Having faith in God did not mean sitting back and doing nothing. It meant believing you would find success if you did your best honestly and energetically.
He was nineteen years old, homeless and rootless, with no family and no purpose in life.
… people always credit prime ministers with more brains than they’ve got.
you should first follow the plow if you want to dance the harvest jig.
Aliena’s brother, Richard, sometimes reminded her of her father, with a look or a gesture, and that was when she felt a surge of affection.
If we’re all aggressive, obedient solders [sic], who’s going to write the poems and play the blues and go on anti-war protest marches?
This was her destiny, and it was a fit and proper one. She was not unwilling, but she knew this was a fateful moment, and she had a sense of doors closing behind her and the path of her life being fixed irrevocably.
It was the study hour. Most of the monks were reading. A few were meditating, an activity that was suspiciously similar to dozing.
Everything in Tom’s cathedral looked as if it was meant to be. Perhaps her life was like that, everything foreordained in a grand design, and she was like a foolish builder who wanted a waterfall in the chancel.
Englishmen did not speak to strangers on trains …
A chill December morning dawned, with rags and tatters of mist hanging on the trees like poor people’s washing.
I don’t think it really matters whether parents are strict or lenient, as long as they’re consistent. Kids can live with more or less any set of rules so long as they know what they are. It’s arbitrary tyranny that gets them mixed up.
Why do you have to be the same as the others? …Most of them are stupid.
The first casualty of a civil war was justice, Philip had realized.
When you’re thinking, please remember this: excessive pride is a familiar sin, but a man may just as easily frustrate the will of God through excessive humility.
Two blades clashed, ringing like a bell. Like all small boys, Philip thought his father was invincible; and this was the moment when he learned the truth.
Americans talked about voters the same way Russians talked about Stalin. They had to be obeyed.
Most rich people have a gangster in their ancestry somewhere.
In the grounds of the château was a churchsaid to date from the year 1000, and he went to look at it, but he had never really understood what people saw in oldchurches.
In the grounds of the château was a church said to date from the year 1000, and he went to look at it, but he had never really understood what people saw in old churches.
And where are you going?” His voice was playfully challenging. “To get some breakfast,” she said without stopping.He leered. “I’ve got something for you to eat,” he called after her.”I might bite it off, though,” she said over her shoulder.
Why is it that those who want to destroy everything good about their country are the quickest to waive the national flag?
She was unique: there was something abnormal about her, and it was that abnormal something that made her magnetic.
He was looking forward eagerly to seeing her again. He had coped perfectly well on his own, of course, but it was very reassuring to have someone in your life who was always ready to fight for you, and he had missed that comforting feeling,
politicians often had the knack of seeming to know everyone intimately. Either they had remarkable memories, or their secretaries reminded them efficiently.
World War II is the greatest drama in human history, the biggest war ever and a true battle of good and evil. I imagine writers will continue to get stories from it, and readers will continue to love them, for many more years.
One of the hardest things for me, now that I’m famous, is finding people who can read my stuff and give me an honest critique.
In my books, women often solve the problem. Even if the woman is not the hero, she’s a strong character. She does change the plot. She’ll often rescue the male character from some situation.
With hindsight, we see that the Soviet Union never had a chance of world domination, but we didn’t know that then.