The Last Hurrah Quotes

“And of course that’s all nonsense what you’re saying, my dear man. All pure nonsense, nothing but hogwash. You could live to be a hundred and twenty-five and put new red, white and blue posters of yourself all around town every day, and still they wouldn’t think of you as often as they will of Frank Skeffington when he’s been dead fifty years. The difference is that they all loved him and nobody loves you. I say this in no criticism of you, my dear man. It’s not your fault that you are what you are. It’s all in the genes: you’re not responsible.”
― Edwin O'Connor, The Last Hurrah

“Charlie was an unsuccessful driver.”
― Edwin O'Connor, The Last Hurrah

“And now he said to himself what he had said, in equal privacy, so often before: If only he had not been such a rogue . . . But then he reminded himself, as he had done before, in that case he would not have been Skeffington at all, but someone quite different.”
― Edwin O'Connor, The Last Hurrah

“And, if you will forgive just one more personal reflection, I myself think of him as he was just a few short days ago when I went to his home to hear his last confession and to give him the Blessed Sacrament, just before he died. And it seems to me, now, that to have lived a long life, to have left the lot of many of those around you a little bit better than it once was, to have been genuinely loved by a great many people, and to have died in God’s good grace, is no small thing to have happened to any man. Yet that is what happened to Frank Skeffington; I hope it may happen as well for all of us.”
― Edwin O'Connor, The Last Hurrah

“See you around,” he whispered. The whisper was barely audible, but Adam heard. Skeffington’s eyes seemed now to snap shut; his head turned back with a queer, abrupt jerk; his body stiffened; and one arm hung rigidly over the side of the bed, pointing to the floor. Frank Skeffington was dead.”
― Edwin O'Connor, The Last Hurrah

“He wanted to shout this pompous fool out of the house; he felt Maeve holding tightly to him; still, he started to speak, but suddenly there was no need for any of them to answer. For the figure on the bed stirred; they heard the movement before seeing it and, turning, they saw that Skeffington had raised himself slightly. His eyes were now wide open, and in them they saw the old challenging, mocking, gleam. And they heard his voice, as taking charge now for the last time he gave his answer: “The hell I would!”
― Edwin O'Connor, The Last Hurrah

“He had thought immediately of the possibility of betrayal, of a failure in his organization; he had dismissed the thought. He knew that neither singly nor in combination could they have occasioned his defeat. Undoubtedly they had been there, but they had always been there, and what had beaten him now was not something old, but something altogether new. What it might be, he simply did not know. He tried desperately to think it through, but it was no use.”
― Edwin O'Connor, The Last Hurrah

“He controlled his exasperation; it was important that Ditto, above all, should be unaware of concern in high places: the fat man’s capacity for dissolving into a boneless and peculiarly communicable alarm was all too well known to him.”
― Edwin O'Connor, The Last Hurrah

“Everyone is completely convinced that your uncle is to be re-elected. I can tell you that if there were the slightest doubt of the outcome tonight, this room and the sidewalk outside would not be crawling with people. Oh, the faithful would report, to be sure: they always do. But the scavengers—and they are rather more numerous, dear boy, than you might think—would not. They take no chances, you see. They report en masse only when the sure thing is at hand. They do not begin to circle until the footsteps stagger and the body starts to sink upon the sand. They are rarely wrong, and, dear boy, they are here in force tonight.”
― Edwin O'Connor, The Last Hurrah

“He was a chubby little lad with round red cheeks and a big smile. It was one time when Frank was running against Festus he got the idea. He put fat little Fahey in the collar and the black suit and sent him around ringing Protestant doorbells. He’d ask to see the lady of the house. He’d be let in half the time, and then he’d go into the speech. ‘Good morning, madam,’ he’d say. ‘I’m Father Francis Xavier Fahey, of the Jesuit Fathers, up on the hill. I’m calling on you in the interests of good government. The Jesuit Fathers are highly interested in the candidacy of Festus Garvey and we’re trying to drum up a little support for him.’ Then he’d give her a sneaky smile and a little wink.”
― Edwin O'Connor, The Last Hurrah

