Charles Caleb Colton Quotes

Under every stone lurks a politician

In conspiracies, men who know what they wanted commonly ended by controlling the men who did not.

Understanding government can be a complex business. The stated reason for a policy and the real reason for it are rarely the same.

In Washington, the ostensible story is rarely the real story.

'Game of Thrones' is fundamentally based on a Machiavellian, almost Jacobean, idea of power and intrigue.

Schemes within schemes. The Great Serpent is a good sign for you Aes Sedai, I think. Someday you may swallow yourselves by accident.

In King’s Landing, there are two sorts of people. The players and the pieces… Every man’s a piece to start with, and every maid as well. Even some who think they are players." Petyr Baelish

I'm not consumed with political machinations.

Secrecy is the foundation of politics.

I'm not clever enough to be in machinations and real politics.

Of all sciences there is none where first appearances are more deceitful than in politics

The practice of politics in the East may be defined by one word: dissimulation

I can remember being fascinated by what people really thought about each other and what they were really doing to each other behind people's backs.

There are little games that go on in politics.

The two maxims of any great man at court are, always to keep his countenance, and never to keep his word.

A game of secret, cunning stratagems, in which only the fools who are fated to lose reveal their true aims or motives - even to themselves.

Politics is made up largely of irrelevancies.

If you want to do something evil, put it inside something boring.

It was unfair that people could pretend to be one thing when they were really something else. That they would get you on their side and then do nothing but fail, and fail, and fail again. People should come with warnings, like cigarette packs: involvement would kill you over time.

Tyrion let the eunuch help him mount. "Lord Varys," he said from the saddle, "sometimes I feel as though you are the best friend I have in King's Landing and sometimes I feel you are my worst enemy." "How odd. I think quite the same of you.

Do you take me for a sponge, my lord? hamlet: Ay, sir; that soaks up the king's countenance, his rewards, his authorities. But such officers do the king best service in the end: he keeps them, like an ape, in the corner of his jaw; first mouthed, to be last swallowed: when he needs what you have gleaned, it is but squeezing you, and, sponge, you shall be dry again. rosencrantz: I understand you not, my lord. hamlet: I am glad of it: a knavish speech sleeps in a foolish ear.

Station is the paradox of the world of my people, the limitation of our power within the hunger for power. It is gained through treachery and invites treachery against those who gain it. Those most powerful in Menzoberranzan spend their days watching over their shoulders, defending against the daggers that would find their backs. Their deaths usually come from the front." -Drizzt Do'Urden

There is no subjection so perfect as that which keeps the appearance of freedom.

You can't learn the truth about a man's intentions by asking him.

I believe conspiracy theories are part of a larger conspiracy to distract us from the real conspiracy. String theory.