Michael Dobbs Quotes

A prime minister can chose his friends and his Cabinet but not his relatives. Part Chairman Lord Williams

Communism was not defeated by any one individual or even a combination of individuals. In the last resort communism defeated itself.

Loyalty is like the Doctrine of Celibacy - easy to proclaim but damned difficult to live by.

This will not be easy,' he said. 'Neither is failure.

The higher up the tree a cat climbs, the farther it will fall. It's the same for politicians, except politicians don't bounce.

Tell me, McFadden, what do you think of our beloved Mr. Chamberlain? Mac didn't care for such direct questions. All his adult life had been spent in the mentality of the gulag, never openly complaining, always seeming to conform, never risking a row. Perhaps that's why he had agreed to marry, not so much to avoid disappointing the lady but more because it was the simplest way to fit into the flow of things.

The time for change is when it can no longer be resisted. In other words, when you have a man by the balls and are pulling hard, he will invariably follow in your footsteps.

Politics requires sacrifice. The sacrifice of others, of course.

What value can we place on our parliamentary institutions if constituencies return only tame, docile and subservient members who try to stamp on every form of independent judgement?

JFK's great virtue, and the essential difference between him and George W. Bush, was that he had an instinctive appreciation for the chaotic forces of history.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Truth lies in the hands of its editor.

There is no need to outrun the lion. All that is necessary for a man to do in order to survive is to outrun his friends.

Politicians are much like aging authors and older women. The dangerous phase in their lives is when they are no longer content with the respect of friends but demand the adulation of an audience.

Politics. The word is taken from the Ancient Greek. "Poly" means "many." And ticks are tiny, bloodsucking insects.

Cruelty of any kind is unforgivable . That's why there is no point at all in being creek in half-measure.

And even if fairies built a nest in the bottom of my garden and it should turn out that I have to live for a thousand years, there's not one of them when I'll be of a mind to trust you.

Why waste a life in search of an epitaph? 'Fondly Remembered'. Who other than a halfwit has that chiselled above his head?

You might very well think that - I couldn't possibly comment.

Silk handkerchief that erupted out of the breast pocket, an affectation he had adopted to distance himself from the Westminster hordes in their banal Christmas-stocking ties and Marks & Spencer suits.

The design is based on the old St. Stephen's Chapel, where the earliest parliamentarians sat, like choirboys in facing pews, yet there is little that is angelic in the modern set-up. Members face each other in confrontation, as antagonists. They are separated by two red lines on the carpet, whose distance apart represents the distance of two sword lengths, yet this is misleading, for the most imminent danger is never more than a dagger's distance away, on the benches behind.

In extraordinary circumstances and against the odds, Churchill became Prime Minister instead of Halifax, and that one decision changed the course of history.

All members of a Cabinet are referred to as Right. Honorable Gentlemen. There are only three things wrong with such a title ...

Neither does the British Empire for which Churchill fought with all his heart. And no one believes what they read in the newspapers any more.

For some it is the end of the rope. For others it is only the beginning.

You might think that, I could not possibly comment

These days there was little room left in Hal's life for his younger brother, and Charlie felt - what did he feel, deep down, when he allowed himself to be honest? Angry, stinking bloody one-bottle-a-time furious - not with Hal, of course, but with life. It hadn't worked out for him, and he didn't understand why.

I'm an Englishman, after all,

Democracy is like a great play. It lasts more than one act. You must be patient,