"Michel Boucher" > wrote in message
...
> "Farm1" > wrote in
> :
>
>> "Michel Boucher" > wrote in message
>>> George M. Middius > wrote in
>>>> Jim Elbrecht wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> How does that quote go?-- "We have a terrible system of
>>>>> gov't but it is way better than the #2 one."
>>>>
>>>> I think the one about democracy is attributed to Churchill:
>>>> "Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all
>>>> the others."
>>>
>>> More accurately, Churchill is believed by some to have
>>> actually said:
>>>
>>> "It has been said that democracy is the worst form of
>>> government except all the others that have been tried."
>>
>> Actually what Churchill did say according to the "Oxford
>> Dictionary of Quotations" is:
>> 'Democracy is the worst form of government except all those
>> other forms that have been tried from time to time.'
>
> No, and the item you brought forth confirms what I quoted.

OK, if you want to play sematics, I'll play for a while.

>> It is indeed included at that site - page 9 of this:
>> http://www.winstonchurchill.org/imag...ducators/wc%20
>> statesman%20for%20all%20time.pdf
>
> So, to recap, someone (not Churchill) said: 'Democracy is the worst
> form of government except all those other forms that have been
> tried from time to time.'

Someone, did indeed say that and that someone was Churchill. What we don't
know is the source to whom he was referring. We don't know if Churchill was
actually quoting someone else or if the source he was referring to was
himself.

> Churchill quoted it in Europe Unite explicitely prefacing it with
> the words "...it has been said that..."

He said it in the House of Commons on 11 May 1947. See Hansard as cited:
http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/c...arliament-bill

> "Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of
> government except all those other forms that have been tried from
> time to time."
>
> He is clearly saying that it was said in the past by someone other
> than him. He is quoting, and therefore it cannot be attributed to
> him.

Semantics noted. Churchill did however say it. As I have already stated,
we don't know if he is quoting someone and we also don't know if he used it
merely as an add in as a device such as is often used in speeches. I've
done it myself so don't see why someone like Churchill wouldn't have done
so.

>>> There are many quotes which one can say that Churchill wished
>>> he had said, like the "rum, sodomy and the lash" quote or
>>> others erroneously attributed to him like the abominable
>>> "Conservative by the time you're 35".
>>
>> According to Harold Nicholson's diary of 17 August 1950,
>> Churchill supposedly said "Naval Traditions? Monstrous.
>> Nothing but rum, sodomy, prayers and the lash."
>
> You say supposedly, I say not. No doubt he was again quoting and
> they were attributed to him by Nicholson. Wouldn't be the first
> time. The Churchill Museum site says:
>
> ""The only traditions of the Royal Navy are rum, sodomy and the
> lash." - -- Churchill's assistant, Anthony Montague-Browne said
> that although Churchill had not uttered these words, he wished he
> had."

Montague-Brown did not become Churchill's assistant until several years
AFTER Nicholson recorded Churchill's comment in his diary.

You are prepared to bleieve what an assistant says many years after someone
else records a Churchill saying but yet choose to play semantics about what
Churchill is recorded as saying in Hansard.

This is an example of classic usenet.