While all knowledge continues to expand, as Lord Balfour said today, the human faculty remains stationary, and that has induced an experimental mood in all our studies and sciences, a desire to test matters and not to yield oneself completely to clear-cut and logical definitions.
1928, 24 July.
A consistent theme of Churchill’s is that while science progresses geometrically, mankind remains the same imperfect entity.
Man in this moment of his history has emerged in greater supremacy over the forces of nature than has ever been dreamed of before. He has it in his power to solve quite easily the problems of material existence. He has conquered the wild beasts, and he has even conquered the insects and the microbes. There lies before him, as he wishes, a golden age of peace and progress. All is in his hand. He has only to conquer his last and worst enemy— himself. With vision, faith and courage, it may be within our power to win a crowning victory for all.
1950, 28 March.
The power of man has grown in every sphere except over himself. Never in the field of action have events seemed so harshly to dwarf personalities. Rarely in history have brutal facts so dominated thought or has such a widespread individual virtue found so dim a collective focus. The fearful question confronts us: Have our problems got beyond our control? Undoubtedly we are passing through a phase where this may be so.
1953, 10 December. (CS VIII, 8515.)
Speech on receiving the Nobel Prize for Literature, read by Lady Churchill in Oslo, since WSC was meeting with Eisenhower in Bermuda.
World History
