Churchill quote: spurious?

[imwitty]

I don’t know how reliable is by your opinion the following source, but here
is what I found in the book “Churchill by Himself: The Definitive Collection
of Quotations” edited by Richard M. Langworth (2008), in the section
“America”, subsection “Characteristics of Americans”:


“The Americans can always be trusted to do the right thing, once all other
possibilities have been exhausted.” -- Circa 1944


This entry has the following Langworth’s note:


“Unattributed and included tentatively. Certainly he would never have said
it publicly: he was much too careful about slips like that. It cannot be
found in any memoirs of his colleagues. I have let it stand as a likely
remark, for he certainly had those sentiments from time to time in World War
II. (See for example the last entry under this heading.)”


Here is the aforementioned entry:


“Their national psychology is such that the bigger the Idea the more
wholeheartedly and obstinately do they throw themselves into making it a
success. It is an admirable characteristic, providing the Idea is good.” --

1952. (WW2 V, 494) [According to the Bibliography, it is on the page 494 of
the volume V in “The Second World War”, 6 vols.. London, Cassell, 1948 –
1954, by Winston S. Churchill].


Lora

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On Sat, May 14, 2011 at 10:11 AM, Jonathan Lighter
<wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Churchill quote: spurious?
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> A conservative contributor to CNN has just uttered the following: "As
> Winston Churchill said, 'You can count on the American people to do the
> right thing - once they've exhausted every other option.'"
>
> My vote is that it's Memorex, not real, but I'm only guessing. I haven't
> found anything like it in YBQ.
>
> I can remember when it was Lincoln and Mark Twain who used to say
> everything. This Churchill and Orwell business seems ominous somehow.
>
> JL
>
>
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
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