James Clavell Quotes

What this White House really needs is a chief of staff who can read Machiavelli in the original Italian.

The literary data that we have historically is indeed mostly about leaders or important people.

Churchill is the best man the British have even if he is drunk half the time.

I don't keep a list of people I want to talk to. It's organic. But I'd like to interview Tom Brady. Someday I'd love to meet Vladimir Putin. I'd ask him how he sees the landscape of the world, what could make it better, how that could be done.

After Trump's election victory, I explained why there would be no friendship between Putin and Trump. The contradictions between the systems are too great. And Putin needs an enemy. He wants to be the leader of the anti-American, anti-European world. And given that he cannot be friends with their heads of state and government, he instead needs to generate scandals and resistance.

[Hitler thought] that Mussolini was no figure of world history, like der Fuehrer or Stalin.

Rich as we are in biography, a well-written life is almost as rare as a well-spent one; and there are certainly many more men whose history deserves to be recorded than persons willing and able to record it.

A general must be shot or befriended - but never hurt.

A nation is a detour of nature to arrive at five or six great men- yes, and then to get around them.

Want to accomplish something, any-damn-thing? Sharpen your political skills!

The better you are at surrounding yourself with people of high potential, the greater your chance for success.

Statesmen are grocers, ambitious clowns.

As secretary of state Hillary Clinton was rolled by everybody.

Every great man nowadays has his disciples, and it is usually Judas who writes the biography.

Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, never being in business, never really negotiating, give away for nothing things they shouldn't give away.

There were always jokes about Hillary Clinton channeling Eleanor Roosevelt, but Eleanor Roosevelt was really instrumental at the UN, and would want to meet with various other delegates.

It's critically important that we have governments to work with, that we have entities to work with. President Hadi has been a good partner in that, and we would hope that the next set of leaders that govern Yemen will also take the same approach to cooperation with the United States.

An institution is the lengthened shadow of one man; as, monachism of the Hermit Anthony, the Reformation of Luther, Quakerism of Fox, Methodism of Wesley, abolition of Clarkson. Scipio, Milton called "the height of Rome;" and all history resolves itself easily into the biography of a few stout and earnest persons. Let a man, then, know his worth, and keep things under his feet.

Make friends. Be a leader. Kiss butts if you have to, but if the other guys despise you-you know what I mean?

All important persons have about them someone in a subordinate position who has their ear. These dependents are very susceptible to slights, and, when they are not treated as they think they should be, will by well-directed shafts, constantly repeated, poison the minds of their patrons against those who have provoked their animosity. It is well to keep in with them.

Therefore, if a great kingdom humbles itself before a small kingdom, it shall make that small kingdom its prize. And if a small kingdom humbles itself before a great kingdom, it shall win over that great kingdom. Thus the one humbles itself in order to attain, the other attains because it is humble. If the great kingdom has no further desire than to bring men together and to nourish them, the small kingdom will have no further desire than to enter the service of the other. But in order that both may have their desire, the great one must learn humility.

Chanel, General De Gaulle and Picasso are the three most important figures of our time.

There were, like, 20 of [Jackie Kennedy's biographies], which was interesting because they are not exactly high literature - they are pulpy.But the [Arthur] Schlesinger transcripts ended up being the most useful of anything.

Talkers have always ruled. They will continue to rule. The smart thing is to join them.

You look at what Vladimir Putin is doing with President Obama. He's, like, toying with him. He's toying with him.