Scott, (Premier papers 7/2) and Colville Diary, 1 June 1940: This is not quite what the Village Voice reported, but close to the point. Sir Winston’s daughter, Lady Soames, recalled another comment about safeguarding works of art during the war, which Sir Martin Gilbert included in the official biography, Winston S. “None must go…We are going to beat them.” Ill fares the race which fails to salute the arts with the reverence and delight which are their due. Evidently we are in the presence of a mystery which strikes down to the deepest foundations of human genius and of human glory. It lights the path and links the thought of one generation with another, and in the realm of price holds its own in intrinsic value with an ingot of gold. With a dozen blobs of pigment he makes a certain pattern on one or two square yards of canvas, and something is created which carries its shining message of inspiration not only to all who are living with him on the world, but across hundreds of years to generations unborn. Here you have a man with a brush and palette. The Prime Minister, who spoke with so much feeling and thought on this subject, has reminded us of the old saying that it is by art man gets nearest to the angels and farthest from the animals. The country possesses in the Royal Academy an institution of wealth and power for the purpose of encouraging the arts of painting and sculpture…. The State owes it to itself to sustain and encourage them. The arts are essential to any complete national life. Although Churchill was referring particularly to painting and sculpture, it is not hard to extend his views to the Arts in general: He and we were glad to learn that Churchill nevertheless had expressed similar sentiments before the war started, in remarks to the Royal Academy on 30 April 1938. Spacey at the time, who was grateful for the correction. The quote was reprised more recently by actor Kevin Spacey to Chris Matthews of MSNBC, though the YouTube post nicely corrects the misquote with a textual overlay. Unfortunately, our best efforts fail to find it among Churchill’s 15 million published words of speeches, papers, letters, articles or books. Dan Evon, Ī: This alleged quotation was ascribed to Churchill some years ago by the Village Voice, and has since migrated widely throughout the Internet. The story is that when Churchill was asked to cut funding to the arts in order to support the war effort in World War II, he responded “Then what would we be fighting for?” Have you ever seen this quote? I’ve seen a lot of sources saying that it’s fake but I would love to get your opinion. Q: We’ve been getting a lot of questions about an alleged Winston Churchill quotation and I’m trying to verify if it’s genuine.
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