James Whyle > James's Quotes

“A man lays his character on the line when he writes a novel. Anything in him which is lazy, or meretricious, or unthought-out, complacent, fearful, overambitious, or terrified by the ultimate logic of his exploration will be revealed in his book.”
― Norman Mailer

“These are the true patriots, with their hands in the till and their feet in the gore …”
― Hippolyte Taine, The French Revolution, Volume II

“Lies, and the burden of evil they bring, are passed on; shifted from back to back, and from rank to rank; and so land ultimately on the dumb lowest rank, who with spade and mattock, with sore heart and empty wallet, daily come in contact with reality, and can pass the cheat no further.”
― Thomas Caryle

“The various modes of worship, which prevailed in the Roman world, were all considered by the people, as equally true; by the philosopher, as equally false; and by the magistrate, as equally useful.

Gibbon, Edward. HISTORY OF THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE COMPLETE VOLUMES 1 - 6”
― Edward Gibbon

“My early and invincible love of reading--I would not exchange for the treasures of India.”
― Edward Gibbon

“This other man he could never see in his entirety but he seemed an artisan and a worker in metal. The judge enshadowed him where he crouched at his trade but he was a coldforger who worked with hammer and die, perhaps under some indictment and an exile from men's fires, hammering out like his own conjectural destiny all through the night of his becoming some coinage for a dawn that would not be. It is this false moneyer with his gravers and burins who seeks favor with the judge and he is at contriving from cold slag brute in the crucible a face that will pass, an image that will render this residual specie current in the markets where men barter. Of this is the judge judge and the night does not end.”
― Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian, or, the Evening Redness in the West

“The authority of the prince," said Artaxerxes, "must be defended by a military force; that force can only be maintained by taxes; all taxes must, at last, fall upon agriculture; and agriculture can never flourish except under the protection of justice and moderation." ^55”
― Edward Gibbon, History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Volumes 1-6

“As capitalism matured, he predicted, we would see periodic recessions, an ever-growing dependence on technology and the growth of huge, quasi-monopolistic corporations, spreading their sticky tentacles all over the world in search of new markets to exploit.”
― Francis Wheen, Karl Marx: A Major Biography of the Thinker Who Defined Capitalism and Class Struggle

“I have studied many philosophers and many cats. The wisdom of cats is infinitely superior.”
― Hippolyte Taine

“I have sergested the propriaty of your coming to see me before I commence the construction of thes arms . . . Get from the department an order to cum to New York & direct in the construction of thees arms with the improvements you sergest.63 Thus”
― S.C. Gwynne, Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History

“The result, the Walker Colt, was one of the most effective and deadly pieces of technology ever devised, one that would soon kill more men in combat than any sidearm since the Roman short sword.65”
― S.C. Gwynne, Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History

“Ngcukana concluded that Zuma is the “ultimate traitor” for having subverted the police, the Hawks, the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) and the intelligence agencies.”
― Jacques Pauw, The President's Keepers: Those Keeping Zuma in Power and Out of Prison

“The Bolsheviks placed a premium on the “creative intelligentsia,” as it was termed—writers, artists, and, especially, filmmakers—as well as scholars and scientists. Military officers ranked even higher. But most of all, the Bolsheviks valued themselves: privileges and benefits for “political workers” exceeded those of all other groups.”
― Masha Gessen, The Future Is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia

“Little Octobrists are future Young Pioneers. Little Octobrists are studious kids. They study hard, love school, and respect their elders. Little Octobrists are honest and truthful kids. Little Octobrists are fun-loving kids. They read and they draw, they play and they sing, and they stick together. Only those who work hard and persist earn the right to be called Little Octobrist.2”
― Masha Gessen, The Future Is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia

“The synod of Tyre was conducted by Eusebius of Caesarea, with more passion, and with less art, than his learning and experience might promise; his numerous faction repeated the names of homicide and tyrant; and their clamors were encouraged by the seeming patience of Athanasius, who expected the decisive moment to produce Arsenius alive and unhurt in the midst of the assembly. The nature of the other charges did not admit of such clear and satisfactory replies; yet the archbishop was able to prove, that in the village, where he was accused of breaking a consecrated chalice, neither church nor altar nor chalice could really exist.”
― Edward Gibbon, History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Volumes 1-6

“At length, in the twenty-fourth year of her marriage, and the twenty-second of her reign, she was consumed by a cancer; ^39 and the irreparable loss was deplored by her husband, who, in the room of a theatrical prostitute, might have selected the purest and most noble virgin of the East.”
― Edward Gibbon, History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Volumes 1-6

“Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them.”
― James Baldwin

“Those in power, historians have observed, often sought security in imposing order, which gave them some feeling of control, some feeling that the world still made sense.”
― John M. Barry, The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History

“So the problems presented by a pandemic are, obviously, immense. But the biggest problem lies in the relationship between governments and the truth.”
― John M. Barry, The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History

“Mexico spent $180 million to fight the disease, but suffered $9 billion in economic losses because of the irrational response from trading partners—not exactly positive reinforcement if the goal is to encourage candor the next time.”
― John M. Barry, The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History

“For if there is a single dominant lesson from 1918, it’s that governments need to tell the truth in a crisis. Risk communication implies managing the truth. You don’t manage the truth. You tell the truth.”
― John M. Barry, The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History

“Those in authority must retain the public’s trust. The way to do that is to distort nothing, to put the best face on nothing, to try to manipulate no one. Lincoln said that first, and best.”
― John M. Barry, The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History

“What the Spanish flu taught us, in essence, is that another flu pandemic is inevitable, but whether it kills 10 million or 100 million will be determined by the world into which it emerges.”
― Laura Spinney, Pale Rider: The Spanish Flu of 1918 and How It Changed the World

“The truth about the world, he said, is that anything is possible. Had you not seen it all from birth and thereby bled it of its strangeness it would appear to you for what it is, a hat trick in a medicine show, a fevered dream, a trance bepopulate with chimeras having neither analogue nor precedent, an itinerant carnival, a migratory tentshow whose ultimate destination after many a pitch in many a mudded field is unspeakable and calamitous beyond reckoning.

The universe is no narrow thing and the order within it is not constrained by any latitude in its conception to repeat what exists in one part in any other part. Even in this world more things exist without our knowledge than with it and the order in creation which you see is that which you have put there, like a string in a maze, so that you shall not lose your way. For existence has its own order and that no man's mind can compass, that mind itself being but a fact among others.”
― Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian, or, the Evening Redness in the West