Winston Churchill was not considered as one of the all time most influential speakers, but the most influential speaker. Few knew that as a youngster, the man whose soaring oratory would mean so much to so many suffered from a stammer, a speech disorder that is notoriously difficult to overcome. But the strains of war showed even on the man called Britain's Bulldog. He suffered a mild heart attack in December 1941, two years later, he contracted pneumonia.
Once Churchill was speaking in Parliament and was slightly muddled and incoherent in his speech. A rather unattractive lady MP on the opposite benches declared to Churchill: 'Sir, you are drunk!'. To which he replied 'Madame that may be true, but in the morning I shall be sober whereas you will still be ugly'.
His war time speech: "We Shall Fight on the Beaches", is one of his most inspiring speeaches
今天,在與看不見的敵人病毒的戰鬥中, 我們需要丘吉爾的戰鬥精神..
@ 00:52 When he said “Ahnyradawaweegointrytodo, thaisresolvuminmajsee government”
I could only comprehend.... , 確實太難聽清楚了,丘吉爾, 我還是感覺到他的speech disorder...
Here is the full speech by Winston Churchill
Full text:
“When Napoleon lay at Boulogne for a year with his flat-bottomed boats and his Grand Army, he was told by someone, "there are bitter weeds in England." There are certainly a great many more of them since the British Expeditionary Force returned. Sir I have, myself, full confidence that if all do their duty, if nothing is neglected, and if the best arrangements are made, as they are being made, we shall prove ourselves once again able to defend our Island home, to ride out the storm of war, and to outlive the menace of tyranny, if necessary for years, if necessary alone.
At any rate, that is what we are going to try to do. That is the resolve of His Majesty’s Government-every man of them. That is the will of Parliament and the nation.
The British Empire and the French Republic, linked together in their cause and in their need, will defend to the death their native soil, aiding each other like good comrades to the utmost of their strength.
We shall go on to the end,
we shall fight in France,
we shall fight on the seas and oceans,
we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air,
we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be,
we shall fight on the beaches,
we shall fight on the landing grounds,
we shall fight in the fields and in the streets,
we shall fight in the hills;
we shall never surrender, and even if, which I do not for a moment believe, this Island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in God’s good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old.”
