Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations. 1989.
NUMBER:
1277
AUTHOR:
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (1874–1965)
QUOTATION:
One woman who managed to corner him, the story runs, said in a treacly gushing voice:
“Doesn’t it thrill you, Mr. Churchill, to know that every time you make a speech the hall is packed to overflowing?”
“It is quite flattering,” Mr. Churchill replied, “but whenever I feel this way I always remember that if instead of making a political speech I was being hanged, the crowd would be twice as big.”
ATTRIBUTION:
WINSTON CHURCHILL, remark on a transatlantic tour.—Norman McGowan, My Years with Churchill, p. 138 (1958).
