June 29, 2025

All charming people have something to conceal, usually their total dependence on the appreciation of others.

Cyril Connolly (1903–1975), British writer and critic, Enemies of Promise (1938), in The Cynic’s Lexicon, Jonathon Green, ed. (London: 1986), p.55

Despite your charm, have you ever lost an election? How resilient were you afterwards? Or does the memory of defeat still draw tears?

Psychologists speak of the “charm of the psychopath”. But the charm of the politician is very different, of course.