Quotes from Michael Dobbs

The nature of ambition is that it requires casualties.

La política requiere sacrificio. El sacrificio de los demás, por supuesto. No importa qué pueda conseguir un hombre sacrificándose por su país, siempre se saca mayor provecho dejando que otros lo hagan primero.

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.

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

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.

No es el respeto, sino el miedo lo que motiva a un hombre; así se construyen imperios y se ponen en marcha revoluciones. Ése es el secreto de los grandes hombres. Cuando un hombre tiene miedo de que lo aplastes, de que lo destruyas por completo, su respeto siempre vendrá detrás. El temor más elemental siempre es embriagador, abrumador, liberador. Siempre es más intenso que el respeto

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

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

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.

You talk about a tide of history. Well, there are some occasions when one man seems to stand his ground and just refuses to accept getting washed away. That's how we arrogant Americans won the New World. And that's how you, Mr Churchill, have saved the Old World. But for you, the whole of Europe would by now be one vast concentration camp. Nobody's ever going to forget that.

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.

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.

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

Why waste a life in search of an epitaph?

This was suburban Surrey, the land of the A and B social classes in the terminology of pollsters, where passports lay at the ready and Range Rovers stood in the driveway. Range Rovers? The only time they ever encountered mud was when being driven carelessly over front lawns late on a Friday night or when dropping off their little Johnnies and Emmas at their private schools.

I am hurt, but I am not slain; I'll lay me down and bleed a-while, And then I'll rise and fight again!

Party conferences can be such fun. They resemble a nest of cuckoos. Sit back and enjoy watching everyone trying to push the others out. The

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.

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?

His answer foreshadowed the rise of a new conservative populism built around the politics of patriotism and social identity rather than economic advantage and class division. "Because, you see, I love my country. And I think my country is in danger.

I'm an Englishman, after all

It seemed scarcely a moment since she had made it back home

Nada dura para siempre. Ni la risa, ni la lujuria, ni siquiera la vida en sí. Para siempre, no. Por eso le sacamos el máximo jugo a lo que tenemos.

You might think that, I could not possibly comment