For anyone studying, or interested in modern european history (post WW2), being able to quote Winston Churchills (in)famous speech at the University of Zürich in 1946 should be basic:
“We must build a kind of United States of Europe. In this way only will hundreds of millions of toilers be able to regain the simple joys and hopes which make life worth living.”.
This excerpt became important because no person of such stature as Churchill’s had ever given this idea support as forcefully as foreseeing a United States of Europe. Of course Churchill did not count Britain and the UK as a part of Europe during this speech, and it’s hard to imagine that he was even close to realising how realistic the idea actually would prove to be. He probably was a bit tipsy..
Anyway; I sat down to read through this speech today, and for the first time saw his follow-up. This was beautiful and… naive? Especially since the Nürnberg Trials weren’t over yet… This sentence simply proves Churchill to be a statesman and a politician of high stature:
“All that is needed is the resolve of hundreds of millions of men and women to do right instead of wrong(…)”.
