Contrast

«Sixty years this week since the death of Hitler, it is interesting to consider parallel lives. In April 1945 the future Pope Benedict XVI, just 18, had deserted from the German army and was captured by the Americans. Before he left home with his captors he grabbed a notebook and a pencil, and spent a good part of his six weeks of captivity composing Greek hexameters. On the same day that Hitler shot himself (30 April), Winston Churchill was at Chequers spending most of the day, has he often did, in bed. Absorbed in his reading, he did not notice that his cigar had set fire to his secretary, 'great puffs of smoke were rising'. An official said, 'You're on fire, Sir. May I put you out?' 'Yes, do,' Churchill replied. I find this a satisfying contrast between the two national leaders.»

- Charles Moore, The Spectator

[Paulo Ferreira]