Afghanistan Quotes by Rory Stewart

This idea that failure is not an option: It makes failure invisible, inconceivable and inevitable.

— Rory Stewart

If a relationship is going wrong, if a marriage is going wrong, the answer cannot simply be to say, 'You can't afford to break…

— Rory Stewart

“He [Babur] was a ype of mastiff, bred to fight against wolves, dogs, and humans. . . . The mastiff is perhaps the oldest…

— Rory Stewart

The politicians think the journalists have power, the journalists think bankers have power, bankers think lawyers have power. The truth is, nobody has power.

— Rory Stewart

“I recited and followed this song-of-the-places-in-between as a map.”

— Rory Stewart

The Afghan government is much better informed, much more intrusive and ambitious than I had guessed. There are amazing craftsmen in Kabul but few…

— Rory Stewart

I have planted over 6,000 trees at home in Scotland, some of them oak. I'd like my children to be able to watch them grow.

— Rory Stewart

“Man's life is brief and transitory, Literature endures forever”

— Rory Stewart

If things are going wrong in a country, it's not usually that we don't have enough foreigners. It's usually that we have too many.

— Rory Stewart

For politicians to be honest, the public needs to allow them to be honest, and the media, which mediates between the politicians and the…

— Rory Stewart

“My feet beat out a steady muffled rhythm. My thoughts participated in each step, never getting ahead of me.”

— Rory Stewart

I left things out - my motivations, my history, my emotional responses - because I am not good at understanding them or writing about…

— Rory Stewart

I like connecting to places by foot, and I'm interested in experiencing how somewhere like Crieff connects to somewhere like London.

— Rory Stewart

Religions . . . seem to avoid mountain passes.

— Rory Stewart

Democracy is not simply a question of structures. It is a state of mind. It is an activity.

— Rory Stewart