“Why do you have to be the same as the others? ...Most of them are stupid.”
― Ken Follett, quote from Winter of the World
“Why was it, Lloyd wondered, that the people who wanted to destroy everything good about their country were the quickest to wave the national flag?”
― Ken Follett, quote from Winter of the World
“And here's my advice to you. If you get the chance of the mad kind of love, grab it with both hands, and to hell with the consequences.”
― Ken Follett, quote from Winter of the World
“The Führer's judgement will be proved right - again.'
'Of course it will, Erik.'
'He has never yet been wrong!'
'A man thought he could fly, so he jumped off the top of a ten-storey building, and as he fell past the fifth floor, flapping his arms uselessly in the air, he was heard to say: So far, so good!”
― Ken Follett, quote from Winter of the World
“Most rich people have a gangster in their ancestry somewhere.”
― Ken Follett, quote from Winter of the World
“Ethel said: "Lloyd, there's someone here you may remember-"
Daisy could not restrain herself. She ran to Lloyd and threw herself into his arms. She hugged him. She looked into his green eyes, then kissed his brown cheeks and his broken nose and then his mouth. "I love you, Lloyd," she sad madly. "I love you, I love you, I love you."
"I love you, too, Daisy," he said.
Behind her, Daisy heard Ethel's wry voice. "You do remember, I see.”
― Ken Follett, quote from Winter of the World
“Americans talked about voters the same way Russians talked about Stalin. They had to be obeyed.”
― Ken Follett, quote from Winter of the World
“You’re a queer?”
“That’s exactly what I am. I didn’t choose to be.”
After a while Woody put his arm around Chuck’s shoulders.
“Well, what the hell,” he said. “At least you’re not a Republican.”
― Ken Follett, quote from Winter of the World
“Why is it that those who want to destroy everything good about their country are the quickest to waive the national flag?”
― Ken Follett, quote from Winter of the World
“Erik was one of those inadequate people who were so scared by life that they preferred to live under harsh authority, to be told what to do and what to think by a government that allowed no dissent. They were foolish and dangerous, but there were an awful lot of them.”
― Ken Follett, quote from Winter of the World
“She had believed that love was something she could bestow upon whomever she liked, and that her main responsibility was to choose cleverly.”
― Ken Follett, quote from Winter of the World
“You don’t give up on democracy every time you lose a vote”, Ethel said crisply.”
― Ken Follett, quote from Winter of the World
“This is amazing,” Volodya said. “He’s the President, yet he has to make excuses all the time for what he does!”
“Something like that,” Woody said. “We call it democracy.”
― Ken Follett, quote from Winter of the World
“He was looking forward to letting Joanne know, in a casual way, that he had read these books.”
― Ken Follett, quote from Winter of the World
“man thought he could fly, so he jumped off the top of a ten-story building, and as he fell past the fifth floor, flapping his arms uselessly in the air, he was heard to say: ‘So far, so good.”
― Ken Follett, quote from Winter of the World
“After the Battle of Midway it was clear that the Pacific war would be won by planes launched from ships. Both Japan and the United States began crash programs to build aircraft carriers as fast as possible. During 1943 and 1944, Japan produced seven of these huge, costly vessels. In the same period, the United States produced ninety.”
― Ken Follett, quote from Winter of the World
“At last it faded away, and the mushroom cloud began to disperse. Greg heard Frank Oppenheimer say: “It worked.” Oppie said: “Yes, it worked.” The two brothers shook hands. And the world is still here, Greg thought. But it has been forever changed.”
― Ken Follett, quote from Winter of the World
“No candidate is perfect' said Lloyd. 'It's how you deal with your weaknesses that matters”
― Ken Follett, quote from Winter of the World
“If you don’t take an interest, then what happens is your fault.”
― Ken Follett, quote from Winter of the World
“Greg heard Frank Oppenheimer say: “It worked.” Oppie said: “Yes, it worked.” The two brothers shook hands. And the world is still here, Greg thought. But it has been forever changed.”
― Ken Follett, quote from Winter of the World
“Everything is ultimately the Prime Minister's fault', said Lloyd. 'That's what it means to be the leader”
― Ken Follett, quote from Winter of the World
“politicians often had the knack of seeming to know everyone intimately. Either they had remarkable memories, or their secretaries reminded them efficiently.”
― Ken Follett, quote from Winter of the World
“In the dynamics of the main family of the story, a rising socialist in England's postwar government expects his grandparents to be pleased that the local aristocrat's garden is commandeered to allow the people to get coal underneath. Instead, the grandparents grieve because the garden represents something more than a resource to be divided. It is a symbol of community and beauty.”
