Peter Turnham > Quotes

“The only people who want to re-run the race are the people who are not standing in the winners' enclosure.”
― Peter Turnham, Autumn Daffodils - Charlie's Story

“think I can say with some experience that affairs of the heart are not rational decisions.”
― Peter Turnham, Autumn Daffodils - Charlie's Story

“I say that, in the long years to come, not only will the people of this island but of the world, wherever the bird of freedom chirps in human hearts, look back to what we’ve done and they will say “do not despair, do not yield to violence and tyranny, march straight forward and die if need be - unconquered.”
― Peter Turnham, Parallel Lives: A Story of the Greatest Generation, and a Love affair that transcends the ages.

“The Nazis,” Edward said, “had a term for it, ‘Lebensunwertes Leben’. It means ‘life unworthy of life’. We faced an enemy led by a cabal of people whose perverted morality had deviated so far from any accepted norm, that it was unrecognisable to civilised humanity. The irony of their unspeakable depravity was that in holding up a mirror against the tide of humanity, what they perceived as unworthy of life was their own reflection. Perhaps what terrifies me the most was the fact that the evil they espoused became accepted by so many. I would remind you of Voltaire. ‘Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities’. “That’s a terrifying indictment of humankind, Edward.” “It is, and it’s why we have to remain vigilant with our politicians and leaders. It all starts with the first untruth. Get the masses to believe that and the following lies sound more credible. The next thing that happens is that ‘truth’ is portrayed as the enemy of the people.”
― Peter Turnham, None Stood Taller - The Final Year

“I’ll tell you why, it’s the damned Russians.”
― Peter Turnham, None Stood Taller - The Complete Box Set: One of greatest love stories of World War Two

“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing,”
― Peter Turnham, None Stood Taller - The Final Year

“A nation of people stepped into the future as the ‘greatest generation’. If we are worthy of that accolade, then it is because we as a generation retain the memory of the worst disaster the world has ever seen. We know what future generations can never know. We know that democracy is the voice of the people. We know that those seeking to circumvent democracy do so for their own ends, not ours. Above all, we know that those who seek to impose their will are those who will wage war. Humanity’s greatest tragedy is that the wisdom of the ages dies with each generation. There will be another war generation, and they will see what we have seen. They will see the gradual decline of their democracy. They will see the power slipping through their fingers and into the hands of the new self-proclaimed saviour.”
― Peter Turnham, Parallel Lives: A Story of the Greatest Generation, and a Love affair that transcends the ages.

“When the race is over, the only people who would like it re-run are those who're not standing in the winners' enclosure.”
― Peter Turnham, Autumn Daffodils - Charlie's Story

“significant”
― Peter Turnham, None Stood Taller

“War, by its very nature, could be defined as a dispute resolved by killing each other. It is probably spurious to consider some acts of killing as being more honourable than others, more creditworthy. All those in combat who have ‘right’ on their side consider they are fighting from a position on the moral high ground. Paradoxically, each side in a conflict prays to its own God and assumes that the moral high ground is theirs. We debated the point in Hut 3. Our conclusion was that we didn't start the war, and the Nazis had shown themselves to be morally bankrupt. Of course, the moral high ground was ours.”
― Peter Turnham, None Stood Taller - The Complete Box Set: One of greatest love stories of World War Two

“it’s impossible to see your toes when your head is enveloped in a black cloud.”
― Peter Turnham, None Stood Taller - The Price of Freedom

“Gossip is like a stray dog - you never know if it might bite you.”
― Peter Turnham

“Hitler’s aim was to bomb us into submission, killing so many innocent men, women, and children that we would lose the will to resist. They have sown the wind, Lily, and now they must reap the whirlwind.”
― Peter Turnham, None Stood Taller - The Complete Box Set: One of greatest love stories of World War Two

“Grief”
― Peter Turnham, Parallel Lives: A Story of the Greatest Generation, and a Love affair that transcends the ages.

“closely guarded secret in this country's military history. The function of SOE is to help facilitate that invasion and contribute towards its success.” It was quite a rousing little speech, and we all responded with a cheer of approval. I realised I hadn’t reasoned it through before. I thought agents worked individually to cause disruption and hinder the German war machine. I didn’t realise we were to be part of a coordinated invasion of Europe. Quite what my role might be, I hadn’t worked out yet. I suspect if I’d seriously thought about it, my confidence would have been dented enormously. Everything we had learned so far required fluent French, and try as I might, that was not going to be me. In the afternoon, we moved back outside again and quickly found ourselves standing in the firing range. Here we were introduced to weapons and explosives. If I tried to imagine a weapons expert, he wouldn’t have looked remotely like the instructor who met us. A grey-haired bespectacled man in his late fifties greeted us with a warm smile and a kind word. His soft voice belied the fact that anything he didn’t know about weapons, was not something worth knowing. He introduced us to the MK II Sten Gun. “Should any of you find yourself in a serious confrontation with the enemy, this is your weapon of choice. This is the MK II Sten Gun. This is a submachine gun, it fires a 9mm cartridge, and in the right hands it can fire 500 rounds a minute. As you can see, it is not a sophisticated weapon; it comes with many advantages as well as some disadvantages. Its light, compact design combined with the folding stock, make it ideal for subversive activities. It is also very cheap to produce, this”
― Peter Turnham, None Stood Taller - The Price of Freedom