The Whiskey Rebels Quotes

“I enjoy my pettiness with a dose of wit.”
― David Liss, The Whiskey Rebels

“I did not tremble to lose what men called beauty, but I feared the loss of my spirit and humor and love of living, the things I believed made my soul human and vibrant.”
― David Liss, The Whiskey Rebels

“There will always be a storm. You may be rained on or cause the rain yourself. I much prefer the latter.”
― David Liss, The Whiskey Rebels

“Needless to say, it was inconceivable that I would be welome in, let alone invited to, their home. It was as well, then, that I did not limit myself only to those places where people might wish me to be.”
― David Liss, The Whiskey Rebels

“You have my word as a gentleman." [The other man remarks that he is not a gentleman and he retorts] "Then you have my word as a scoundrel, which, I know, opens up a rather confusing paradox that I have neither the time nor inclination to disentangle.”
― David Liss, The Whiskey Rebels

“If we do nothing...and turn our backs now, in future generations, when rank corruption masquerades as libery, it will be upon our shoulders. True patriots will then ask why we who were there to witness our nation at the crossroads did nothing.”
― David Liss, The Whiskey Rebels

“At what point, I wondered, does silence become complicity?”
― David Liss, The Whiskey Rebels

“Think you it is easy to get a well-known and beautiful woman alone, away from her husband, at so public a gathering? Think you that, in the company of dozens of guests and nearly as many gossipy servants, a man can just pull such a woman aside into a private closet? It would not be easy for any ordinary man--at least I suspect it would not. I cannot say how ordinary men go about their business.”
― David Liss, The Whiskey Rebels

“I did it, Mrs. Maycott, because I am a patriot, and if a man loves his country he must uphold the principles of that country even if doing so may make him uncomfortable in his own heart and odious to his neighbors.”
― David Liss, The Whiskey Rebels

“I have never enjoyed traveling long distances by road. The movement of the coach prevents any reading or other amusement, and there is little to do that passes the time other than conversation with strangers, yet the quality of strangers in a coach is never high. Instead one must endure perpetual jostling, an ongoing merciless rump paddling, combined with rough swaying and shoving. In winter, when the windows must be closed against the cold, the stench is of stewing bodies, of breath and garlic and onion and unclean breeches. Above that is the smell, too, of old damp wood, wet wool and leather, and inevitable flatulence. It is an unkind experience.”
― David Liss, The Whiskey Rebels

“There were no insurrectionists to fight, so some twenty men were rounded up and two sentenced to die, though they were both, in the end, pardoned.”
― David Liss, The Whiskey Rebels

“Some would say you’re abusing my generosity.” “Impertinent bastards.”
― David Liss, The Whiskey Rebels

“I would never find a bank launched for worse reasons by more inept men.”
― David Liss, The Whiskey Rebels

“I imagine it is because you can lead him to a story for his newspaper, and if it is for his paper, it must be something to make Hamilton look poorly.”
― David Liss, The Whiskey Rebels

“Yes, I know this narrative is crowded with beautiful women - Mrs. Pearson, Mrs. Maycott, Mrs. Lavien, Mrs. Bingham. We might form a cricket team of beautiful women. I cannot help it if they are the ones who excite my notice and so trouble myself to describe.”
― David Liss, The Whiskey Rebels