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Life & Mortality Quote by Alan Clark

"In the end we are all sacked and it's always awful. It is as inevitable as death following life. If you are elevated there comes a day when you are demoted. Even Prime Ministers"

About this Quote

Getting fired, in Alan Clark's telling, is less a career hazard than the one honest law of political physics. The line lands because it refuses every comforting story politics likes to sell about merit, destiny, or “service.” Power doesn’t just slip; it is revoked. “Sacked” is wonderfully unromantic: not “retired,” not “defeated,” not even “resigned,” but hauled out by the collar. Clark’s diction drags high office down to workplace humiliation, collapsing the distance between a junior minister and a middle manager.

The fatalism is deliberate, almost gleeful. By pairing dismissal with death, he frames political life as a closed loop: elevation guarantees demotion. That’s not just cynicism; it’s a warning about the psychology of status. If the endpoint is predetermined, then the scramble for prestige looks faintly ridiculous, even pathological. “It’s always awful” punctures the myth that seasoned operators learn to take it on the chin. Clark insists the wound is universal: the loss of proximity to power hurts, no matter how many times you’ve watched it happen to others.

The kicker, “Even Prime Ministers,” is the class-conscious punchline. In Britain’s theatrical hierarchy, the Prime Minister is meant to feel almost presidential, an apex role insulated by history. Clark reminds you the job is still contingent, dependent on party, cabinet, voters, scandal, luck. The subtext is bracingly anti-heroic: politics isn’t a ladder to greatness, it’s a revolving door with better tailoring.

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APA Style (7th ed.)
Clark, Alan. (2026, January 15). In the end we are all sacked and it's always awful. It is as inevitable as death following life. If you are elevated there comes a day when you are demoted. Even Prime Ministers. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/in-the-end-we-are-all-sacked-and-its-always-awful-170805/

Chicago Style
Clark, Alan. "In the end we are all sacked and it's always awful. It is as inevitable as death following life. If you are elevated there comes a day when you are demoted. Even Prime Ministers." FixQuotes. January 15, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/in-the-end-we-are-all-sacked-and-its-always-awful-170805/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"In the end we are all sacked and it's always awful. It is as inevitable as death following life. If you are elevated there comes a day when you are demoted. Even Prime Ministers." FixQuotes, 15 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/in-the-end-we-are-all-sacked-and-its-always-awful-170805/. Accessed 10 Feb. 2026.

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Alan Clark

Alan Clark (April 13, 1928 - September 5, 1999) was a Politician from England.

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