William Manchester Quotes

The sum of a million facts is not the truth.

— William Manchester

He was a thundering paradox of a man, noble and ignoble, inspiring and outrageous, arrogant and shy, the best of me and the worst of men, the most protean, most ridiculous, and most sublime. No more baffling, exasperating soldier ever wore a uniform. Flamboyant, imperious, and apocalyptic, he carried the plumage of a flamingo, could not acknowledge errors, and tried to cover up his mistakes with sly, childish tricks. Yet he was also endowed with great personal charm, a will of iron, and a soaring intellect. Unquestionably he was the most gifted man-at arms- this nation has produced. -William Manchester on Douglas MacArthur

— William Manchester

“But there are no loners. No man lives in a void. His every act is conditioned by his time and his society.”

— William Manchester

“It is the definition of an egoist that whatever occupies his attention is, for that reason, important.”

— William Manchester

His effect on men is one of interest and curiosity, not of admiration and loyalty. His power is the power of gifts, not character. Men watch him, but do not follow him.

— William Manchester

There was, however, a difference between his mood and that of the rest of the cabinet. They felt desperate; he felt challenged.

— William Manchester

“In many ways Churchill remained a nineteenth-century man, and by no means a common man. He fit the mold of what Henry James called in English Hours persons for whom the private machinery of ease has been made to work with extraordinary smoothness.”

— William Manchester

“Let me first assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself-nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.”

— William Manchester

“The hero acts alone, without encouragement, relying solely on conviction and his own inner resources. Shame does not discourage him; neither does obloquy. Indifferent to approval, reputation, wealth, or love, he cherishes only his personal sense of honor, which he permits no one else to judge.[ ... ] Guided by an inner gyroscope, he pursues his vision single-mindedly, undiscouraged by rejections, defeat, or even the prospect of imminent death.”

— William Manchester

One strange feeling, which I remember clearly, was a powerful link with the slain, particularly those that had fallen within the past hour or two. There was so much death around that life seemed almost indecent. Some men's uniforms were soaked with gobs of blood. The ground was sodden with it. I killed, too.

— William Manchester

“Churchill, aware of Hitler's use of astrologers, once summoned one himself. In a what-the-hell moment, he asked the surprised fortune-teller to tell him what Hitler's fortune-teller was telling Hitler. Churchill told his friend Kay Halle the story years later with the caveat that this is just between us.”

— William Manchester

Please understand that we are not interested in the possibilities of defeat. They do not exist.

— William Manchester

“Above all, beware the crowd! The crowd only feels; it has no mind of its own which can plan. The crowd is credulous, it destroys, it consumes, it hates, and it dreams-but it never builds.”

— William Manchester

“In 1988, William Manchester began writing The Last Lion: Defender of the Realm, the third and final volume of his biography of Winston Churchill.”

— William Manchester

Biographer diagnoses reaction to restriction as a tell of true character. Some use even prison as a time of reflection and planning. Others, like Churchill, quickly chafe at missing interaction and opportunity.

— William Manchester

“If you cannot read all your books, at any rate handle, or, as it were, fondle them-peer into them, let them fall open where they will, read from the first sentence that arrests the eye, set them back on their shelves with your own hands, arrange them on your own plan so that if you do not know what is in them, you will at least know where they are. Let them be your friends; let them at any rate be your acquaintances.”

— William Manchester

“I will not take by sacrifice what I can achieve by strategy.”

— William Manchester

I realized that the worst thing that could happen to me was about to happen to me.

— William Manchester

“Tell me the sort of agreement that the United Nations will reach with respect to the world's petroleum reserves when the war is over," Ickes proclaimed, "and I will undertake to analyze the durability of the peace that is to come.”

— William Manchester

“The present is never tidy, or certain, or reasonable, and those who try to make it so once it becomes the past succeed only in making it seem implausible.”

— William Manchester

If Peking wasn't stopped in the peninsular war, he argued, China would be recognized as "the military colossus of the East." U.S. prestige would plummet, and the world's new nations would gravitate toward neutralism.

— William Manchester

Dear John- It will be many years before you understand fully what a great man your father was. His loss is a deep personal tragedy for all of us, but I wanted you particularly to know that I share your grief-You can always be proud of him- Affectionately Lyndon B. Johnson The second was a little longer. Himself the father of two girls, he had been particularly fond of the President's daughter. THE WHITE HOUSE WASHINGTON Friday Night 7:30 November 22, 1963 Dearest Caroline- Your father's death has been a great tragedy for the Nation, as well as for you, and I wanted you to know how much my thoughts are of you at this time. He was a wise and devoted man. You can always be proud of what he did for his country- Affectionately Lyndon B. Johnson

— William Manchester

“A man can wear out a particular part of his mind by continually using it and tiring it ... the tired parts of the mind can be rested and strengthened, not merely by rest, but by using other parts ... . It is only when new cells are called into activity, when new stars become lords of the ascendant, that relief, repose, refreshment are afforded.”

