Editing Winston Churchill (section)

==="A man of destiny"===
[[File:Winston Churchill, Parliament Square, London (cropped).jpg|thumb|upright|The [[Statue of Winston Churchill, Parliament Square|statue of Churchill]] (1973) by [[Ivor Roberts-Jones]] in [[Parliament Square]], London]]

Jenkins concludes his biography of Churchill by comparing him favourably with [[William Gladstone]] and summarising:{{sfn|Jenkins|2001|p=912}}

{{blockquote|I now put Churchill, with all his idiosyncrasies, his indulgences, his occasional childishness, but also his genius, his tenacity and his persistent ability, right or wrong, successful or unsuccessful, to be larger than life, as the greatest human being ever to occupy 10 Downing Street.}}

Churchill always self-confidently believed himself to be "a man of destiny".{{sfn|Jenkins|2001|p=3}} Because of this he lacked restraint and could be reckless.{{sfn|Addison|1980|pp=25, 29, 36}}{{sfn|Jenkins|2001|pp=3, 22, 24, 60}} His self-belief manifested in his "affinity with war" of which, according to [[Sebastian Haffner]], he exhibited "a profound and innate understanding".{{sfn|Haffner|2003|p=19}} Churchill considered himself a military genius, but that made him vulnerable to failure and [[Paul Addison]] says the Gallipoli disaster was "the greatest blow his self-image was ever to sustain".{{sfn|Addison|1980|p=36}} Jenkins points out, that although Churchill was exhilarated by war, he was never indifferent to the suffering it causes.{{sfn|Jenkins|2001|p=213}}