“The vehicles of human politics seem to run off course, but the site of the accident turns out to have been the intended destination.”

—  Shashi Tharoor, book The Great Indian Novel

The Great Indian Novel

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "The vehicles of human politics seem to run off course, but the site of the accident turns out to have been the intended…" by Shashi Tharoor?
Shashi Tharoor photo
Shashi Tharoor43
Indian politician, diplomat, author 1956

Related quotes

Alexander Hamilton photo

“It has been frequently remarked that it seems to have been reserved to the people of this country, by their conduct and example, to decide the important question, whether societies of men are really capable or not of establishing good government from reflection and choice, or whether they are forever destined to depend for their political constitutions on accident and force.”

Alexander Hamilton Federalist Papers

No. 1
The Federalist Papers (1787–1788)

Arthur Koestler photo

“God seems to have left the receiver off the hook, and time is running out.”

Arthur Koestler book The Ghost in the Machine

The Ghost in the Machine (1967).

John Gray photo

“The mass political movements of the 20th century were vehicles for myths inherited from religion, and it is no accident that religion is reviving now that these movements have collapsed.”

John Gray (1948) British philosopher

The Atheist Delusion (2008)

Henrik Ibsen photo

“Everything I touch seems destined to turn into something mean and farcical.”

Henrik Ibsen (1828–1906) Norwegian playwright, theatre director, and poet

Hedda, Act IV
Hedda Gabler (1890)

E.M. Forster photo

“One can run away from women, turn them out, or give in to them. No fourth course.”

E.M. Forster (1879–1970) English novelist

Source: Commonplace Book (1985), p. 92

John Calvin photo

“He who is off the course, the more swiftly he runs is the more distant from the goal and, therefore, the more unhappy. It is better to limp in the way than run out of the way.”

John Calvin book Institutes of the Christian Religion

Book 3, Chapter 14, p. 643
Institutes of the Christian Religion (1536; 1559)

P.G. Wodehouse photo

“It is true of course, that I have a will of iron, but it can be switched off if the circumstances seem to demand it.”

P.G. Wodehouse (1881–1975) English author

Source: Jeeves in the Morning

Jay Leno photo

“I was in the ROTC. Of course, ROTC stood for "Running off to Canada."”

Jay Leno (1950) American comedian, actor, writer, producer, voice actor and television host

Monologue, June 24, 2005
The Tonight Show

Nikolai Gogol photo

“However, nothing turned out as Tchitchikoff had intended.”

Nikolai Gogol book Dead Souls

Dead Souls (1842)

Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury photo

“The Lieutenant Governor of Bengal was to the fullest extent responsible for not having made any preparation against the famine…The doctrines of political economy had been worshipped as a sort of "fetish" by officials who, because they believed that in the long run supply and demand would square themselves, seemed to have utterly forgotten that human life was short, and that men could not subsist without food beyond a few days. They mechanically left the laws of political economy to work themselves out while hundreds of thousands of human beings were perishing from famine.”

Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury (1830–1903) British politician

Speech http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1867/aug/02/motion-for-an-address in the House of Commons (2 August 1867) on the Orissa famine of 1866 <br class="br">1860s

Related topics