“I must say I admire faith of that kind. Although blind, it’s inspiring. It’s the kind of faith the followers of Jemima Wilkinson had, many years ago. Matter of fact, my young opponent reminds me in many ways of the good Jemima. As you probably remember, she was a Quaker lady who lived in this country back in the days of the Revolution. It was Jemima’s claim that she had died in 1776 and had come back to earth as a reincarnation of Our Lord. There were a few unkind people who were somewhat skeptical about this, but she managed to collect a substantial group of followers who had faith. One day she announced that she was about to give a demonstration of her divine powers: she was going to walk upon the waters. The faithful assembled on the banks; the good Jemima appeared, clad in a flowing robe of white. She put one foot out towards the river, then suddenly stopped and asked the people if they really had faith. They said they did. She asked them if they truly believed that she could walk on water. They said they did indeed. Well then, said Jemima, if that was the case there was no point in going through with it; any demonstration would be superfluous.”
― Edwin O'Connor, The Last Hurrah

“Oh, evasive, dear folks! But now that there’s television we see him at all hours, right in the bosom of his family. We’re given the good, safe, long-distance peek at what goes on around the McCluskey house when Dad’s at home! Oh dear folks, it’s nice! Heart-warming! Grand to see a father playing patty-cake, patty-cake with his little children! Grand to see a man who’s running for the highest office in the city sitting nice and easy in his home while his wife comes galloping in from the kitchen with a big tall glass of milk and a plateful of Uneeda biscuits smeared all over with Skippy peanut butter! Nice! Nourishing!”
― Edwin O'Connor, The Last Hurrah

“Anyway,” she said, “why even bother to break an egg for McCluskey! Sweetie, he’s such a cluck!” “Check,” Jack said. “One of the cluckiest. And we’re not too happy about that. But you see our predicament: we have no place else to go.” “I don’t care what you say, I’d a thousand times rather take Skeffington.” “Derisive laughter all around,” Jack said. “You don’t take Skeffington; he takes you.”
― Edwin O'Connor, The Last Hurrah

“But he approves of the campaign. He’s actually suggested a few little tricks of his own. You see, he isn’t much concerned about our ethics; it’s the other side that worries him. He worries mainly about the fact that they don’t agree with him. That’s because they’re reactionaries, hence of doubtful ethical standards. You have to worry about what people like that will do, obviously. Especially if they disagree with you. Whereas what we do, even if it may not look quite aboveboard at times, is really all right, because we’re on the side of the angels.”
― Edwin O'Connor, The Last Hurrah

“And lots of them just don’t want to get mixed up with the mud. They feel that it’s just inviting trouble to get involved in a business that everyone seems to regard as being fairly shady.” “Another victory for Skeffington and his breed,” the Cardinal said savagely. “They can be thanked for this reputation. And the upshot of it all is . . . what?” He pointed to the television set. “That!” he said with disgust. “A McCluskey!”
― Edwin O'Connor, The Last Hurrah

“Why doesn’t the man put an altar in the room while he’s at it? And invite me in to bless it, preferably during one of his broadcasts?” “Possibly because he hasn’t thought of it,” suggested the Monsignor.”
― Edwin O'Connor, The Last Hurrah

“As the plaza’s city property, it’s pretty much up to me to decide. And to decide without making enemies forever. That’s where the compromise comes in: I’ll announce it right after the election.” “And what is the compromise?” Adam asked, curious. “Who is it to be?” Skeffington chuckled. “Mother Cabrini,” he said. “Mother Cabrini?” Skeffington nodded. “Italian born, and the first American saint. Let’s see them get out of that. The first man, woman, child or monsignor who objects will be stoned out of town. That’s what I mean by compromise.”
― Edwin O'Connor, The Last Hurrah

