Ken Follett Quotes & Sayings

... people always credit prime ministers with more brains than they've got. — Ken Follett

Your aunt Rose is dying," Petranilla said as soon as he was close. "May God bless her soul. Mother Cecilia told me." "You look shocked - but you know how ill she is." "It's not Aunt Rose. I've had other bad news." He swallowed. "I can't go to Oxford. — Ken Follett

A waiter appeared, and Gus said: "Bring coffee for my guests, please, and a plate of ham sandwiches." He deliberately did not ask them what they wanted. He had seen Woodrow Wilson act like this with people he wanted to intimidate. — Ken Follett

Hitler doesn't stir up hatred without a purpose. — Ken Follett

The duck swallows the worm — Ken Follett

They were the same height and weight, and could wear each other's clothes. But Lev had charm by the ton. He was unreliable and selfish, and he lived on the edge of the law, but women adored him. Grigori was honest and dependable, a hard worker and a serious thinker, and he was single. It would — Ken Follett

Macke went to the door. He looked at the three women: the maid, the wife, and the daughter. "All this trouble," he said, "for the sake of an eight-year-old moron. I will never understand you people. — Ken Follett

Aliena was concentrating. Their painted wooden board was shaped like a cross and divided into squares of different colours. The counters appeared to be made of ivory, white and black. The game was obviously a variant of merrels, or nine-men's-morris, and probably a gift brought back from Normandy by Aliena's father. — Ken Follett

An apology is designed to make the offender feel okay so that he can do it again. Don't be sorry. Kincaid tried to gather the shreds — Ken Follett

Fitz did not censor her mail but, as the head of the family, he had the right to read any letter addressed to a female relative living in his house. No respectable woman would object. — Ken Follett

He was seething inside with a new emotion. Nothing seemed very important anymore except the Princess. He was single-minded about her. He was enchanted. He was possessed. He was in love. — Ken Follett

The fourth issue would go to the printer tomorrow. He was not so happy with this one: there was no big controversy. He put that out of his mind for the moment and — Ken Follett

His aim was the glory of God, but the glory of Philip pleased him too. — Ken Follett

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

He believed in Communism the way most people believed in God: he would not be greatly surprised or disappointed if he turned out to be wrong, and meanwhile it made little difference to the way he lived. — Ken Follett

A white American can orbit the earth, but a black American can't enter a restroom. — Ken Follett

Why do the Fascists want violence?" Ethel asked rhetorically. "Those out there in Hills Road may be mere hooligans, but someone is directing them, and their tactics have a purpose. When there is fighting in the streets, they can claim that public order has broken down, and drastic measures are needed to restore the rule of law. Those emergency measures will include banning democratic political parties such as Labour, prohibiting trade union action, and jailing people without trial - people such as us, peaceful men and women whose only crime is to disagree with the government. Does this sound fantastic to you, unlikely, something that could never happen? Well, they used exactly those tactics in Germany - and it worked." She went on to talk about how Fascism — Ken Follett

Marriage is a promise. You can't keep a promise only when it suits you. You have to keep it against your inclination. That's what it means. — Ken Follett

Archdeacon Peter's face was like stone. He was the worst kind of Christian, Philip realized: he embraced all of the negatives, enforced every proscription, insisted on all forms of denial, and demanded strict punishment for every offense; yet he ignored all the compassion of Christianity, denied its mercy, flagrantly disobeyed its ethic of love, and openly flouted the gentle laws of Jesus. That's what the Pharisees were like, Philip thought; no wonder the Lord preferred to eat with publicans and sinners. — Ken Follett

There's nothing wrong with white people. They just ain't black. — Ken Follett

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

I remember seeing a Nazi poster," she went on. It was this memory that had triggered her dreadful thought. "There was a picture of a male nurse and a mentally handicapped man. The text said something like: 'Sixty thousand reichsmarks is what this person suffering from hereditary defects costs the people's community during his lifetime. Comrade, that is your money too!' It was an advertisement for a magazine, I think. — Ken Follett

Arrogance was the vice of good leaders. - Prior Philip — Ken Follett

Despite everything they say, they are not popular. And the longer they stay in government, the better people will get to know their wickedness. — Ken Follett

