QuotesCosmos
Speech to the annual dinner of the Royal Institute of International Affairs (21 June 1938), quoted in The Times (22 June 1938), p. 18
“

[A] great mistake would be made abroad if it was ever thought that our domestic controversies upon the day-to-day conduct of foreign policy would in the least degree affect the primary instinct of our people to stand solidly together in any real emergency. Both our history and our character had given us a sense of community which, while enabling us to face facts and make peaceful changes, protected us from being revolutionary.

— Edward Wood, 1st Earl of Halifax

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "[A] great mistake would be made abroad if it was ever thought that our domestic controversies upon the day-to-day conduct of foreign policy would in the least degree affect the primary instinct of our people to stand solidly together in any real emergency. Both our history and our character had given us a sense of community which, while enabling us to face facts and make peaceful changes, protected us from being revolutionary." in the context of "Speech to the annual dinner of the Royal Institute of International Affairs (21 June 1938), quoted in The Times (22 June 1938), p. 18" to mean that wisdom is timeless.

Source: Wikiquote: "Edward Wood, 1st Earl of Halifax" (Quotes, Foreign Secretary) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app

Tags

#Edward Wood, 1st Earl of Halifax#controversies#revolutionary#emergency#character#community#protected#domestic#daytoday#instinct#together#enabling

About Edward Wood, 1st Earl of Halifax

Edward Frederick Lindley Wood, 1st Earl of Halifax (16 April 1881 – 23 December 1959), known as The Lord Irwin from 1925 until 1934 and as The Viscount Halifax from 1934 until 1944, was a British Conservative politician. He is usually considered as one of the architects of appeasement before World War II. During the period, he held several ministerial posts in the cabinet, including Foreign Secretary at the time of the Munich crisis in 1938. He later was dismissed by Prime Minister Winston Churchill in 1940 when he expressed support for a negotiated settlement with Nazi Germany, although he was then appointed British Ambassador to the United States. He succeeded Lord Reading as Viceroy of India in April 1926, a post he held until 1931. In this role he held negotiations on constitutional reforms to the British Raj with the Indian National Congress under Mohandas Gandhi.