Telegram to Winston Churchill after reclaiming Ethiopia from Italian forces (1941), as quoted in Ambrosia and Small Beer (1964) by Edward Marsh. This makes a play on Churchill's 1941 statement to the U.S. "Give us the tools, and we will finish the job".
BBC radio broadcast, February 9, 1941. In The Churchill War Papers : 1941 (1993), ed. Gilbert, W.W. Norton, pp. 199–200
The Second World War (1939–1945)
Context: Here is the answer which I will give to President Roosevelt: Put your confidence in us. … We shall not fail or falter; we shall not weaken or tire. Neither the sudden shock of battle, nor the long-drawn trials of vigilance and exertion will wear us down. Give us the tools and we will finish the job.
Report on the Activities of the Council of People’s Commissars (24 January 1918); Collected Works, Vol. 26, pp. 459-61.
1910s
“What shall we do, what shall we do with all this useless beauty?”
All This Useless Beauty
Song lyrics, All This Useless Beauty (1996)
“You have a moral obligation to finish the job you said you would do.”
Quoted by Allison Glock, GQ, "Twenty-one Reasons to Dig Viggo Mortensen" (November 1, 2003).
“What shall we do
after we learn what we'll do:
that is the question.”
Poems, Shadow of Time (2005)
"A Fanfare for Prometheus" (29 January 1955).
Extra-judicial writings
“We become what we behold. We shape our tools, and thereafter our tools shape us.”
Speech to his army officers (23 March 1649)
“We shall be judged by what we do, not by how we felt while we were doing it.”
Review of Altona, by Jean-Paul Sartre (1961), p. 97
Tynan Right and Left (1967)
“We shall be judged more by what we do at home than by what we preach abroad.”
1963, Third State of the Union Address
Context: These are not domestic concerns alone. For upon our achievement of greater vitality and strength here at home hang our fate and future in the world: our ability to sustain and supply the security of free men and nations, our ability to command their respect for our leadership, our ability to expand our trade without threat to our balance of payments, and our ability to adjust to the changing demands of cold war competition and challenge. We shall be judged more by what we do at home than by what we preach abroad. Nothing we could do to help the developing countries would help them half as much as a booming U. S. economy. And nothing our opponents could do to encourage their own ambitions would encourage them half as much as a chronic lagging U. S. economy. These domestic tasks do not divert energy from our security — they provide the very foundation for freedom's survival and success.
