“The President in particular is very much a figurehead — he wields no real power whatsoever. He is apparently chosen by the government, but the qualities he is required to display are not those of leadership but those of finely judged outrage. For this reason the President is always a controversial choice, always an infuriating but fascinating character. His job is not to wield power but to draw attention away from it. On those criteria Zaphod Beeblebrox is one of the most successful Presidents the Galaxy has ever had — he has already spent two of his ten presidential years in prison for fraud.”
― The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
― The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
“... a cynic is only a term used by an idealist to describe a realist.”
― The Complete Yes Minister
― The Complete Yes Minister
“Paperwork is the religion of the Civil Service. I can just imagine Sir Humphrey Appleby on his deathbed, surround by wills and insurance claim forms, looking up and saying, 'I cannot go yet, God, I haven't done the paperwork.”
― The Complete Yes Minister
― The Complete Yes Minister
“The past is never dead. It’s not even past. All of us labor in webs spun long before we were born, webs of heredity and environment, of desire and consequence, of history and eternity.”
― Requiem for a Nun
― Requiem for a Nun
“He that would keep a secret must keep it secret that he hath a secret to keep.”
― The Complete Yes Minister
― The Complete Yes Minister
Lőrinc’s 2023 Year in Books
Take a look at Lőrinc’s Year in Books. The good, the bad, the long, the short—it’s all here.
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