Quotes from The Covenant

James A. Michener ·  1240 pages

Rating: (17.3K votes)


“This is not a promise, this is not threat, it's just the way it's gonna be!!!”
― James A. Michener, quote from The Covenant


“a word once written will often accidentally find a life that no one anticipates; it lies”
― James A. Michener, quote from The Covenant


“Women like her looked at their world, rolled up their sleeves, and tried to make it better. Now”
― James A. Michener, quote from The Covenant


“Detritus, that's the word. The awful accumulation of wrong decisions, improper terms. You scrape away the excrescences of history...and maybe you get down to the bedrock of human society, where diamonds hide. God of my fathers, how I wish we could bring in the psychological drills and probe down to bedrock.”
― James A. Michener, quote from The Covenant


“Never ask such a question!” Rhodes exploded. “Anything can be done if men of good principle determine that it shall be done. Have you the courage to strike for immortal goals?” In”
― James A. Michener, quote from The Covenant



“they believed that the bright, soaring promises of the New Testament could be used as a basis for government; and”
― James A. Michener, quote from The Covenant


“a nation is totally geared to the waging of war, it had better ensure that war keeps occurring somewhere; and”
― James A. Michener, quote from The Covenant


“Wrong decisions, Jakob, are never inevitable. A wise man can always turn back from a precipice.”
― James A. Michener, quote from The Covenant


“The sanest judgment that can be passed on the genesis of this terrible war between two groups of friends is that it was the result of imperiousness on the English side and intransigence on the Boer. Like”
― James A. Michener, quote from The Covenant


“then it occurred to him that a worthy man dedicates himself not to one particular thing which attracts him, but to all tasks; and he”
― James A. Michener, quote from The Covenant



“Most important fact of war? Keep your army in existence. Lose the battle, but keep your eye on winning the war.” But”
― James A. Michener, quote from The Covenant


“What the Voortrekkers failed to realize in their moment of victory was that they had offered the covenant to God, not He to them.”
― James A. Michener, quote from The Covenant


“Nevertheless, in obedience to the covenant as they understood it, they had won a signal victory, which confirmed their belief that He had accepted their offer and had personally intervened on their behalf. No”
― James A. Michener, quote from The Covenant


“The Boer nation had become a theocracy, and would so remain. General”
― James A. Michener, quote from The Covenant


“The English could bring into this tight area four hundred and forty-eight thousand soldiers, but they could not find space in their ships for the extra medicines and food needed to save emaciated women and children. They could import a hundred thousand horses for their cavalry, but not three cows for their concentration camps. Guns bigger than houses they could haul in, but no hospital equipment. It was insane; it was horrifying...”
― James A. Michener, quote from The Covenant



About the author

James A. Michener
Born place: in New York, New York, The United States
Born date February 3, 1907
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