The Second World War, Volume I : The Gathering Storm (1948) Chapter 17 (The Tragedy of Munich), p .287 http://books.google.de/books?id=HzlT3t05OHoC&pg=PA287&dq=churchill+the+gathering+storm+have+been+averted+by+patience+and+persisting+good+will!&hl=de&sa=X&ei=1355T-39C4jHsgb0t-mWBA&ved=0CDIQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false
Post-war years (1945–1955)
Context: Those who are prone, by temperament and character, to seek sharp and clear-cut solutions of difficult and obscure problems, who are ready to fight whenever some challenge comes from a foreign power, have not always been right. On the other hand, those whose inclination is to bow their heads, to seek patiently and faithfully for peaceful compromise, are not always wrong. On the contrary, in the majority of instances they may be right, not only morally, but from a practical standpoint. How many wars have been averted by patience and persisting good will! Religion and virtue alike lend their sanctions to meekness and humility, not only between men but between nations. How many wars have been precipitated by firebrands! How many misunderstandings which led to wars could have been removed by temporizing! How often have countries fought cruel wars and then after a few years found themselves not only friends but allies!
“How many realms since Troy have been o'erthrown?
How many nations captive led? How oft
Has Fortune up and down throughout the world
Changed slavery for dominion?”
Book I, line 506, as reported in Dictionary of Quotations (classical) (1897) by T. B. Harbottle, p. 248.
Astronomica
Original
Quot post excidium Trojae sunt eruta regna? Quot capti populi? quoties Fortuna per orbem Servitium imperiumque tulit, varieque revertit?
Help us to complete the source, original and additional information
Marcus Manilius 18
Roman writerRelated quotes
The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci (1883), XIX Philosophical Maxims. Morals. Polemics and Speculations.
If I Should Die Tonight.
Song lyrics, Let's Get It On (1973)
In questo mondo, quante cose sonc e non sembrano! e quante poi sembrano e non sono!
La Scomessa, Act I., Sc. III. — (Il Marchese.). Translation reported in Harbottle's Dictionary of quotations French and Italian (1904), p. 325.
Message to the Tricontinental (1967)
An Appeal to the Young (1880)
Context: More than a century has passed since science laid down sound propositions as to the origins of the universe, but how many have mastered them or possess the really scientific spirit of criticism? A few thousands at the outside, who are lost in the midst of hundreds of millions still steeped in prejudices and superstitions worthy of savages, who are consequently ever ready to serve as puppets for religious impostors.
“How many honest words have suffered corruption since Chaucer’s days!”
No Wit, no Help, like a Woman's (1611), Act ii. Sc. 1.
Sí che vegga il mondo, quando la fortuna vuol torre a 'ssassinare uno uomo, quante diverse vie la piglia.
Autobiography, vol. 1, ch. 113; translation from Benvenuto Cellini (trans. Julia Conaway Bondanella and Peter Bondanella) My Life (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002) p. 196.