Winston Churchill, considered one of the most powerful orators in history, considered rhetoric to be his most valuable weapon. But biographer Norman Rose noted that he had a tendency to brandish it recklessly, employing artificial and extravagant language which was carefully designed to impress and to persuade. During his rise to fame as a politician, the twenty-three-year-old Churchill wrote: It is quite true. I do not care so much for the principles I advocate as for the impression which my words