WIST Quotations

Ascherson, Neal -- “If we teach children morality, what will we say about the arms trade?” The Independent (21 Jan 1996)

Dave — Wed, 01 Dec 2021 00:15:36 +0000

My own view is that to expel a political asylum-seeker because his country threatens to cancel business contracts with Britain is absolutely wrong. And it is not only wrong but dangerous in the long term to us all. This is because of one of the Laws of Politics that I wrote long ago into my little black notebook: “The way a state treats its aliens is the way it would treat its own subjects if it dared”.

Neal Ascherson (b. 1932) Scottish journalist and writer
“If we teach children morality, what will we say about the arms trade?” The Independent (21 Jan 1996)
(Source)

Kipling, Rudyard -- School History, “Dane-Geld (A.D. 980-1016),” st. 3-4 (1911) [with C.R.L. Fletcher]

Dave — Tue, 11 Jul 2017 00:40:44 +0000

It is always a temptation to a rich and lazy nation,

To puff and look important and to say: —

“Though we know we should defeat you, we have not the time to meet you.

We will therefore pay you cash to go away.”

And that is called paying the Dane-geld;
But we’ve proved it again and again,
That if once you have paid him the Dane-geld
You never get rid of the Dane.

Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) English writer
School History, “Dane-Geld (A.D. 980-1016),” st. 3-4 (1911) [with C.R.L. Fletcher]
(Source)

Churchill, Winston -- (Attributed)

Dave — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 13:44:50 +0000

An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last.

Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British statesman and author
(Attributed)

Churchill reportedly used used this phrase frequently prior to WWII, but it has not been found per se by Churchill scholars in his writings, speeches, press conferences, radio addresses, or parliamentary debates.

However, on a radio broadcast (20 Jan 1940), speaking of the neutral states standing by while Germany (and Russia) swallowed them up (referencing Finland fighting against Russia in particular), "Each one hopes that if he feeds the crocodile enough, the crocodile will eat him last. All of them hope that the storm will pass before their turn comes to be devoured. But I fear -- I fear greatly -- the storm will not pass. It will rage and it will roar, even more loudly, even more widely."

Also attributed to Franklin Roosevelt.

More discussion of this quotation: An Appeaser Is One Who Feeds a Crocodile, Hoping It Will Eat Him Last – Quote Investigator.