Fall of Giants (The Century Trilogy, #1)

by Ken Follett

He taught me that indulgence to the lower classes is cruel, in the long run.”

There was nothing gracious about grief,

but what did she want? She did not know, and she refused to let her happiness be blighted by unanswerable questions about the future.

“If you want to change the world, then foreign relations is the field in which you can do the most good—or evil.”

“I wish I were married to someone trustworthy.”

Was it really so difficult to do good in international affairs?

“Not that a Habsburg emperor has ever needed much of an excuse to be ruthless and brutal.” “What other way is there to rule an empire?”

The pompous old bat was right, Walter thought. The Ottoman Empire was in decline, held back from modernization by a conservative Muslim priesthood. For centuries the Turkish sultan had kept order in the Balkan peninsula, from the Mediterranean coast of Greece as far north as Hungary, but now, decade by decade, it was pulling back.

“No one wants war,” said Otto. “But sometimes it’s better than the alternative.”

She sat upright, looking forward to the new day as always; then she remembered that her old life was over, ruined, and she was in the middle of a tragedy. She almost succumbed to grief again, but fought against it. She could not afford the luxury of tears. She had to start a new life.

He could have another career, Ethel thought; and if he really loved you, he would. Then she thought of the man she loved, and how quickly his passion had cooled when it became inconvenient.

Did he think that everything that had happened between them could be wiped out by twenty-four pounds a year?

Perhaps he was a man of shallow emotions. That was possible. He might have loved her, genuinely, but with a love that was easily forgotten when it became inconvenient.