Michael Dobbs · 384 pages
Rating: (2.5K votes)
“The captain of the Lowry tried a new approach. He assembled the destroyer’s jazz band on deck, and told them to play some music. Strains of Yankee Doodle floated across the ocean, followed by a boogie-woogie number. The Americans thought they could see a smile on the face of one of the sailors. They asked if there was any particular tune he would like to hear. The Soviet sailor did not respond. The”
― Michael Dobbs, quote from One Minute to Midnight: Kennedy, Khrushchev and Castro on the Brink of Nuclear War
“The most enduring lesson of the Cuban missile crisis is that, in a world with nuclear weapons, a classic military victory is an illusion. Communism was not defeated militarily; it was defeated economically, culturally, and ideologically. Khrushchev’s successors were unable to provide their own people with a basic level of material prosperity and spiritual fulfillment. They lost the war of ideas. In the end, as I have argued in Down with Big Brother: The Fall of the Soviet Empire, communism defeated itself.”
― Michael Dobbs, quote from One Minute to Midnight: Kennedy, Khrushchev and Castro on the Brink of Nuclear War
“JFK's great virtue, and the essential difference between him and George W. Bush, was that he had an instinctive appreciation for the chaotic forces of history.”
― Michael Dobbs, quote from One Minute to Midnight: Kennedy, Khrushchev and Castro on the Brink of Nuclear War
“Bismarck defined political intuition as the ability to hear, before anybody else, “the distant hoofbeats of history.”
― Michael Dobbs, quote from One Minute to Midnight: Kennedy, Khrushchev and Castro on the Brink of Nuclear War
“The closest contact they had with the enemy was a playful sign that boasted: “Worldwide delivery in 30 minutes or less—or your next one is free.” Nuclear apocalypse was as mundane as delivering pizza.”
― Michael Dobbs, quote from One Minute to Midnight: Kennedy, Khrushchev and Castro on the Brink of Nuclear War
“Khrushchev had been ready to settle for a”
― Michael Dobbs, quote from One Minute to Midnight: Kennedy, Khrushchev and Castro on the Brink of Nuclear War
“Phones on, and stay alert,” Luc said. “And tell Jonah we said hello.” “Lucas,” Ethan politely said, “kiss my ass.”
― Chloe Neill, quote from Blood Games
“Feeling a little emotional, huh? I petted his hair. That's okay. It was an emotional blow job.”
― Kylie Scott, quote from Lead
“Da, to su muke koje muče ljudi hrišćani sa Levanta i koje vi, pripadnici hrišćanskog Zapada,
ne možete nikad potpuno razumeti, isto kao što ih još manje mogu razumeti Turci. To je sudbina levantinskog čoveka, jer on je poussière humaine, ljudska prašina, što mučno promiče između Istoka i Zapada, ne pripadajući ni jednom a bijena od oba. To su ljudi koji znaju mnogo jezika, ali nijedan nije njihov, koji poznaju dve vere, ali ni u jednoj nisu tvrdi. To su žrtve fatalne ljudske podvojenosti na hrišćane i nehrišćane; večiti tumači i posrednici, a koji u sebi nose toliko nejasnosti i nedorečnosti; dobri znalci Istoka i Zapada i njihovih običaja i verovanja, ali podjednako prezreni i sumnjivi jednoj i drugoj strani. Na njih se mogu primeniti reči koje je pre šest vekova napisao veliki Dželaledin, Dželaledin Rumi: »Jer samog sebe ne mogu da poznam. Niti sam hrišćanin, ni Jevrejin, ni Pars, ni musliman. Nit’ sam sa Istoka ni sa Zapada, ni sa kopna ni sa mora.« malo, izdvojeno čovečanstvo koje grca pod dvostrukim Istočnim grehom, i koje treba još jednom da bude spaseno i otkupljeno a niko ne vidi kako ni od koga. To su ljudi sa granice, duhovne i fizičke, sa crne i krvave linije koja je usled nekog teškog i apsurdnog nesporazuma potegnuta između ljudi, božjih stvorenja, između kojih ne treba i ne sme da bude granice. To je ona ivica između mora i kopna, osuđena na večiti pokret i nemir. To je treći svet u koji se sleglo sve prokletstvo usled podeljenosti zemlje na dva sveta. To je...”
― Ivo Andrić, quote from Bosnian Chronicle
“Each heartbeat begins with a single, electrical impulse, or "spark." The distinctive sound we hear through a stethoscope, or when we place our head on a loved one's chest, is the sound of the heart valves opening and closing in perfect synchronicity with each other. It is a two-party rhythm - a delicate dance of systole and diastole, which propels the heart's electrically charged particles through its chambers roughly every second of the day, every day of our lives.”
― Jessi Kirby, quote from Things We Know by Heart
“What a good husband you are", Nancy said afterward, "always taking your wife's side rather thn your mother's." "It's the side of reason I am on", Teddy said, "It just so happens that that's where you're always to be found and my mother rarely.”
― Kate Atkinson, quote from A God in Ruins
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