Advise and Consent Quotes

“Son, this is a Washington, D.C. kind of lie. It's when the other person knows you're lying, and also knows you know he knows.”
― Allen Drury, Advise and Consent

“Democracy “Democracy is the most fragile thing on earth, for what does it rest upon? You and me, and the fact that we agree to maintain it. The moment either of us says we will not, that’s the end of it. It doesn’t rest on anything but us; it doesn’t rest on armed force, the moment it does it isn’t democracy. It isn’t something to kick around or experiment with.” —Allen Drury, Stanford University (age 19)”
― Allen Drury, Advise and Consent

“Let me see if I can state it for you this way, Senator,” he said slowly. “Under certain circumstances that may have existed in the past, the United States guided her actions by certain standards that had been proved to be valid for their time when those circumstances were found to exist. Now the circumstances may have changed and she may still be adhering to those standards although they no longer can be effectively or justifiably applied to the new circumstances which now confront us in which other standards may prove to be more beneficial than those of the past.”
― Allen Drury, Advise and Consent

“Especially was this so in a troubled time in which the great promise was being challenged and the great Republic which embodied it was being desperately threatened. In his lifetime he had seen America rise and rise and rise, some sort of golden legend to her own people, some sort of impossible fantasy to others to be hated or loved according to their own cupidity, envy, and greed, or lack of it; rise and rise and rise and rise—and then, in the sudden burst of Soviet science in the later fifties, the golden legend crumbled, overnight the fall began, the heart went out of it, a too complacent and uncaring people awoke to find themselves naked with the winds of the world howling around their ears, the impossible merry-go-round slowed down. Now the reaction was on, in a time of worry and confusion and uncertainty. Men walked the tight rope between brittle confidence and sudden fear, never knowing when reality would suddenly intrude and laughter fade and the dark abyss yawn open and remind them it was waiting there for a still unhumbled land.”
― Allen Drury, Advise & Consent: The Landmark Masterpiece of Political Fiction

“Democracy is the most fragile thing on earth, for what does it rest upon? You and me, and the fact that we agree to maintain it. The moment either of us says we will not, that’s the end of it. It doesn’t rest on anything but us; it doesn’t rest on armed force, the moment it does it isn’t democracy. It isn’t something to kick around or experiment with.”
― Allen Drury, Advise & Consent: The Landmark Masterpiece of Political Fiction

“It’s starting to snow,” Kitty announced excitedly. “Do you suppose we will all be able to get back home all right? Washington gets so confused when it snows.”
― Allen Drury, Advise and Consent