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Film — Live-Action
There is an old Vulcan proverb; "Only Nixon could go to China."
Adm. Dougherty: We have the planet. They have the technology. A technology we can't duplicate. You know what that makes us? Partners.
Cpn. Picard: Our partners are nothing more than petty thugs.
Dougherty: On Earth, petroleum once turned "petty thugs" into world leaders.
Cpn. Picard: Our partners are nothing more than petty thugs.
Dougherty: On Earth, petroleum once turned "petty thugs" into world leaders.
"In order for everything to remain the same, everything will have to change."
— Tancredi Falconeri, The Leopard
Literature
"We could feed them, and we did, with or without the consent of the Senate. But if we could sneak a few outlying planets away from the Empire by doing it, why not?"
— Captain Kanril Eleya to Jake Sisko, From Bajor to the Black
When your enemies defy you, you must serve them steel and fire. When they go to their knees, however, you must help them back to their feet. Elsewise no man will ever bend the knee to you. And any man who must say "I am the king" is no true king at all. Aerys never understood that, but you will. When I've won your war for you, we will restore the king's peace and the king's justice.
— Lord Tywin Lannister to King Joffrey Baratheon, A Song of Ice and Fire
Live-Action TV
"Work in intelligence long enough, you hang on to phone numbers. No matter who your enemy is, there's a chance you'll need them tomorrow. Churchill and Stalin weren't chummy in 1941, but once the Nazis marched on Moscow they got past their differences."
— Burn Notice, "Devil You Know"
"Are you serious? This woman made the Durian Massacres look like a church picnic, and Earth wants to give her a grant??"
— Garibaldi, talking about an alien version of Josef Mengele who just so happened to invent a serum for immortality as the end result of her medical experiments that tortured and murdered millions of victims in the Babylon 5 episode, ("Deathwalker")
Doctor: Are we also going to tell them where you honed your surgical techniques? A footnote, perhaps. "For further details, see: Cardassian death camps."
Crell: Those techniques were crucial this morning. Where was your sarcasm then?
Crell: Those techniques were crucial this morning. Where was your sarcasm then?
—Star Trek: Voyager, "Nothing Human"
Claire Underwood: There were political realities we couldn't ignore.
Megan Hennessy: Do you ever wonder why so many people hate Washington? It's because of people like you using phrases like that.
Megan Hennessy: Do you ever wonder why so many people hate Washington? It's because of people like you using phrases like that.
17 schoolgirls were forced to burn alive because they weren't wearing the proper clothing. Am I 'outraged'? No. That is Saudi Arabia, our partners in peace.
— CJ Cregg, The West Wing
"You don't need to make formal alliances with people you trust."
— Lord Tywin Lannister, Game of Thrones
Varys: You're quite good at playing Hand, you know. Jon Arryn and Ned Stark were good men. Honorable men. But they disdained the game and those who play it . You enjoy the game.
Tyrion: I do. Last thing I expected.
Varys: And you play it well.
Tyrion: I'd like to keep playing it.
Tyrion: I do. Last thing I expected.
Varys: And you play it well.
Tyrion: I'd like to keep playing it.
Pharazôn :Statecraft is the art of attending to small matters as diligently as grand ones. I should like to think you'd learned that by now."
Kemen: I was only trying to be clever.
Pharazôn : Cleverness is for men of small ambition. I'd much rather it if you were wise, my son.
Kemen: I was only trying to be clever.
Pharazôn : Cleverness is for men of small ambition. I'd much rather it if you were wise, my son.
Hacker: Humphrey, are you saying that Britain should not support law and justice?
Sir Humphrey: No, of course we should, Prime Minister. We just shouldn't let it affect our foreign policy, that's all!
Hacker: We should always fight for the weak against the strong.
Sir Humphrey: Well, then why don't we send troops to Afghanistan to fight the Russians?
Hacker: The Russians are too strong.
Sir Humphrey: No, of course we should, Prime Minister. We just shouldn't let it affect our foreign policy, that's all!
Hacker: We should always fight for the weak against the strong.
Sir Humphrey: Well, then why don't we send troops to Afghanistan to fight the Russians?
Hacker: The Russians are too strong.
