Peter Apps > Quotes

“On one occasion, the brigade commander was visiting the forward trenches when he complained about some flaw he perceived. The conditions would not do at all, he told Churchill somewhat petulantly—they were dangerous. Churchill did not miss a beat. “But you see, sir,” he replied as politely as he could, “it is a most dangerous war.”
― Peter Apps, Churchill in the Trenches

“Churchill privately expressed his doubts about the Prime Minister. In particular, he wrote, he worried over Asquith’s nighttime drinking.”
― Peter Apps, Churchill in the Trenches

“isolation of Uíge—might go some way to explain why the Angola Marburg outbreak failed to achieve what Ebola now has, the jump”
― Peter Apps, Before Ebola: Dispatches from a Deadly Outbreak

“Any person who doesn’t clearly understand that national security and national solvency are mutually dependent, and that permanent maintenance of a crushing weight of military power would eventually produce dictatorship, should not be entrusted with any kind of responsibility in our country.”
― Peter Apps, Deterring Armageddon: A Biography of NATO: the "astonishingly fine history" of the world's most successful military alliance

“His pay was £150 a month—rising to £300 in India—but he needed another £500 to keep himself living in the “style of the regiment.”
― Peter Apps, Churchill in the Trenches

“War is a game played with a smile,” he said repeatedly. “If you can’t smile, grin. If you can’t grin, stay out of the way until you can.”
― Peter Apps, Churchill in the Trenches

“The prime minister’s daughter, Violet Asquith—now Violet Bonham-Carter after marriage—later”
― Peter Apps, Churchill in the Trenches

“Zanzibar Chest,”
― Peter Apps, Before Ebola: Dispatches from a Deadly Outbreak

“The political fallout was devastating, not least because of the lurid reporting of young Australian journalist Keith Murdoch, father of modern media titan Rupert.”
― Peter Apps, Churchill in the Trenches

“There is no greater probability of war today than it was two years ago . . . We can only say that properly balanced strength will promote the possibility of avoiding war. In this sense, we need the strength soon – but it must be balanced between moral power, economic power and pure military power.”
― Peter Apps, Deterring Armageddon: A Biography of NATO: the "astonishingly fine history" of the world's most successful military alliance

“Any fool can be uncomfortable,” an old British Army saying goes. “But a good soldier can make himself comfortable under any condition.”
― Peter Apps, Churchill in the Trenches

“After decades of war and months of virus-fueled isolation, the people of Uíge did not waste energy.”
― Peter Apps, Before Ebola: Dispatches from a Deadly Outbreak

“A stable and prosperous Germany, he believed, was the best guarantor of a lasting peace.”
― Peter Apps, Churchill in the Trenches