Michael Dobbs Quotes

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

Michael Dobbs

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

Michael Dobbs

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

Michael Dobbs

#4. Morality, Sir, is the monologue of the unexcited and the unexcitable, the revenge of the unsuccessful, the punishment of those who tried and failed, or who never had the courage to try at all.

Michael Dobbs

#5. Loyalty is like instant coffee: it's cheap and ultimately unsatisfying.

Michael Dobbs

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

Michael Dobbs

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

Michael Dobbs

#8. She went up on tiptoes, just so she could look down on him.

Michael Dobbs

#9. Loyalty may be good news, but it is rarely good advice.

Michael Dobbs

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

Michael Dobbs

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

Michael Dobbs

#12. The immediate reactions of the two superpower leaders when confronted with the gravest international crisis of their careers were much the same, shock, wounded pride, grim determination, and barely repressed fear.

Michael Dobbs

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

Michael Dobbs

#14. 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.

Michael Dobbs

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

Michael Dobbs

#16. Since he was much weaker than his enemy, he could afford to display no weakness at all.

Michael Dobbs

#17. Some people come to the edge of the cliff and they look over, then run away in fear. They never realize it's possible to fly, to soar, to be free. They spend their lives crawling along cliff tops without finding the courage.

Michael Dobbs

#18. He talked about the future with such certainty, he might have been talking about the past.

Michael Dobbs

#19. 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.

Michael Dobbs

#20. Nothing lasts, not forever. Not laughter, not lust, not even life itself. Not forever. Which is why we make the most of what we have.

Michael Dobbs

#21. 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.

Michael Dobbs

#22. Why be so bloody miserable when you can pick up a good book or watch a great television drama?

Michael Dobbs

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

Michael Dobbs

#24. 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.

Michael Dobbs

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

Michael Dobbs

#26. His deepest need was that people should like him. An admirable trait that; in a spaniel. Or a whore.

Michael Dobbs

#27. I knew what was waiting out there for me," he said. "Terrifying things. There were German patrol boats, mine fields, and nearly a thousand miles of stormy seas." "So why did you do it?" "Because also waiting for me was the most terrifying and wonderful thing of all. The future.

Michael Dobbs

#28. It seemed scarcely a moment since she had made it back home,

Michael Dobbs

#29. You might think that, I could not possibly comment

Michael Dobbs

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

Michael Dobbs

#31. The nature of ambition is that it requires casualties.

Michael Dobbs

#32. 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.

Michael Dobbs

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

Michael Dobbs

#34. I'm an Englishman, after all,

Michael Dobbs

#35. 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.

Michael Dobbs

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

Michael Dobbs

#37. 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?

Michael Dobbs

#38. 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.

Michael Dobbs

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

Michael Dobbs