(One of a series of weekday posts on the life of Winston S. Churchill.)
Would you trade a very large, uncut ruby stone for a perfectly cut diamond?
Well, opinions will differ but today at least you have no choice: you’re going to get the perfectly cut diamond of a sentence Churchill delivered in 1936 when he was excoriating the government of Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin:
The government cannot make up their minds , or they cannot get the Prime Minister to make up his mind, so they go on, in strange paradox, decided only to be undecided, resolved to be irresolute, adamant for drift, solid for fluidity, all-powerful to be impotent.”The line has more power when heard than when read. Sometimes today, take a minute. Deliver it out loud before someone you love or while you’re by yourself. Be sure to pause when you get to the comma between “so they go on,” and “in strange paradox,” and pause as you come to every last comma.
Whenever I read that sentence I’m reminded of something a friend one said: “Ridicule and parody can be as effective as gun powder, and they’re quieter."
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The Wicked Wit of Winston Churchill, Compiled by Dominique Enright (p. 52)
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