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!”
“You know that bad people can make great art, don’t you?’Said Annie.
‘Yes, of course. Some of the people whose art I admire the most are assholes.’
‘Dickens wasn’t nice to his wife.’
‘Dickens didn’t make a memoir called I’m Nice to My Wife.”
“Were you tempted?"
"Of course not! Kate would slit my throat."
"I'm not talking about what Kate would do to you if you strayed, although I'm of the opinion that she would not start at your throat.”
“Too bad Guy interrupted," I said as we snuck around the rear of the building. "Otherwise, I could have just walked you down here before you changed back."
His look said he wasn't dignifying that with a retort.
"I always wanted a dog," I said, nearly running to keep up with his long strides. "My brothers were both allergic. Have I told you that?"
"Once or twice."
"Maybe, someday, you could humor me and—
"Don't finish that sentence.”
“If you are still, no one can hurt you. If you play dead, there is nothing to kill.”
“Finally I knelt on the bed and placed my hand on his back. I patted awkwardly, hoping that was protocol for when someone was sobbing their eyes out. "hey." pat, pat. "It's okay. We'll bust out of here before they tag us." pat, pat, pat. I felt lame”
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