War and Game

"A just critic dares not take the subsequent course of events as seen in retrospect for the measure of his judgment, but, instead, must ask himself what the leaders of these events could have known at the time of the occurrences.

A detailed account of the governing circumstances almost always reveals that measures which must appear reprehensible to an unbiased critic were never as faulty as they seemed at first sight."

Moltke, War Instructions, Great General Staff

Yes, Minister and its sequel Yes, Prime Minister are British television shows that were broadcast between 1980 and 1988. All episodes were written by Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn.

Quotes from the dialogue

"If people don't know what you're doing, they don't know what you're doing wrong."

"Minister's language: 'We have decided to be more flexible in our application of this principle' means 'We are dropping this policy but we don't want to admit it publicly'. "

"It is only totalitarian governments that suppress facts. In this country we simply take a democratic decision not to publish them."

"A good political speech is not one in which you can prove that the man is telling the truth; it is one where no one else can prove he is lying."

"It is our job to tell Select Committees the truth and nothing but the truth. But it would be profoundly inappropriate and grossly irresponsible to tell them the whole truth."

"A minister who finds out that the government is doing something illegal does not have to tell the Prime Minister. Just because he's caught something nasty, he doesn't have to go round breathing over everyone."

"As long as there is anything to be gained by saying nothing, it is always better to say nothing than anything."

"The first rule of politics: never believe anything until it's been officially denied."

"'The Government's position' means 'the best explanation of past events that cannot be disproved by available facts'.


"But surely the citizens of a democracy have a right to know."
"No. They have a right to be ignorant. Knowledge only means complicity in guilt; ignorance has a certain dignity."


"If we cannot refute the arguments in a paper, we simply discredit the person who wrote it. This is called playing the man and not the ball."