3 August: Stanley Baldwin Quotes

Former Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin was born on this date in 1867. Here are 10 things he said:

1. I would rather trust a woman's instinct than a man's reason.

2. I am one of those who would rather sink with faith than swim without it.

3. The world was never more unsafe for democracy than it is today.

4. Whether we like it or not we are considerably bound to Europe.

5. A platitude is simply a truth repeated till people get tired of hearing it.

6. The attainment of an ideal is often the beginning of a disillusion.

7. The only defence is offence, which means that you have to kill more women and children more quickly than the enemy if you wish to save yourselves.

8. Dictatorship is like a giant beech-tree – very magnificent to look at in its prime, but nothing grows underneath it.

9. I wish for many reasons flying had never been invented.

10. You will find in politics that you are much exposed to the attribution of false motive. Never complain and never explain.

Character birthday

Thunderstrike. A soldier from Innovia, thought to have been despatched to Bird Island to help deal with protests against a nuclear test. He was pulled through the wormhole which formed as a result of the test and landed on Earth.

He chose not to join those who banded together to join the Earth Guard, possibly because some of them were the protesters he'd been sent to fight against, and he had killed or injured some of their colleagues.

He believed his re-location to Earth was for a purpose; that the Infinitan gods had given him a chance to right the wrongs he'd committed during the protests and that he must make full amends before accepting any help or companionship from the Earth Guard. He wears power armour which makes him strong, enables him to fly and see in the dark.