Winston was an odd mix, Fitz thought: aristocrat and man of the people, a brilliant administrator who could never resist meddling in other people's departments, a charmer who was disliked by most of his political colleagues. — Ken Follett

hundred million Europeans were living on fifteen hundred calories a day - the level at which health begins to suffer from malnutrition. As — Ken Follett

Whoever produced the first draft would need, in all fairness, to put in some of what the other side wanted alongside his own demands. His statement of the other side's wishes then became an irreducible minimum, while all of his own demands were still up for negotiation. So the drafter always started at a disadvantage. Greg vowed to remember never to write the first draft. — Ken Follett

Jack was too absorbed in his work to hear the bell. He was mesmerized by the challenge of making soft, round shapes of hard rock. The stone had a will of its own, and if he tried to make it do something it did not want to do, it would fight him, and his chisel would slip, or dig in too deeply, spoiling the shapes. But once he had got to know the lump of rock in front of him he could transform it. The more difficult the task, the more fascinated he was. He was beginning to feel that the decorative carving demanded by Tom was too easy. Zigzags, lozenges, dogtooth, spirals and plain roll moldings bored him, and even these leaves were rather stiff and repetitive. He wanted to curve natural-looking foliage, pliable and irregular, and copy the different shapes of real leaves, oak and ash and birch. — Ken Follett

Gwenda sighed. She did not know how to say what she felt. It was not just love. She thought about him all the time, and she did not know how she could live without him. She daydreamed about kidnapping him and locking him up in a hut deep in the forest so that he could never escape from her. — Ken Follett

Philip couldn't fornicate if you put him in a barrel with three whores. — Ken Follett

So much hangs on the decisions of a small number of poorly educated people." "That's democracy." Gus smiled. "A terrible way to run a country, but every other system is worse. — Ken Follett

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

Blenkinsop sighed. As usual, those of you who can think of better ways to win the war are invited to write directly to Mr. Winston Churchill, number 10 Downing Street, London South-West-One. Now, are there any questions, as opposed to stupid criticisms? — Ken Follett

It was an odd relationship, but then she was an extraordinary woman: a prioress who doubted much of what the church taught; an acclaimed healer who rejected medicine as practised by physicians; and a nun who made enthusiastic love to her man whenever she could get away with it. If I wanted a normal relationship, Merthin told himself, I should have picked a normal girl. — Ken Follett

There had been a wonderful atmosphere of liberation and camaraderie. The Russians hated it. — Ken Follett

There is no point in asking a man a question until you have established whether he has any reason to lie to you. — Ken Follett

But Wilson was an idealist who believed that the force of righteousness would overcome all obstacles. He underestimated the need to flatter, cajole, and seduce. — Ken Follett

For years we've been campaigning against the rule that women can't vote. That's the barrier. Once it's broken down, people will see further concessions as mere technicalities. It will be relatively easy to get the voting age lowered and other restrictions eased. — Ken Follett

I could weep for all the innocent women and children who were burned and maimed in London - and it doesn't help at all to know that German women and children are suffering the same. — Ken Follett

There he saw a woman. He recognised her. She smiled. His heart stood still. Aliena — Ken Follett

When people are perfectly polite, it usually means they don't really care. A little awkwardness is more sincere. — Ken Follett

She loved him because he had brought her back to life. She had been like a caterpillar in a cocoon, and he had drawn her out and shown her that she was a butterfly. — Ken Follett

Like all diplomats, Walter hated it when monarchs talked directly to each other, instead of through their ministers. Anything could happen then. — Ken Follett

Don't you know that if you deny the truth about yourself you lose your soul? — Ken Follett

Most of my stories have some basis in fact. — Ken Follett

They wanted to look as if they had the right to close meetings and empty buildings, to burst into homes and offices and arrest people, to drag them to jails and camps and beat them up, interrogate and torture them, as — Ken Follett

But what hope is there for the world, if a nation of penniless peasants can't try to climb up out of the mud without being crushed under the jackboot of Uncle Sam? — Ken Follett

The boundary between philosophy and fiction is not as clear cut as you may think and the two definitely interact.. — Ken Follett

Englishmen did not speak to strangers on trains ... — Ken Follett

The duck swallows the worm, the fox kills the duck, the men shoot the fox, and the devil hunts the men. — Ken Follett