― Ken Follett, quote from Winter of the World
“A man thought he could fly, so he jumped off the top of a ten-storey building, and as he fell past the fifth floor, flapping his arms uselessly in the air, he was heard to say: So far, so good.”
― Ken Follett, quote from Winter of the World
“Carla had never before realized how much she had been protected by politicians, newspapermen, and lawyers. Without them, she saw now, the government could do anything it liked, even kill people.”
― Ken Follett, quote from Winter of the World
“Desperate men are dangerous. And I do know that the United States is not ready to go to war against Japan. Our navy isn’t ready and our air force isn’t ready.”
― Ken Follett, quote from Winter of the World
“She had always liked what Scarlett O'Hara said in Gone with the Wind: I'll think about it tomorrow. Not anymore.”
― Ken Follett, quote from Winter of the World
“Weißt du denn nicht, dass du die Seele verlierst, wenn du die Wahrheit über dich selbst abstreitest?”
― Ken Follett, quote from Winter of the World
“You’d be surprised. Look, most Republicans are decent men who simply have a view of the world that is different from ours. But there is a hard core of fucking nutcases.”
― Ken Follett, quote from Winter of the World
“There's something in there," Matt said. "Something alive. It punched me."
"Punched you?" Baldwin's face screwed up. "Are you sure a bat didn't fly at you? I bet there are a few in there."
Matt rubbed his tender jaw. "Unless its name is Bruce Wayne, that wasn't a bat.”
― K.L. Armstrong, quote from Odin's Ravens
“Nicaise had picked up a gilt three-pronged fork, but had paused before sampling the dish in order to speak. The fear he'd shown of Damen at the ring seemed to still be there. His knuckles, clenched around the fork, were white.
'It's all right,' said Damen. He spoke to the boy as gently as he could. 'I'm not going to hurt you.'
Nicaise stared back at him. His huge blue eyes were fringed like a whore's, or like a doe's. Around them, the table was a coloured wall of voices and laughter, courtiers caught up in their own amusements, paying them no attention.
'Good,' said Nicaise, and stabbed the fork viciously into Damen's thigh under the table.
Even through a layer of cloth, it was enough to make Damen start, and instinctively grab the fork, as three drops of blood welled up.
'Excuse me a moment,' Laurent said smoothly, turning from Torveld to face Nicaise.
'I made your pet jump,' said Nicaise, smugly.
Not sounding at all displeased: 'Yes, you did.'
'Whatever you're planning, it's not going to work.'
'I think it will, though. Bet you your earring.'
'If I win, you wear it,' said Nicaise.
Laurent immediately lifted his cup and inclined it toward Nicaise in a little gesture sealing the bet. Damen tried to shake the bizarre impression that they were enjoying themselves.
Nicaise waved an attendant over and asked for a new fork.”
― C.S. Pacat, quote from Captive Prince: Volume One
“To a terrible place which men’s ears may not hear of, nor their eyes see it.”
― Sophocles, quote from The Three Theban Plays: Antigone / Oedipus the King / Oedipus at Colonus
“Oh," she said, covering her face with her hand. It was not an oh of disappointment or an oh of surprise but an oh that Amina had never heard before, scraped raw with an emotion Amina would not know herself until years later, when she understood what it was to long for someone, to ache for their smell and taste on you, to imagine the weight of their hips pinning yours so precisely that you crane up to meet your own invisible desire. She watched as Paige crossed Akhil's room, undistracted by all the usual things that stopped people- the Greats, his desk, the leather jacket hanging from his chair- and moved straight for his hamper, which she opened up, pulling out a forgotten T-shirt and crushing it into her face. "Oh,", she said again, muffled. Oh. And even if Amina didn't yet know what it was to love like that, to burn until your spine has no choice but to try to wind itself around an empty shirt, she understood for sure that the people who said it was better to have loved and lost than never to to have loved at all were a bunch of dicks.”
― Mira Jacob, quote from The Sleepwalker's Guide to Dancing
“Just because you're an adult doesn't mean you're grown up. Growing up means being patient, holding your temper, cutting out the self-pity, and quitting with the righteous indignation.'
'Why do so many people seem to love righteous indignation?'
'Because if you can prove you're a victim, all rules are off. You can lash out at people. You don't have to be accountable for anything.”
― Brandon Stanton, quote from Humans of New York
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