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…

— Rory Stewart

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

— Rory Stewart

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

— 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…

— 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…

— 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…

— Rory Stewart

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

— 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…

— 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

When my father was posted to Malaysia, we'd take bacon-and-egg sandwiches in our backpacks and go hiking in the jungle or make…

— Rory Stewart

“In the evening [the Iraqi interim governor of Maysan province] asked me for fifty dollars to repair his windows, which had been…

— Rory Stewart

“Perhaps it is because no one requires more than a charming illusion of action in the developing world. If policy makers know…

— Rory Stewart

The world isnt one way or another. Things can be changed very, very rapidly by someone with sufficient confidence, sufficient knowledge and…

— Rory Stewart

I have not met, in Afghanistan, in even the most remote community, anybody who does not want a say in who governs…

— Rory Stewart

I'd like to come back to the West eventually. In the end abroad I am always a stranger, active politics in particular…

— Rory Stewart

I found incredible kindness, dignity and hospitality in both Iraq and Afghanistan - am only alive because of it - the most…

— Rory Stewart

I have a constituency with 52,000 people and a million sheep. I was in one village where a local kid was run…

— Rory Stewart

When you're doing mountain rescue, you don't take a doctorate in mountain rescue; you look for somebody who knows the terrain. It's…

— Rory Stewart

As a Scot, I instinctively feel a sympathy towards a culture which is based on generosity. It's very refreshing. Afghans think they're…

— Rory Stewart