Churchill ended his December 8, 1941 letter to the Japanese Ambassador, declaring that a state of war now existed between the United Kingdom and Japan, with the courtly flourish "I have the honour to be, with high consideration, Sir, Your obedient servant".
The Second World War, Volume III : The Grand Alliance (1950) Chapter 32 (Pearl Harbor).
Post-war years (1945–1955)
“When you have to kill a man it costs nothing to be polite.”
Variant: When you have to kill a man, it costs nothing to be polite.
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Winston S. Churchill 601
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom 1874–1965Related quotes
“Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everybody you meet.”
One of the rules Maj. Gen. James Mattis gave his Marines to live by in Iraq, as quoted in Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq (2006) by Thomas E. Ricks; as excerpted in Armed Forces Journal (August 2006) http://www.armedforcesjournal.com/2006/08/1936008
Shaking the Tree
Song lyrics, Shaking the Tree (1990)
"A New Crime", first published as "The New Crime" in the Buffalo Express, 16 April 1870. Anthologized in Mark Twain's Sketches, New and Old http://books.google.com/books?id=5LcIAAAAQAAJ (1875).
To Leon Goldensohn, April 8, 1946, from "The Nuremberg Interviews" by Leon Goldensohn, Robert Gellately - History - 2004
"Golden Gate" in Golden Gate and Other Stories (1982)
Context: When you have shot and killed a man you have in some measure clarified your attitude toward him. You have given a definite answer to a definite problem. For better or worse you have acted decisively. In a way, the next move is up to him.