Music
"Gather 'round while I sing you of Wernher von Braun
A man whose allegiance
Is ruled by expedience
Call him a Nazi, he won't even frown
"Nazi Schmazi", says Wernher von Braun"
A man whose allegiance
Is ruled by expedience
Call him a Nazi, he won't even frown
"Nazi Schmazi", says Wernher von Braun"
— "Wernher von Braun", That Was the Year That Was
Stand-Up Comedy
"We got attacked.
"By who?"
Osama bin Laden.
"That guy from Afghanistan? Didn't we used to send him weapons?"
Yeah, I know!
"We went after him, right?"
Yeah.
"Did we get him?"
Almost.
"Well, what do you mean 'almost'?"
Well, we went after Hussein, because he had weapons of mass destruction.
"That guy from Syria. I knew that fuck would do this."
No, the one from Iraq.
"SADDAM Hussein? Bush Sr. kicked his ass!"
Yeah, he did!
"And we got him?"
Oh, fuck, we got him.
"And we found the weapons of mass destruction? Cause he would tell you where they are."
Well, they executed him.
"Fuck off! And did you get bin Laden?"
Almost. We got four of his number threes.
"Okaaay.... But he's in Afghanistan."
Maybe. He might be in Pakistan.
"Well, let's go after him in Pakistan!"
Well, there's a problem there. They're allies, and they have weapons of mass destruction.
"By who?"
Osama bin Laden.
"That guy from Afghanistan? Didn't we used to send him weapons?"
Yeah, I know!
"We went after him, right?"
Yeah.
"Did we get him?"
Almost.
"Well, what do you mean 'almost'?"
Well, we went after Hussein, because he had weapons of mass destruction.
"That guy from Syria. I knew that fuck would do this."
No, the one from Iraq.
"SADDAM Hussein? Bush Sr. kicked his ass!"
Yeah, he did!
"And we got him?"
Oh, fuck, we got him.
"And we found the weapons of mass destruction? Cause he would tell you where they are."
Well, they executed him.
"Fuck off! And did you get bin Laden?"
Almost. We got four of his number threes.
"Okaaay.... But he's in Afghanistan."
Maybe. He might be in Pakistan.
"Well, let's go after him in Pakistan!"
Well, there's a problem there. They're allies, and they have weapons of mass destruction.
— Robin Williams, Weapons of Self-Destruction
Theatre
The art of the compromise
Hold your nose and close your eyes
We want our leaders to save the day
But we don't get a say in what they trade away
We dream of a brand new start
But we dream in the dark for the most part
Hold your nose and close your eyes
We want our leaders to save the day
But we don't get a say in what they trade away
We dream of a brand new start
But we dream in the dark for the most part
"The Room Where it Happens", Hamilton
Video Games
Mike Toreno: Some traitors from another department think they can help the 'overseas situation' by financing militaristic dictators in exchange for arms contacts.
Carl "C.J." Johnson: Hey, ain't that exactly what you do?
Toreno: Well, kind of, but we get to pick our dictators; degenerates that we can control. We try to stay the hell away from these guys with "principles" because that just muddies the waters.
Carl "C.J." Johnson: Hey, ain't that exactly what you do?
Toreno: Well, kind of, but we get to pick our dictators; degenerates that we can control. We try to stay the hell away from these guys with "principles" because that just muddies the waters.
Web Comics
The fifty families play a game
That all revolves around a name.
To play the game you must be skilled
The Game of Kings can get you killed.
They plot and murder, lie and sin
Determined no one else should win.
They'll turn Europa upside down
To try to claim the Lightning Crown.
That all revolves around a name.
To play the game you must be skilled
The Game of Kings can get you killed.
They plot and murder, lie and sin
Determined no one else should win.
They'll turn Europa upside down
To try to claim the Lightning Crown.
— Anonymous (No, really, we don't know who wrote it. Honest.), Agatha H. and the Clockwork Princess, Girl Genius
If someone can't handle an unpleasant truth? Lie to them. If somone won't listen to reason? Make them. If people don't choose to live peaceably—don't give them a choice. If you don't like the rules—change the game.
— Tarvek Sturmvoraus, Girl Genius , summarizing what he learned from watching Baron Wulfenbach at work (Vol. 11 p. 76
)
)Agatha: ARRGH. What do you call it... when you have to work with someone you'd be better off killing?
