Margaret MacMillan · 570 pages
Rating: (8.7K votes)
“The delegates to the peace conference after World War I "tried to impose a rational order on an irrational world.”
“The glories of the past compensated for the imperfections of the present.”
“In the fluid world of 1919, it was possible to dream of great change, or have nightmares about the collapse of order.”
“Wilson agreed reluctantly to their attempts: “I don’t much like to make a compromise with people who aren’t reasonable. They will always believe that, by persisting in their claims, they will be able to obtain more.”
“There are only two perfectly useless things in the world,” he quipped. “One is an appendix and the other is Poincaré!”
“Helped are those who forgive; their reward shall be forgetfulness of every evil done to them. It will be in their power, therefore, to envision the new Earth.
-----“The Gospel According to Shug”
“I guess what I'm trying to say is that you can't live somebody else's life for them. They have to make their own choices, and sometimes all we can do is learn to live with them.”
“After almost two hours of creeping around the forest, one of the jacks discovered Belen. He had fallen asleep, and the young man had literally tripped over him. So much for his reputation.”
“I also felt a storm in the air. It prickled on the horizon. I felt it on my skin. The skies were clear, I could not wish for clearer. But I could feel the clouds massing against me, somewhere over the horizon.”
“Garlic is divine. Few food items can taste so many distinct ways, handled correctly. Misuse of garlic is a crime...Please, treat your garlic with respect...Avoid at all costs that vile spew you see rotting in oil in screwtop jars. Too lazy to peel fresh? You don't deserve to eat garlic.”
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