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===History=== * In a speech to the [[House of Commons of the United Kingdom|House of Commons]] on 9 September 1941, [[Winston Churchill]] paraphrased the last two lines of the poem, stating "We are still masters of our fate. We still are captains of our souls."<ref>[http://www.winstonchurchill.org/resources/quotations/famous-quotations-and-stories "Famous Quotations and Stories"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151016074736/http://www.winstonchurchill.org/resources/quotations/famous-quotations-and-stories |date=2015-10-16 }}. Winston Churchill.org.</ref> * [[Nelson Mandela]], while incarcerated at [[Maximum Security Prison, Robben Island|Robben Island prison]], recited the poem to other prisoners and was empowered by its message of self-mastery.<ref>{{Cite news | title = Nelson Mandela: a very short introduction | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=2EFHq0C1LSAC&pg=PA157 | publisher = Oxford University Press | quote = ''Invictus, taken on its own, Mandela clearly found his Victorian ethic of self-mastery'' | first=Elleke | last=Boehmer | year=2008|isbn = 9780192803016}}</ref><ref>Daniels, Eddie (1998) ''There and back''</ref> * Former [[State Counsellor of Myanmar]] and [[Nobel Peace Prize|Nobel Peace]] laureate<ref>Independent, 8/30/17</ref> [[Aung San Suu Kyi]] stated: "This poem had inspired my father, Aung San, and his contemporaries during the independence struggle, as it also seemed to have inspired freedom fighters in other places at other times."<ref>Aung San Suu Kyi. 2011. "[http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/rmhttp/radio4/transcripts/2011_reith1.pdf Securing Freedom] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305014348/http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/rmhttp/radio4/transcripts/2011_reith1.pdf |date=2016-03-05 }}" (lecture transcript). ''[[Reith Lectures]]'', Lecture 1: Liberty. UK [[BBC Radio 4]].</ref> * The poem was read by [[U.S. prisoners of war during the Vietnam War]]. [[James Stockdale]] recalls being passed the last stanza, written with rat droppings on toilet paper, from fellow prisoner David Hatcher.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Stockdale|first1=James|title=Courage Under Fire: Testing Epictetus's Doctrines in a Laboratory of Human Behavior|url=http://media.hoover.org/sites/default/files/documents/StockdaleCourage.pdf|website=Hoover Institution, Stanford|date=1993|access-date=2014-12-31|archive-date=2020-10-19|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201019024408/https://media.hoover.org/sites/default/files/documents/StockdaleCourage.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref> * The phrase "bloody, but unbowed" was the headline used by the ''[[Daily Mirror]]'' on the day after the [[7 July 2005 London bombings]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/|title=UK News|website=mirror|access-date=2021-07-17|archive-date=2023-10-14|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231014073346/https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/|url-status=live}}</ref> * The poem's last stanza was quoted by U.S. President [[Barack Obama]] at the end of his speech at the memorial service of Nelson Mandela in South Africa (10 December 2013), and published on the front cover of the 14 December 2013 issue of ''[[The Economist]]''.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.economist.com/printedition/2013-12-14|access-date=10 January 2014|title=The Economist Dec 14th, 2013|newspaper=[[The Economist]]|archive-date=2014-01-09|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140109214801/http://www.economist.com/printedition/2013-12-14|url-status=live}}</ref> * The poem was chosen by [[Oklahoma City bombing|Oklahoma City bomber]] [[Timothy McVeigh]] as his final statement before his execution.<ref>{{cite news|title=Execution of an American Terrorist|work=Court TV|last=Quayle|first=Catherine|date=June 11, 2001|url=http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/law/12/17/court.archive.mcveigh5/index.html#cnnSTCText|access-date=February 6, 2012|archive-date=December 1, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141201205136/http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/law/12/17/court.archive.mcveigh5/index.html#cnnSTCText|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Timothy McVeigh Put to Death for Oklahoma City Bombings|work=FOX News|last=Cosby|first=Rita|date=June 12, 2001|url=https://www.foxnews.com/story/timothy-mcveigh-put-to-death-for-oklahoma-city-bombings|access-date=April 15, 2008|archive-date=April 13, 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080413215719/http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,26904,00.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last= |first= |date=2001-06-11 |title=McVeigh's final statement |url=http://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/jun/11/mcveigh.usa1 |access-date=2022-11-16 |website=the Guardian |language=en}}</ref> * The perpetrator of the [[Christchurch mosque shootings]] in New Zealand in 2019 cited "Invictus"''.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Kornhaber |first=Spencer |date=2019-03-16 |title=When Poems of Resilience Get Twisted for Terrorism |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2019/03/new-zealand-shooting-manifesto-poems-dylan-thomas/585079/ |access-date=2022-11-16 |website=The Atlantic |language=en |archive-date=2022-11-21 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221121100354/https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2019/03/new-zealand-shooting-manifesto-poems-dylan-thomas/585079/ |url-status=live }}</ref>'' * According to his sister, before becoming a civil rights leader, Congressman [[John Lewis]] used to recite the poem as a teenager and continued to refer to it for inspiration throughout his life.<ref>"[https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/07/18/invictus-was-among-john-lewiss-favorite-poems-it-captures-his-indomitable-spirit/?hpid=hp_save-opinions-float-right-4-0_opinion-card-d-right%3Ahomepage%2Fstory-ans ‘Invictus’ was among John Lewis’s favorite poems. It captures his indomitable spirit.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200718224314/https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/07/18/invictus-was-among-john-lewiss-favorite-poems-it-captures-his-indomitable-spirit/?hpid=hp_save-opinions-float-right-4-0_opinion-card-d-right:homepage/story-ans |date=2020-07-18 }}." ''The Washington Post''. 17 July 2020.</ref> * Verse "Out of the night that covers me" and phrases "Bloody, but unbowed" and "Captain of my soul" are used as titles of all three parts of [[Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex|Prince Harry's]] memoir [[Spare (memoir)|''Spare'']] (published in 2023). The poem is also mentioned as the author reminisces his involvement in the [[Invictus Games]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Duke of Sussex |first=Prince Harry |title=Spare |publisher=[[Penguin Random House]] |year=2023 |isbn=9780593593806}}</ref>
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