Gary Boland > Gary's Quotes

“Nordic writers to include social critiques in their fiction. It was one of the qualities I had admired since first reading Sjöwall”
― Stieg Larsson, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

“familiar with Scandinavian crime fiction – Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö, Karin Fossum, Håkan”
― Stieg Larsson, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

“Indriðason all featured on my bookshelves.”
― Stieg Larsson, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

“I can still remember the unexpectedness of The Girl with the Dragon”
― Stieg Larsson, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

“Germans needed to reduce their casualties “if we do not intend to win ourselves to death.”
― David M. Glantz, When Titans Clashed: How the Red Army Stopped Hitler

“isolated near Iukhnov, and Kluge and his army commanders shifted their few mobile forces to meet new threats.”
― David M. Glantz, When Titans Clashed: How the Red Army Stopped Hitler

“May God us keep From simple vision and Newton’s sleep. —William Blake[xxvii]”
― John Gall, SYSTEMANTICS. THE SYSTEMS BIBLE

“AS SYSTEMS GROW IN SIZE AND COMPLEXITY, THEY TEND TO LOSE BASIC FUNCTIONS”
― John Gall, SYSTEMANTICS. THE SYSTEMS BIBLE

“WHEN BIG SYSTEMS FAIL, THE FAILURE IS OFTEN BIG”
― John Gall, SYSTEMANTICS. THE SYSTEMS BIBLE

“IN SETTING UP A NEW SYSTEM, TREAD SOFTLY. YOU MAY BE DISTURBING ANOTHER SYSTEM THAT IS ACTUALLY WORKING”
― John Gall, SYSTEMANTICS. THE SYSTEMS BIBLE

“Ludwig von Mises argues that socialism cannot work because prices are the only way to establish need.”
― Niall Kishtainy, The Economics Book: Big Ideas Simply Explained

“Without him England was lost for a certainty, with him England has been on the verge of disaster time and again.”
― Alan Brooke, 1st Viscount Alanbrooke, Alanbrooke War Diaries 1939-1945: Field Marshal Lord Alanbrooke

“Our main danger lies in being drawn into Belgium for political reasons to support the Belgians, instead of holding positions we have been preparing.”
― Alan Brooke, 1st Viscount Alanbrooke, Alanbrooke War Diaries 1939-1945: Field Marshal Lord Alanbrooke

“the Maginot line is a stroke of genius. And yet! It gave me but little feeling of security, and I consider that the French would have done better to invest the money in the shape of mobile defences”
― Alan Brooke, 1st Viscount Alanbrooke, Alanbrooke War Diaries 1939-1945: Field Marshal Lord Alanbrooke

“Lord Milne, whose mind is as clear as ever, he was very much of the same opinion as I was. He also expressed the view that from a military point of view he considered we were wrong to advance into Belgium.”
― Alan Brooke, 1st Viscount Alanbrooke, Alanbrooke War Diaries 1939-1945: Field Marshal Lord Alanbrooke

“Modern developments, such as wireless and telephones, may constitute serious dangers for a commander in the field, if these systems are made use of by politicians to endeavour to influence operations without being conversant and familiar with the circumstances prevailing in that theatre of operations. Wellington was indeed fortunate!”
― Alan Brooke, 1st Viscount Alanbrooke, Alanbrooke War Diaries 1939-1945: Field Marshal Lord Alanbrooke

“and had every intention of using sprayed mustard gas on the beaches.”
― Alan Brooke, 1st Viscount Alanbrooke, Alanbrooke War Diaries 1939-1945: Field Marshal Lord Alanbrooke

“Why will politicians never learn the simple principle of concentration of force at the vital point,”
― Alan Brooke, 1st Viscount Alanbrooke, Alanbrooke War Diaries 1939-1945: Field Marshal Lord Alanbrooke

“Sometimes the best solution to a problem is active waiting. There is wisdom in allowing events to unfold in their own time.”
― John Gall, HIT BY A LOW-FLYING GOOSE

“Dudley Pound is quite the slowest and most useless chairman one can imagine. How the PM abides him I can’t imagine.”
― Alan Brooke, 1st Viscount Alanbrooke, Alanbrooke War Diaries 1939-1945: Field Marshal Lord Alanbrooke

“not be surprised to see a thrust into Russia.”
― Alan Brooke, 1st Viscount Alanbrooke, Alanbrooke War Diaries 1939-1945: Field Marshal Lord Alanbrooke

“My own opinion at the time, and an opinion that was shared by most people, was that Russia would not last long, possibly 3 or 4 months, possibly slightly longer.”
― Alan Brooke, 1st Viscount Alanbrooke, Alanbrooke War Diaries 1939-1945: Field Marshal Lord Alanbrooke

“The more I see of politicians the less I think of them! They are seldom influenced directly by the true aspects of a problem and are usually guided by some ulterior political reason!”
― Alan Brooke, 1st Viscount Alanbrooke, Alanbrooke War Diaries 1939-1945: Field Marshal Lord Alanbrooke

“One of his first acts, however, was virtually to convert that democracy into a dictatorship! Granted that he still was responsible to a Parliament, and granted that he still formed part of a Cabinet; yet his personality was such, and the power he acquired adequate, to place him in a position where both parliament and Cabinet were only minor inconveniences to be humoured occasionally, but which he held in the palm of his hand, able to swing both of them at his pleasure.”
― Alan Brooke, 1st Viscount Alanbrooke, Alanbrooke War Diaries 1939-1945: Field Marshal Lord Alanbrooke

“the human mind is like the 6 inch pipe running under a culvert, it is only constructed to take a certain volume of water, in a flood the water flows over the culvert.”
― Alan Brooke, 1st Viscount Alanbrooke, Alanbrooke War Diaries 1939-1945: Field Marshal Lord Alanbrooke

“I had seen enough of him to realize his impetuous nature, his gambler’s spirit, and his determination to follow his own selected path at all costs, to realize fully what I was faced with.”
― Alan Brooke, 1st Viscount Alanbrooke, Alanbrooke War Diaries 1939-1945: Field Marshal Lord Alanbrooke

“We worked from day to day, a hand to mouth existence with a policy based on opportunism. Every wind that blew swung us like a weathercock. As I was to find out, planned strategy was not Winston’s strong card. He preferred to work by intuition and impulse.”
― Alan Brooke, 1st Viscount Alanbrooke, Alanbrooke War Diaries 1939-1945: Field Marshal Lord Alanbrooke

“be without him, but God knows where we shall go with him!”
― Alan Brooke, 1st Viscount Alanbrooke, Alanbrooke War Diaries 1939-1945: Field Marshal Lord Alanbrooke

“Lunched with de Gaulle a most unattractive specimen”
― Alan Brooke, 1st Viscount Alanbrooke, Alanbrooke War Diaries 1939-1945: Field Marshal Lord Alanbrooke

“Timoshenko arrived drunk and by continuous drinking restored himself to sobriety by 5 am.”
― Alan Brooke, 1st Viscount Alanbrooke, Alanbrooke War Diaries 1939-1945: Field Marshal Lord Alanbrooke