Winter of the World Quotes

“Why do you have to be the same as the others? ...Most of them are stupid.”
― Ken Follett, Winter of the World

“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, Winter of the World

“And here's my advice to you. If you get the chance of the mad kind of love, grab it with both hands, and to hell with the consequences.”
― Ken Follett, Winter of the World

“The Führer's judgement will be proved right - again.'
'Of course it will, Erik.'
'He has never yet been wrong!'
'A man thought he could fly, so he jumped off the top of a ten-storey building, and as he fell past the fifth floor, flapping his arms uselessly in the air, he was heard to say: So far, so good!”
― Ken Follett, Winter of the World

“Most rich people have a gangster in their ancestry somewhere.”
― Ken Follett, Winter of the World

“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, Winter of the World

“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, Winter of the World

“Why is it that those who want to destroy everything good about their country are the quickest to waive the national flag?”
― Ken Follett, Winter of the World

“Americans talked about voters the same way Russians talked about Stalin. They had to be obeyed.”
― Ken Follett, Winter of the World

“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, Winter of the World

“You don’t give up on democracy every time you lose a vote”, Ethel said crisply.”
― Ken Follett, Winter of the World

“If you don’t take an interest, then what happens is your fault.”
― Ken Follett, Winter of the World

“After the Battle of Midway it was clear that the Pacific war would be won by planes launched from ships. Both Japan and the United States began crash programs to build aircraft carriers as fast as possible. During 1943 and 1944, Japan produced seven of these huge, costly vessels. In the same period, the United States produced ninety.”
― Ken Follett, Winter of the World

“He was looking forward to letting Joanne know, in a casual way, that he had read these books.”
― Ken Follett, Winter of the World

“She had believed that love was something she could bestow upon whomever she liked, and that her main responsibility was to choose cleverly.”
― Ken Follett, Winter of the World

“This was not a political party. It was an army. The purpose of the display, Lloyd figured, was to give them false authority. 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 the Brownshirts did in Germany under the Nazi regime so admired by Mosley and the Daily Mail’s proprietor,”
― Ken Follett, Winter of the World

“Everything is ultimately the Prime Minister's fault', said Lloyd. 'That's what it means to be the leader”
― Ken Follett, Winter of the World

“Erik was one of those inadequate people who were so scared by life that they preferred to live under harsh authority, to be told what to do and what to think by a government that allowed no dissent. They were foolish and dangerous, but there were an awful lot of them.”
― Ken Follett, Winter of the World

“Erik said: “But the Aryan race must be superior—we rule the world!” “Your Nazi friends don’t know any history,” Father said. “The Ancient Egyptians built the pyramids when Germans were living in caves. Arabs ruled the world in the Middle Ages—the Muslims were doing algebra when German princes could not write their own names. It’s nothing to do with race.”
― Ken Follett, Winter of the World

“You’d be surprised. Look, most Republicans are decent men who simply have a view of the world that is different from ours. But there is a hard core of fucking nutcases.”
― Ken Follett, Winter of the World

“At last it faded away, and the mushroom cloud began to disperse. Greg heard Frank Oppenheimer say: “It worked.” Oppie said: “Yes, it worked.” The two brothers shook hands. And the world is still here, Greg thought. But it has been forever changed.”
― Ken Follett, Winter of the World

“Weißt du denn nicht, dass du die Seele verlierst, wenn du die Wahrheit über dich selbst abstreitest?”
― Ken Follett, Winter of the World

“Desperate men are dangerous. And I do know that the United States is not ready to go to war against Japan. Our navy isn’t ready and our air force isn’t ready.”
― Ken Follett, Winter of the World

“Greg heard Frank Oppenheimer say: “It worked.” Oppie said: “Yes, it worked.” The two brothers shook hands. And the world is still here, Greg thought. But it has been forever changed.”
― Ken Follett, Winter of the World

“They carried Union Jack flags. 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, Winter of the World

“He had quoted Lenin: 'He who controls Berlin, controls Germany; and who controls Germany, controls Europe.”
― Ken Follett, Winter of the World

“politicians often had the knack of seeming to know everyone intimately. Either they had remarkable memories, or their secretaries reminded them efficiently.”
― Ken Follett, Winter of the World

“Alemania estaba transformada. Hitler había erradicado el desempleo, algo que ningún otro dirigente europeo había conseguido hacer.”
― Ken Follett, El invierno del mundo

“Carla had never before realized how much she had been protected by politicians, newspapermen, and lawyers. Without them, she saw now, the government could do anything it liked, even kill people.”
― Ken Follett, Winter of the World

“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, Winter of the World