
“Never have so few owed so much to so many.”
Speech to the National Association of Broadcasters, May 9, 1961 (the Wasteland Speech)
As state president, referring to the ruling National Party House of Assembly, 17 August 1987, as cited in PW Botha in his own words, Pieter-Dirk Uys, 1987, p. 28
“Never have so few owed so much to so many.”
Speech to the National Association of Broadcasters, May 9, 1961 (the Wasteland Speech)
“Never have so many been manipulated so much by so few.”
Source: Brave New World Revisited (1958), Chapter 3 (pp. 19-20)
“Never had so much been surrendered by so many to so few.”
4 Jan 1941 https://winstonchurchill.org/publications/finest-hour/finest-hour-128/churchill-and-the-western-desert-campaign-1940-43/, after Operation Compass and the Italian surrender at Bardia in the Western Desert.
Quoted in B. H. Liddell Hart's A History of the Second World War (Cassell, 1970), p. 117
Prologue, p. 17
Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism (2008)
Context: Britain and the US are not the homes of free trade; in fact, for a long time they were the most protectionist countries in the world. Not all countries have succeeded through protection and subsidies, but few have done so without them. For developing countries, free trade has a rarely been a matter of choice; it was often an imposition from outside, sometimes even through military power. Most of them did very poorly under free trade; they did much better when they used protection and subsidies. The best-performing economies have been those that opened up their economies selectively and gradually. Neo-liberal free-trade free-market policy claims to sacrifice equity for growth, but in fact it achieves neither; growth has slowed down in the past two and a half decades when markets were freed and borders opened.
“Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.”
Speech in the House of Commons, also known as "The Few", made on 20 August 1940. However Churchill first made his comment, "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few" to General Hastings Ismay as they got into their car to leave RAF Uxbridge on 16 August 1940 after monitoring the battle from the Operations Room.
The Second World War (1939–1945)
Context: The gratitude of every home in our Island, in our Empire, and indeed throughout the world, except in the abodes of the guilty, goes out to the British airmen who, undaunted by odds, unwearied in their constant challenge and mortal danger, are turning the tide of the World War by their prowess and by their devotion. Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few. All hearts go out to the fighter pilots, whose brilliant actions we see with our own eyes day after day; but we must never forget that all the time, night after night, month after month, our bomber squadrons travel far into Germany, find their targets in the darkness by the highest navigational skill, aim their attacks, often under the heaviest fire, often with serious loss, with deliberate careful discrimination, and inflict shattering blows upon the whole of the technical and war-making structure of the Nazi power.
Lean Logic, (2016), p. xx, Introduction http://www.flemingpolicycentre.org.uk/lean-logic-surviving-the-future/
“Never before have so many people understood so little about so much.”
Connections (1979), 10 - Yesterday, Tomorrow and You
No More Vietnams (1987).
1980s
Letter to George H. Earle, former governor of Pennsylvania (received 28 February 1947); reported in The New York Times (3 April 1947), p. 17, quoting Earle.
Source: [McCullough, David G., Truman, 2003, Simon & Schuster, 978-0-7432-6029-9, 655, 869432463]