The heart is a map of the world, did you know that?" "I don't even know what it means," he said. "I saw a medieval map once. It showed the earth as a flat disc with Jerusalem in the center. Rome was bigger than Africa, and America was not even shown, of course. The heart is that kind of map. The self is in the middle and everything else is out of proportion. You draw the friends of your youth large, then later it's impossible to rescale them when other more important people need to be added. Anyone who has done you wrong is shown too big, and so is anyone you loved. — Ken Follett

All Europe was watching Spain. The left-wing government elected last February had suffered an attempted military coup backed by Fascists and conservatives. The rebel general Franco had won support from the Catholic Church. The news had struck the rest of the continent like an earthquake. After Germany and Italy would Spain, too, fall under the curse of Fascism? "The revolt was botched, as you probably know, and it almost failed," Billy went on. "But Hitler and Mussolini came to the rescue, and saved the insurrection by airlifting thousands of rebel troops from North Africa as reinforcements." Lenny put in: "And the unions saved the government!" "That's true," Billy said. "The government was slow to react, but the trade unions led the way in organizing workers and arming them with weapons they seized from military arsenals, ships, gun shops, and anywhere else they could find them. — Ken Follett

Boy did not see why two great nations such as England and Germany should go to war over a half-barbaric wasteland such as Poland. — Ken Follett

For me the words should be like a pane of glass that you look through, not at. — Ken Follett

The war taught me that nothing counts as much as loyalty" "Bullshit. you still haven't learned that when humans are under pressure, we're all willing to lie" "even to the people we care?" "we lie more to our loved ones, because we care about them so damn much. why do you think we tell the truth to priests and shrinks and total strangers we meet on trains? it's because we don't love them, so we don't care what they think. — Ken Follett

Even if you were taken out of school for want of money, Hugh. It's no excuse for false values. The world is full of poor people who understand that love and friendship are more important than riches - Maisie Greenbourne — Ken Follett

I think more people should shoot newspaper editors ... it might improve the press — Ken Follett

jaw. He examined his morning beard, pulling the loose skin this way — Ken Follett

No one's an angel - especially if he's a man — Ken Follett

Monika answered for her father. Giving Walter a conspiratorial grin, she said: Daddy used to say that if the tsar had been born to a different station in life, he might, with an effort, have become a competent postman. — Ken Follett

Lowther looked shocked. "That would mean it's our policy to kill civilians." "Exactly." "But the government assures us - " "The government lies," Boy said. "And the bomber crews know it. Many of them don't give a damn, of course, but some feel bad. They believe that if we're doing the right thing, then we should say so, and if we're doing the wrong thing we should stop. — Ken Follett

If it be a sin to covet honour, I am the most offending soul alive. — Ken Follett

A person who breaks a promise diminishes herself. It's like losing a finger. It's worse than being paralyzed, which is merely physical. Someone whose promises are worthless has a disabled soul. — Ken Follett

Communists in power would be as oppressive as the aristocracy they replaced. — Ken Follett

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

We're all idealists," said Lord Silverman, smoothing over the conflict like a good host. "That's why we're in politics. People without ideals don't bother. But we have to confront the realities of elections and public opinion. — Ken Follett

When I'm brave and strong, and care for children and the sick and the poor, I become a better person. And when I'm cruel, cowardly, or tell lies, or get drunk, I turn into someone less worthy, and I can't respect myself. That's the divine retribution I believe in — Ken Follett

The atmosphere in Washington was different. President Reagan remained popular, despite having committed crimes far worse than those that had brought Nixon down: financing terrorism in Nicaragua, trading weapons for hostages with Iran, and turning women and girls into mangled corpses on the streets of Beirut. Reagan's collaborator Vice President George H. W. Bush looked likely to become the next president. Somehow - and Jasper could not figure out how this trick had been worked - people who challenged the president and caught him out cheating and lying were no longer heroes, as they had been in the seventies, but instead were considered disloyal and even anti-American. — Ken Follett

It was the study hour. Most of the monks were reading. A few were meditating, an activity that was suspiciously similar to dozing. — Ken Follett

Besides, he realized, he could not leave the house without a coat, not because of the rain - he did not mind getting wet - but because of the bulge in front of his clothing that would not subside. He — Ken Follett

With the fascination of a condemned man watching the carpenter build the gallows. — Ken Follett

