My favorite quotes from Churchill’s A Roving Commission: My Early Life
2 min readNov 30, 2020
The book readings somewhat like it was dictated. Evidently the book wwas dictated in the summer of 1928. Churchil wrote to The Earl Baldwin of Bewdley “I have had a delightful month — building a cottage and dictating a book: 200 bricks and 2000 words per day.” (according to Jenkins, Roy (2001). Churchill. Macmillan. pp. 420–421.)
One of the most famous quotes is not at the begining but at chapter 4.
- “Come on now all you young men, all over the world. You are needed more than ever now to fill the gap of a generation shorn by the war. You have not an hour to lose. You must take your places in Life’s fighting line. Twenty to twenty-five! These are the years! Don’t be content with things as they are. ‘The earth is yours and the fulness thereof.’ Enter upon your inheritance, accept your responsibilities. Raise the glorious flags again, advance them upon the new enemies, who constantly gather upon the front of the human army, and have only to be assaulted to be overthrown. Don’t take No for an answer. Never submit to failure. Do not be fobbed off with mere personal success or acceptance. You will make all kinds of mistakes; but as long as you are generous and true, and also fierce, you cannot hurt the world or even seriously distress her.”
- End of Chapter 4 (Sandhurst).
- The Netflix movie series “The Crown” (2016) in episode 4 of season 1 modifies the quote slightly by attributing it to this quote: “Hear this, young men and women everywhere, and proclaim it far and wide. The earth is yours and the fullness thereof. Be kind but be fierce. You’re needed now more than ever before. Take up the mantle of change for this is your time.”
© Charles Edward Andrew Lincoln IV
