Sharks, Mice, and Other Creatures

The political lexicon, like Noah's Ark, has always been well-stocked with animals. 'A fight between a shark and a wolf - after snapping at each other they could do nothing more than pass on' said the 19th-century Hungarian statesman Julius Andrássy, when asked how an Anglo-Russian war might be fought.

(Sharks are a political constant: we are familiar with Alan Clark's characterization of politicians as circling sharks waiting 'for traces of blood to appear in the water'.)

'When the mouse is away, the cats might play' said Winston Churchill, suggesting that Clement Attlee as Prime Minister might not be happy to leave the Cabinet in charge while he visited America. (Churchill had earlier called Attlee 'a sheep in sheep's clothing', perhaps an image remembered by Denis Healey when he described the sensation of being attacked by Geoffrey Howe as 'like being savaged by a dead sheep'.)

Animal comparisons can be positive. 'I am as strong as a bull moose' asserted Theodore Roosevelt in 1900. In the 16th century, Machiavelli suggested that the ideal prince must have both cunning and resolution. 'The prince must be a fox, therefore, to recognize the traps and a lion to frighten the wolves.'

Whatever the associations of sharks, mice, sheep, and wolves, the lion remains the king of beasts. It is probably not surprising that this was the image chosen by Winston Churchill in speaking of his role as wartime leader. 'It was the nation and the race dwelling all round the globe that had the lion's heart. I had the luck to be called upon to give the roar.'

With over 5000 quotations by 1500 authors, the Oxford Dictionary of Political Quotations is a trove of the most notable sayings by and about politicians of past and present, covering the forever changing political landscape.

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