Choose one of the following quotes from Winston Churchill and respond to the prompt that follows it.
On Painting
“Every day you may make progress. Every step may be fruitful. Yet there will stretch out before you an ever - lengthening, ever - ascending, ever - improving path. You know you will never get to the end of the journey. But this, so far from discouraging, only adds to the joy and glory of the climb.”
~Winston Churchill, “Painting as a Pastime,” Thoughts and Adventures
What is the value of attempting difficult tasks, particularly when there is a possibility that “you will never get to the end”? Support your ideas with personal experiences, observations, readings, and/or history.
On Change
“There is nothing wrong in change, if it is in the right direction. To improve is to change, so to be perfect is to change often.”
~Winston S. Churchill, 23 June 1925, House of Commons
Although it is likely that Winston Churchill made this statement tongue-in-cheek, one may readily find support for both change “in the right direction” and change that is detrimental. From experience or from your studies, write about one change that is or was viewed differently by different generations.
On Public Opinion
“Perhaps we are biased, but everyone realizes how far scientific knowledge has outstripped human virtue. We all hope that men are better, wiser, more merciful than they were 10,000 years ago. There is certainly a great atmosphere of comprehension. There is a growing factor which one may call world public opinion, most powerful, most persuasive….”
~ Winston S. Churchill, 7 November 1945
This statement is probably truer today than Churchill could have imagined in 1945. Does public opinion have the ability to make us more, or make us less, virtuous? Write a carefully reasoned response defending, challenging, or qualifying the relative value of public opinion. Explain using evidence from your reading, observation, and/or experience.
Adapted from http://www.winstonchurchill.org/images/pdfs/for_educators/Argumentation_Prompts_4.pdf
