Blood, Tears & Sweat To Offer - Sir Winston Churchill - TOI 19.08.2007

Blood, tears & sweat to offer

Noted orator, politician and writer, Winston Churchill was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 and again from 1951 to 1955. This was his first speech to the British Parliament where he prepares the nation for a protracted war against Nazi aggression.


I say to the House as I said to ministers who have joined this government, I have noth ing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat We have before us an ordeal of the most griev ous kind. We have before us many, many months of struggle and suffering.

You ask, what is our policy? I say it is to wage war by land, sea, and air. War with all our might and with all the strength God has given us, and to wage war against a monstrous tyranny never surpassed in the dark and lamentable catalogue of human crime. That is our policy.

You ask, what is our aim?

I can answer in one word. It is victory. Victory at all costs. Victory in spite of all terrors. Victory, however long and hard the road may be, for without victory there is no survival. Let that be realised. No survival for the British Empire, no survival for all that the British Empire has stood for, no survival for the urge, the impulse of the ages, that mankind shall move forward toward his goal. I take up my task in buoyancy and hope. I feel sure that our cause will not be suffered to fail among men. I feel en titled at this juncture, at this time, to claim the aid of all and to say, “Come then, let us go forward together with our united strength.