— William Manchester

“Social security was the most emotional issue that session. Republicans protested that if the administration bill were passed, children would no longer support their parents, the payroll tax would discourage workmen so much that they would quit their jobs, and that, taken all in all, the measure would remove the romance of life.”

— William Manchester

Is equally true that throughout his life he retained the small boy's glee in making mischief, in dressing up, in showing off. He was probably the only man in London who owned more hats than his wife-top hats, Stetsons, seamen's caps, his hussar helmet, a privy councillor's cocked hat, homburgs, an astrakhan, an Irish "paddy hat," a white pith helmet, an Australian bush hat, a fez, the huge beplumed hat he wore as a Knight of the Garter, even the full headdress of a North American Indian chieftain. He had closets full of costumes.

— William Manchester

They were following their prime minister, matching their government's mood.

— William Manchester

“The idea that you can vote yourself into prosperity is one of the most ludicrous that was ever entertained.”

— William Manchester

People who go to Italy to look at ruins won't have to go as far as Naples and Pompeii in the future.

— William Manchester

“Councils of war breed timidity and defeatism.”

— William Manchester

“Occasionally he stumbled over the truth, but hastily picked himself up and hurried on as if nothing had happened.”

— William Manchester

Churchill had arrived in Persia secure in his nineteenth-century belief in England's imperial destiny; he left having learned a cold lesson. He now had no choice but to regard the status of his small island nation from a mid-twentieth-century vantage point, and it was one of declining geopolitical might.

— William Manchester

“The author points out that novices to total war, and this Hitler and the British press have in common, overreact to daily events and lose sight of overall strategy.”

— William Manchester

“Japanese naval officers in dress whites are frequent guests at Pearl Harbor's officers' mess and are very polite. They always were. Except, of course, for that little interval there between 1941 and 1945.”

— William Manchester

“An Edwardian lady in full dress was a wonder to behold, and her preparations for viewing were awesome.”

— William Manchester

“As she sallied forth from her boudoir, you would never have guessed how quickly she could strip for action.”

— William Manchester

He was a great thundering paradox of a man.

— William Manchester

“They fought on with a devotion which would puzzle the generation of the 1980s. More surprising, in many instances it would have baffled the men they themselves were before Pearl Harbor. Among MacArthur's ardent infantrymen were cooks, mechanics, pilots whose planes had been shot down, seamen whose ships had been sunk, and some civilian volunteers.”

— William Manchester

He [Gen. Douglas MacArthur] never went to church, but he read the Bible every day and regarded himself as one of the world's two great defenders of Christendom. (The other was the pope.)

— William Manchester

“A man's task is to find himself, and if he fails in this, it doesn't much matter what else he finds.”

— William Manchester

The coconut trees, lithe and graceful, crowd the beach like a minuet of slender elderly virgins adopting flippant poses.

— William Manchester

“Actors who have tried to play Churchill and MacArthur have failed abysmally because each of those men was a great actor playing himself.”

— William Manchester

“His [Gen. Douglas MacArthur's] own heroes were Lincoln and Washington, and in some ways he resembled them.”

— William Manchester

“It is true that despite occasional gleams of Churchillian eloquence he [Gen. Douglas MacArthur] usually spoke poorly. He was far more effective in conversations a deux. But those who dismiss him as shallow because his rhetoric was fustian err.”

— William Manchester

“The colors of the underwater rock [are] as pale and delicate as those in the wardrobe of an 18th-century marchioness.”

— William Manchester

“I try to be as ruthless as possible. I ask myself of each sentence, "Is it clear? Is it true? Does it feel good?" And if it's not, then I rewrite it.”

— William Manchester

He [Gen. Douglas MacArthur] was a great thundering paradox of a man, noble and ignoble, inspiring and outrageous, arrogant and shy, the best of men and the worst of men, the most protean, most ridiculous, and most sublime.

— William Manchester

“I came to a dead stop and began major revisions. Sometimes these entailed the shredding of all existing manuscript for a fresh start - an inefficient way to write a book, though I found it exciting.”

— William Manchester

“To the medieval mind the possibility of doubt did not exist.”

— William Manchester

“It was his [Gen. Douglas MacArthur's] relationship with the administration In Washington which became poisoned by his egomania. Link upon link the bond between events on the battlefield and his own ruin was forged, and, as is essential in genuine tragedy, the gods used the victim himself to forge the links.”

— William Manchester

“His [Gen. Douglas MacArthurs] twenty-two medals-thirteen of them for heroism-probably exceeded those of any other figure in American history. He seemed to seek death on battlefields.”

— William Manchester