a transcript would be a fabulous bonus please.
Thanks a lot,
Matt
Editor, Finest Hour
Nov 15, 2011, 8:32:28 AM11/15/11
to ChurchillChat
I can find no attribution to Churchill which is the reason inferior
quote sources fail to provide it. (Google the phrase and what comes up
are stray references in Facebook or corporate promo, not by any
historians.)
Finest Hour 153 (Winter, out in January) contains a "Datelines" entry
which might be of interest....
NEW YORK, AUGUST 29TH— Writing in The New York Times (http://nyti.ms/
o2BOJx), Brian Morton explains our frustration with the constant
bending, maiming and misrepresenting of quotes by Churchill and
others:
“I saw a mug with an inscription from Henry David Thoreau: ‘Go
confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you’ve
imagined!’ Thoreau was not known for his liberal use of exclamation
points. When I got home, I looked up the passage (it’s from Walden).
Thoreau wrote: ‘I learned this, at least, by my experiment: that if
one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors
to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success
unexpected in common hours.’
“When you start to become aware of these bogus quotations, you can’t
stop finding them. Henry James, George Eliot, Picasso—all of them are
being kept alive in popular culture through pithy, cheery sayings they
never actually said.
“Thoreau, Gandhi, Mandela—it’s easy to see why their words and ideas
have been massaged into gauzy slogans. They were inspirational
figures, dreamers of beautiful dreams. But what goes missing in the
slogans is that they were also sober, steely men. Each knew that
thoroughgoing change, whether personal or social, involves humility
and sacrifice, and that the effort to change oneself or the world
always exacts a price.
“But ours is an era in which it’s believed that we can reinvent
ourselves whenever we choose. So we recast the wisdom of the great
thinkers in the shape of our illusions. Shorn of their complexities,
their politics, their grasp of the sheer arduousness of change, they
stand before us now. They are shiny from their makeovers, they are
fabulous and gorgeous, and they want us to know that we can have it
all.”
quote sources fail to provide it. (Google the phrase and what comes up
are stray references in Facebook or corporate promo, not by any
historians.)
Finest Hour 153 (Winter, out in January) contains a "Datelines" entry
which might be of interest....
NEW YORK, AUGUST 29TH— Writing in The New York Times (http://nyti.ms/
o2BOJx), Brian Morton explains our frustration with the constant
bending, maiming and misrepresenting of quotes by Churchill and
others:
“I saw a mug with an inscription from Henry David Thoreau: ‘Go
confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you’ve
imagined!’ Thoreau was not known for his liberal use of exclamation
points. When I got home, I looked up the passage (it’s from Walden).
Thoreau wrote: ‘I learned this, at least, by my experiment: that if
one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors
to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success
unexpected in common hours.’
“When you start to become aware of these bogus quotations, you can’t
stop finding them. Henry James, George Eliot, Picasso—all of them are
being kept alive in popular culture through pithy, cheery sayings they
never actually said.
“Thoreau, Gandhi, Mandela—it’s easy to see why their words and ideas
have been massaged into gauzy slogans. They were inspirational
figures, dreamers of beautiful dreams. But what goes missing in the
slogans is that they were also sober, steely men. Each knew that
thoroughgoing change, whether personal or social, involves humility
and sacrifice, and that the effort to change oneself or the world
always exacts a price.
“But ours is an era in which it’s believed that we can reinvent
ourselves whenever we choose. So we recast the wisdom of the great
thinkers in the shape of our illusions. Shorn of their complexities,
their politics, their grasp of the sheer arduousness of change, they
stand before us now. They are shiny from their makeovers, they are
fabulous and gorgeous, and they want us to know that we can have it
all.”
David Freeman
Nov 15, 2011, 11:33:02 AM11/15/11
to church...@googlegroups.com
"A thousand plagues upon the internet And those who use if for misquotation."
|
|
Editor, Finest Hour
Nov 15, 2011, 11:38:59 AM11/15/11
to ChurchillChat
"May the fleas of a thousand camels infest the pajamas of those who
misquote me on the web."
—Mahatma Gandhi
misquote me on the web."
—Mahatma Gandhi
Tom Dennis
Nov 15, 2011, 12:02:28 PM11/15/11
to church...@googlegroups.com
WSC wrote "Scaffolding of Rhetoric" when he was 21.
I would love to find a copy!
Tom
I would love to find a copy!
Tom
Editor, Finest Hour
Nov 15, 2011, 1:28:22 PM11/15/11
to ChurchillChat
On Nov 15, 12:02 pm, Tom Dennis <tomrden...@gmail.com> wrote:
> WSC wrote "Scaffolding of Rhetoric" when he was 21.
> I would love to find a copy!
See Finest Hour 94, pages 14-17. A readable .pdf is on our website:
> WSC wrote "Scaffolding of Rhetoric" when he was 21.
> I would love to find a copy!
http://bit.ly/uIBUvi or go to Publications>Finest Hour>Issues 72 to
108.
From the intro on page 14:
We receive many requests for this article, which was never formally
published, though some of the ideas in it were incorporated in
"Savrola," the author's novel. Written a century ago, it provides
Churchill's formula for a good speech, which is as sound advice as
ever. It is republished on its centenary by kind permission of the
Churchill Literary Estate and Winston S. Churchill, MP.
Reply all
Reply to author
Forward
0 new messages