Penmanship was where Churchill excelled; after all it was as a writer that he first made his name and subsequently earned his living. Don’t forget this was a man who won the Nobel Prize for Literature, becoming a millionaire entirely through the application of his pen, coining such lasting phrases as:
“A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.”
“History will be kind to me for I intend to write it.”
“Man will occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of the time he will pick himself up and continue on.”
“There is no such thing as public opinion. There is only published opinion.”
“You can always count on Americans to do the right thing - after they've tried everything else. “
“You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life.”
Yet, as they say, practice makes perfect and as can be seen in these three wickedly funny comebacks, Churchill developed into a skilled adherent of the l’esprit d’escalier:
[George Bernard Shaw] I am reserving two tickets for you for my premiere. Come and bring a friend - if you have one.
[Churchill] Impossible to be present for the first performance. Will attend the second - if there is one.
[Nancy Astor] Churchill, you're drunk.
[Churchill] And you're ugly. In the morning, I shall be sober, but you’ll still be ugly.
[Nancy Astor] If you were my husband, I would poison your tea.
[Churchill] Madam, if you were my wife, I'd drink it.
Humour and comebacks aside, the lesson to be learned from Churchill is that the only way to become a master of any skill is first to acknowledge it takes practice, practice, practice. Without pain there can be no gain, no victory comes without drudgery. Practice does make perfect.