Krosp: Politics.
Agatha: ... I don't like it.
Krosp: Few people do.
Krosp: Politics.
Agatha: ... I don't like it.
Krosp: Few people do.
Web Original
It all comes down to who's side 'we' are on... or rather, who is on 'our' side. Since 'we' are, by definition and by common sense, the goodies, then our friends must, ipso facto, be goodies too... goodies don't ally with baddies, after all... and so those who attack 'our' friends must, logically, be baddies. This is what responsible journalists call 'living in the real world'.
Western Animation
Huey: Why do you keep hanging up on me? I’m telling you the truth! The CIA trained Osama Bin Laden in using terrorism against the Soviets during the Reagan-Bush administration! They gave the Afghanistan rebels countless amounts of covert funding!
FBI Hotline: Don’t you have better things to be doing?
Huey: Better than fighting terrorism? Heck, no! We’re at war!
FBI Hotline: Don’t you have better things to be doing?
Huey: Better than fighting terrorism? Heck, no! We’re at war!
Real Life
"Politics is the art of the possible."
"Politics is the art of choosing between the disastrous and the unpalatable."
— John Kenneth Galbraith
You protest, and with justice, each time Hitler jails an opponent; but you forget that Stalin and company have jailed and murdered a thousand times as many. It seems to me, and indeed the evidence is plain, that compared to the Moscow brigands and assassins, Hitler is hardly more than a common Ku Kluxer and Mussolini almost a philanthropist.
—H. L. Mencken, open letter to Upton Sinclair
What a man! I have lost my heart!... Fascism has rendered a service to the entire world... If I were Italian, I am sure I would have been with you entirely from the beginning of your victorious struggle against the bestial appetites and passion of Leninism.
—Winston Churchill in a letter to Mussolini
Yet in the most mean, cowardly, hypocritical way the British ruling class did all they could to hand Spain over to Franco and the Nazis. Why? Because they were pro-Fascist, was the obvious answer.
—George Orwell, Fighting in Spain
"If we see that Germany is winning we ought to help Russia, and if Russia is winning we ought to help Germany, and that way let them kill as many as possible."
— Senator Harry Truman, June 1941 note
"Hoover knew that Joe wasn't the best guy in the world to be doing this job. We all did ... But his attitude was, 'Thank God somebody's doing it.' They were fighting the same enemy, you know."
—Robert J. Morris, chief counsel to the United States Senate Subcommittee on Internal Security, on J. Edgar Hoover and Senator Joseph McCarthy
"Great powers have no principles — only interests."
— Att. Henry Kissinger
"No one is innocent after the experience of governing."
— Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan
"We know Saddam at one time had weapons of mass destruction because we have the receipts!"
— Chalmers Johnson
"When someone says, 'But he was giving arms to people he knew had killed our Marines,' it's hard to respond to that."
—House Republican Robert Dornan on the Iran-Contra affair
"You Palestinians can never see the fucking big picture."
— National Security Advisor Susan Rice to Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat
"Are we just supposed to throw away our relationship with Saudi Arabia because they murdered a journalist?"
—Eric Trump
America's unique global power allows it to be the balancer in every region. We balanced Iraq by supporting its weaker neighbors in the Gulf War. We balance China by supporting the ring of smaller states at its periphery (from South Korea to Taiwan, even to Vietnam).
— Charles Krauthammer, The Unipolar Moment
"This ultra-conservative movement has resulted in congressional gridlock due to an unwillingness to compromise, dating back to the early years of the Tea Party movement. This extremism and inability to negotiate is a detriment to Congress as a whole but also hurts the Freedom Caucus itself. The climate of the organization is so unproductive that it has even forced founding members like Texas Representative Ted Poe to resign from the group.
Poe described his opposition to how the group handled negotiations, telling Fox and Friends that, 'Sometimes you're going to have to say yes.'"
Poe described his opposition to how the group handled negotiations, telling Fox and Friends that, 'Sometimes you're going to have to say yes.'"
— Ali Gagliardi, The Los Angeles Loyolan, "Dear Gen Z, Congress wasn’t always this divided"
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