It is a socialist idea that making profits is a vice; I consider the real vice is making losses.
The United States invariably does the right thing, after having exhausted every other alternative.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote emphasizes the tendency to choose the right path only after exploring all other options, often through trial and error.
Winston Churchill's quote reflects the idea that while the United States may ultimately reach decisions that align with moral righteousness or practicality, it often does so only after navigating through a series of less optimal choices. This suggests a process of learning through experience and the importance of perseverance in finding the best solution, acknowledging that the journey to correctness can be fraught with mistakes and misjudgments.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion on policy-making, this quote could serve to illustrate the importance of thorough analysis before arriving at a conclusion.
More from Winston Churchill
All quotes βThe United States is like a gigantic boiler. Once the fire is lit under it, there's no limit to the power it can generate.
Politics is almost as exciting as war, and quite as dangerous. In war you can only be killed once, but in politics many times.
I will not pretend that if I had to choose between communism and Nazism I would choose communism.
Mountaintops inspire leaders but valleys mature them.
True genius resides in the capacity for evaluation of uncertain, hazardous, and conflicting information.
Similar quotes
Thought is the blossom; language the bud; action the fruit behind it.
It is good to taste for yourself everything you need to know. That worldly pleasures and wealth are not good things, I learned even as a child. I knew it for a long time, but only now have I experienced it.
I can teach anybody how to get what they want out of life. The problem is that I can't find anybody who can tell me what they want.
One thing that makes it possible to be an optimist is if you have a contingency plan for when all hell breaks loose.
But the upside of painful knowledge is so much greater than the downside of blissful ignorance.
The Warrior remembers the past.