There is an obscure quote that I remember. It is from an exchange about some political situation, and it goes a little like the following:
Person A: If you do that, you’ll be politically defeated, just like Kerensky.
Person B: Well I certainly have no plans to become a Kerensky!
Person A: Neither did Kerensky.
The last line is the only one I’m certain about; the first two are left vague because I can’t remember the circumstances. In any case the exchange was not specific to Kerensky; I mean, it was just an allusion, and it didn’t happen in Russia.
The background is that Aleksandr Kerensky was the head of Russia’s provisional government, starting in 1917 and ending soon after it began. He was caught between Czarists and Bolshevists (not to mention Imperial Germany), and is sort of the blueprint for weak centrist forces getting trounced by extremists of left and right.
I just happen to think that the quote is very clever, and am wondering the source. Any ideas?