Winston Churchill Square

Winston Churchill is an American! An honorary one, but the first of three people ever to be made honorary citizens of the United States. He actually was half-American. In a page from Downton Abbey, his father was the Lord Churchill of the Dukes of Marlborough. But his mother was the Brooklyn-ite Jenny Jerome. Jerome Avenue is named for her father. So, we honor Winston Spencer Churchill here in NYC, in Greenwich Village, in a tiny quiet little grove on Bleecker Street (it sits on Downing Street proper, but most people access it from Bleecker) that is a scant .05 acres of shady paradise.

Churchill had a contentious but hysterical relationship with NYC society. His wit was often aimed at them, if not elsewhere. Here are some of my favorite barbs and delicious bites:

Bessie Braddock: “Sir, you are drunk.” 
Churchill: “Madam, you are ugly. In the morning, I shall be sober.”

Nancy Astor: “Sir, if you were my husband, I would give you poison.”
Churchill: “If I were your husband I would take it.”

A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.

Once in a while you will stumble upon the truth but most of us manage to pick ourselves up and hurry along as if nothing had happened.

If you are going to go through hell, keep going.

It is a good thing for an uneducated man to read books of quotations.

You have enemies? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.

You can always count on Americans to do the right thing—after they’ve tried everything else.

History will be kind to me for I intend to write it.

The farther backward you can look, the farther forward you are likely to see.

A sheep in sheep’s clothing. (On Clement Atlee)

A modest man, who has much to be modest about. (On Clement Atlee)

I am ready to meet my Maker. Whether my Maker is prepared for the ordeal of meeting me is another matter.

A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.

To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.

Solitary trees, if they grow at all, grow strong.

Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.

The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.

Everyone has his day and some days last longer than others.

The whole history of the world is summed up in the fact that, when nations are strong, they are not always just, and when they wish to be just, they are no longer strong.

If Hitler invaded hell I would make at least a favorable reference to the devil in the House of Commons.