“It’s mostly a matter of practice. That, and of knowing what each group really wants. There’s a considerable difference between what they say they want, and what they’ll really settle for. You can promise them the first, but you only have to deliver the second.”
― Edwin O'Connor, The Last Hurrah

“Doesn’t it tire you, really? I’m exhausted, but you look as though you were good for a few hours more of the same thing.” Skeffington regarded him with amusement. “I have to,” he said simply. “In politics, only a young man can afford to look tired. He doesn’t have to prove he’s young enough for the job, you see.”
― Edwin O'Connor, The Last Hurrah

“The best advice I ever received as a young politician came from old Martin Sullivan,” his uncle had said. “He said, ‘Go to all the dinners, but eat none of the food. That’s the stuff that kills a man!’ He was right, too. Occasionally I’ve forgotten myself long enough to experiment with the food; always regretted it. I’m not sure where they get the meat for these ceremonial dinners, but I’ve suspected it comes from a kind of inedible beast especially bred for the occasion.”
― Edwin O'Connor, The Last Hurrah

“A delegation from the Colonial Men shows up, wearing blue flannel coats and ice-cream pants, slightly yellow with age. The pants, that is; the Colonial Men are rather nicely preserved.”
― Edwin O'Connor, The Last Hurrah

“And while I don’t mind opposition, you have to decide whether you’re ready to declare all-out war on one front, with the knowledge that if you do, there’s always the possibility that you’ll be murdered on another. Reformers never have any trouble with decisions of that sort. They declare war right away; they even mow down half their own side in fighting it. And that, by the way, is why the mortality rate among reformers is so high.”
― Edwin O'Connor, The Last Hurrah

“He campaigned hard, therefore, as he always had, and reflected ironically that, thanks to such modern technological advances as radio and television, the going was immeasurably tougher than it had been twenty-five years before, when he had been twenty-five years younger.”
― Edwin O'Connor, The Last Hurrah

“They’re so honest! I mean, they’re so serious about being honest. And they’re always so right. About everything, not just politics.”
― Edwin O'Connor, The Last Hurrah

“You see,” he said, “my position is slightly complicated because I’m not just an elected official of the city; I’m a tribal chieftain as well. It’s a necessary kind of dual officeholding, you might say; without the second, I wouldn’t be the first.”
― Edwin O'Connor, The Last Hurrah

“He’s a dangerous man to have in your corner. He’s great on the platform, but he has a crack right down the middle, and you never know when or where he’s going to take off. I remember that when he first entered the City Council we were having a big to-do about a new municipal sewage system. Danny Leary was Council President, and he had Charlie all lined up to make the big speech in favor of it. Well, it was a big speech, all right. It lasted an hour and a half; the only trouble was that somewhere in the middle of it Charlie got sidetracked into talking about the marvelous advantages of having universal, compulsory fingerprinting introduced into the city, with the FBI coming in to take the prints of everybody who was still breathing.”
― Edwin O'Connor, The Last Hurrah

“He runs for office, mostly. Against me or against anybody; Charlie plays no favorites. He hasn’t been very successful lately, but back about twenty years ago, Charlie was considered quite a comer. He was always a great talker and he started off with a bang. He was on the City Council, a member of the Governor’s Council—not under me, I might add—and he even served a term in Congress. In those days Charlie seemed to be looking into a rosy tomorrow.”
― Edwin O'Connor, The Last Hurrah

“But what you’re asking is impossible. . . .” “Why, that’s one of the words that doesn’t belong to the bright lexicon of youth,” Skeffington said reprovingly. “I’ve always believed that nothing is impossible when one has youth and ambition.”
― Edwin O'Connor, The Last Hurrah

“It would be the pious thing to do, no doubt,” Gorman agreed. “But then if you both knew Knocko, you might damn well want to talk about almost anything else in a hurry. Out of respect for the dead, you might say.”
― Edwin O'Connor, The Last Hurrah

“God be good to the man,” she said. “He was mean as a panther, but good luck to him.”
― Edwin O'Connor, The Last Hurrah