Years ago, someone introduced me to this saying: gratitude is not a political category.
It may not be true that Churchill ever said this, but there is certainly more than a grain of truth in it.
In a Weberian world of jockeying for power, of gaining and retaining power, of using and being used, with many grievances and wounds for the players, gratitude is easily forgotten.
The truth is— all of us in and around politics need help from time to time. We get far more of it than we acknowledge. We deceive ourselves if we pretend that we can always rely on our own resources.
That is why gratitude is an underrated virtue—and a potentially powerful one—both individually and systemically.