He had never before thought of himself as gullible. He wondered where he had gone wrong. It occurred to him that he had let himself be overawed - by bishop Henry and his silk robes, by the magnificence of Winchester and its cathedral, by the piles of silver in the mint and the heaps of meat in the butchers' shops, and by the thought of seeing the king. He had forgotten that God saw through the silk robes to the sinful heart, that the only wealth worth having was treasure in heaven, and that the even the king had to kneel down in church. Feeling that everyone else was so much powerful and sophisticated than he was, he had lost sight of his true values, suspended his critical faculties, and places his trust in his superiors. — Ken Follett

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. — Ken Follett

To someone standing in the nave, looking down the length of the church toward the east, the round window would seem like a huge sun exploding into innumerable shards of gorgeous color. — Ken Follett

Our government doesn't necessarily agree with Wilson's Fourteen Points." Maud nodded. "I suppose we're against point five, about colonial peoples having a say in their own government." "Exactly. What about Rhodesia, and Barbados, and India? We can't be expected to ask the natives' permission before we civilize them. Americans are far too liberal. And we're dead against point two, freedom of the seas in war and peace. — Ken Follett

When I'm writing a woman character, I don't think, 'What would a woman do?' I just think, 'What would this character do in this situation?' — Ken Follett

If I've learned one thing in Spain, it's that we have to fight the Communists just as hard as the Fascists. They're both evil. — Ken Follett

Her breasts had changed, too. He remembered when they had stuck out from her chest as if they were weightless, the nipples pointing up. Then, when she was pregnant, they had become even bigger, and the nipples had grown larger. Now they were lower and softer, and they swung delightfully from side to side when she walked. He had loved them through all their changes. He wondered what they would be like when she was old. — Ken Follett

I've met the people who run Alabama. Believe me, they're not that smart. — Ken Follett

But instead of feeling ashamed she was overwhelmed by a sense of her own power. She had resolved not to let people make her a victim, and she had proved she could keep her resolution. — Ken Follett

Why is it that those who want to destroy everything good about their country are the quickest to waive the national flag? — Ken Follett

I like reading history, and actually most authors enjoy the research part because it is, after all, easier than writing. — Ken Follett

More than two hundred Aberowen men were killed on the first day of July, there on the banks of the Somme River. I have been told that the total of British casualties is over fifty thousand! — Ken Follett

We've been married almost a year, and I've known you for two, but I've never met one of your colleagues," Rebecca said. "They would bore you, — Ken Follett

He had a taste for wild, spreading, disorderly things: high mountains,aged oaks,and Aliena's hair. — Ken Follett

We'll see, Grigori thought as he drifted off to sleep. Brave words came easily in the dark. Daylight might tell a different story. — Ken Follett

What about America? They believe in democracy. Surely they'll sell guns to Spain?" "You'd think so, wouldn't you? But there's a well-financed Catholic lobby, led by a millionaire called Joseph Kennedy, opposing any help to the Spanish government. And a Democratic president needs Catholic support. Roosevelt won't do anything to jeopardize his New Deal. — Ken Follett

There were more police than Fascists. From inside one of the buses, a uniformed constable gave him the Hitler salute. Lloyd was dismayed. If all these policemen sided with the Fascists, how could the counterdemonstrators resist them? — Ken Follett

No storm can shake my inmost calm While to that rock I'm clinging Since Love is Lord of heaven and earth How can I keep from singing? — Ken Follett

Fascism is on the march," Lloyd began. "And it is dangerously attractive. It gives false hope to the unemployed. It wears a spurious patriotism, as the Fascists themselves wear imitation military uniforms. — Ken Follett

Patria o muerte! Motherland or death! Cuba si, yanqui no! — Ken Follett

... sentiments which Feliks had already come to recognise as being characteristic of The Times, which would have described the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse as strong rulers who could do nothing but good for the stability of the international situation. — Ken Follett

Because all this stuff about military targets is absolute rubbish. There's no point in bombing German factories, because they just rebuild them. So we're targeting large areas of dense working-class housing. They can't replace the workers so fast. — Ken Follett

sent to eight widows of men killed in the — Ken Follett

The worst negotiator in the world is a man who believes he's clever. — Ken Follett

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. — Ken Follett

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. — Ken Follett

He was looking forward to letting Joanne know, in a casual way, that he had read these books. — Ken Follett

A secret shared is a secret no more. — Ken Follett

Them their welfare system meant — Ken Follett