Michael Dobbs > Quotes

“Why be so bloody miserable when you can pick up a good book or watch a great television drama?”
― Michael Dobbs

“Politics requires sacrifice. The sacrifice of others, of course.”
― Michael Dobbs, House of Cards

“His deepest need was that people should like him. An admirable trait that; in a spaniel. Or a whore.”
― Michael Dobbs, House of Cards

“You might very well think that - I couldn't possibly comment.”
― Michael Dobbs, House of Cards

“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Truth lies in the hands of its editor.”
― Michael Dobbs, House of Cards

“Politics. The word is taken from the Ancient Greek. “Poly” means “many.” And ticks are tiny, bloodsucking insects.”
― Michael Dobbs, House of Cards

“It’s not respect but fear that motivates a man; that’s how empires are built and revolutions begin. It is the secret of great men. When a man is afraid you will crush him, utterly destroy him, his respect will always follow. Base fear is intoxicating, overwhelming, liberating. Always stronger than respect. Always.”
― Michael Dobbs, House of Cards

“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

“Why waste a life in search of an epitaph? ‘Fondly Remembered’. Who other than a halfwit has that chiselled above his head?”
― Michael Dobbs, House of Cards

“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

“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, To Play the King

“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. Why”
― Michael Dobbs, House of Cards

“Loyalty may be good news, but it is rarely good advice.”
― Michael Dobbs, House of Cards

“It’s not respect but fear that motivates a man; that’s how empires are built and revolutions begin. It is the secret of great men.”
― Michael Dobbs, House of Cards

“He talked about the future with such certainty, he might have been talking about the past.”
― Michael Dobbs

“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, House of Cards

“Since he was much weaker than his enemy, he could afford to display no weakness at all.”
― Michael Dobbs

“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

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

“Democracy is like a great play. It lasts more than one act. You must be patient,”
― Michael Dobbs, Winston's War

“This will not be easy,’ he said. ‘Neither is failure.”
― Michael Dobbs, House of Cards

“She went up on tiptoes, just so she could look down on him.”
― Michael Dobbs, House of Cards

“Loyalty is like the Doctrine of Celibacy—easy to proclaim but damned difficult to live by.”
― Michael Dobbs, To Play the King

“The nature of ambition is that it requires casualties.”
― Michael Dobbs

“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, House of Cards

“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.”
― Michael Dobbs, House of Cards

“For some it is the end of the rope. For others it is only the beginning.”
― Michael Dobbs

“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, One Minute to Midnight: Kennedy, Khrushchev and Castro on the Brink of Nuclear War

“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, The House of Cards Complete Trilogy: House of Cards, To Play the King, The Final Cut

“The antinuclear sentiments of both leaders were soon strengthened by a man-made nuclear catastrophe that seemed to fit right in with the biblical prophecy of Armageddon that had impressed Reagan so much: 'A great star fell from the sky, flaming like a torch; and it fell on a third of the rivers and springs. The name of the star was Wormwood; and a third of the water turned to wormwood, and men in great numbers died of the water because it was poisoned' [Revelation 8:10]. The Ukrainian word for 'wormwood' is Chernobyl.”
― Michael Dobbs, Down with Big Brother: The Fall of the Soviet Empire