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“It has been a damned nice thing – the nearest run thing you ever saw in your life”. The Duke of Wellington describing the Battle of Waterloo, 1815

Reactions to EU Referendum Result

William Blake, illustration to Jerusalem The Emanation of the Giant Albion Plate 51. Collection of National Gallery of Victoria.

“There are seasons in every country when noise and impudence pass current for worth; and in popular commotions especially, the clamors of interested and factious men are often mistaken for patriotism.” Alexander Hamilton (Founding Father and First Secretary of the Treasury, USA, 1789 / Mr Showbiz multi-award winner 2016)

“The destiny of man is not measured by material computations.” Winston Churchill

“I am grieved at what you tell me,” said Pellinore, “but I believe that God can change destiny. I must have faith in that.”
John Steinbeck, The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights, 1976

“…the spells of Merlin and the prowess of Arthur, or the victorious career of Aurelius Ambrosius, although they delayed and in part avenged, yet could not prevent the downfall of their people.”
John Mitchell Kemble, The Saxons in England, 1849

The Once and Future King, Arthur, now fast asleep, hasn’t woken up in time to save us from ourselves – yet. Christian Heroes Tapestry, c. 1385. Image: Wikipedia

“The voice of the people has been said to be the voice of God; and, however generally this maxim has been quoted and believed, it is not true to fact. The people are turbulent and changing, they seldom judge or determine right.”
Alexander Hamilton

“There was a moment in the sixth century when something that is always trying to break through into this country nearly succeeded…Britain is always haunted by something we may call Logres [the kingdom of Arthur]. Haven’t you noticed that we are two countries? After every Arthur, a Mordred; behind every Milton, a Cromwell; a nation of poets, a nation of shopkeepers. Is it any wonder they call us hypocrites? But what they mistake for hypocrisy is really the struggle between Logres and Britain.”
C.S. Lewis, That Hideous Strength, 1946

“Men often oppose a thing merely because they have had no agency in planning it, or because it may have been planned by those whom they dislike.”
Alexander Hamilton

“The world is turned upside down” English Civil War ballad, 1646

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