I began writing when I was still in the British Foreign Service, and it was then understood that even if you wrote about butterfly collecting, you used another name.
John Le CarreRead
In the hands of politicians grand designs achieve nothing but new forms of the old misery.
Interpretation
The quote suggests that political plans often fail to bring real change, only replacing old problems with new ones.
In this quote, John Le Carre critiques the effectiveness of politicians by asserting that their ambitious plans and reforms tend to simply reiterate past failures, leading to new but similar forms of suffering and dissatisfaction. It speaks to the notion that without genuine intention and integrity, political endeavors can be fruitless, merely masking the persistent issues rather than resolving them.
In practice
In a discussion on political reform, this quote could highlight the skepticism towards politicians' promises.
I began writing when I was still in the British Foreign Service, and it was then understood that even if you wrote about butterfly collecting, you used another name.
In every war zone that I've been in, there has been a reality and then there has been the public perception of why the war was being fought. In every crisis, the issues have been far more complex than the public has been allowed to know.
The cat sat on the mat is not a story. The cat sat on the other catβs mat is a story.
The monsters of our childhood do not fade away, neither are they ever wholly monstrous.
Coming home from very lonely places, all of us go a little mad: whether from great personal success, or just an all-night drive, we are the sole survivors of a world no one else has ever seen.
If I had to put a name to it, I would wish that all my books were entertainments. I think the first thing you've got to do is grab the reader by the ear, and make him sit down and listen. Make him laugh, make him feel. We all want to be entertained at a very high level.
If you want to rip the heart out of a democracy, you go after the facts. That's what modern authoritarians do. You lie. All the time. Then, you say it's your opponents and the journalists who lie.
The Bill of Rights is not an a la carte menu.
Democracy is not just a question of having a vote. It consists of strengthening each citizen's possibility and capacity to participate in the deliberations involved in life in society.
It will be hard to convince people that their welfare is safe in the hands of a federal government when they feel themselves the victims of unjust sectional discrimination.
Who do you think controls the Republican Party? Big money controls the Republican Party. This is where their campaign contributions come from.
The congressional role in declaring war is especially important not when the United States is the victim of an attack, but when the United States is planning to wage war abroad.
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