A Quiet Flame Quotes

“All men come to resemble their fathers. That isn’t a tragedy, but you need a hell of a sense of humour to handle it.”
― Philip Kerr, A Quiet Flame

“His face was all sharp angles, thin and pointed, like something Pythagoras had doodled on the corner of his scroll before getting on with his theorem.”
― Philip Kerr, A Quiet Flame

“truth is rarely the truth and the things you thought weren’t true often turn out not to be false.”
― Philip Kerr, A Quiet Flame

“I know, I know. Urgently. Germans. Every time you people open your mouths, I hear a clock ticking.”
― Philip Kerr, A Quiet Flame

“equanimity,”
― Philip Kerr, A Quiet Flame

“Saying one thing and thinking another was second nature to me.”
― Philip Kerr, A Quiet Flame

“Germany is for the Germans now,” said Wowereit. “Not a bunch of immigrants who are only here for what they can get.”
― Philip Kerr, A Quiet Flame

“You talk like the Nazis were going to win the election, Bernie.” “I keep hoping they won’t. And I keep worrying that they might.”
― Philip Kerr, A Quiet Flame

“The smart money in Berlin said that if they ever got into power, the Nazis were planning to put Daluege in charge of the Berlin police force. It wasn’t that he had any experience of policing. He wasn’t even a lawyer. What he did have experience of was doing exactly what Hitler and Goebbels told him to do.”
― Philip Kerr, A Quiet Flame

“If the Nazis do get in, we shall have to have faith that, eventually, the parliamentary process will restore Germany to its senses.”
― Philip Kerr, A Quiet Flame

“We have a saying here in Argentina. We say, ‘I can’t trust you until I tell you a secret.”
― Philip Kerr, A Quiet Flame

“I watched her go. I was glad to see the back of her. More important”
― Philip Kerr, A Quiet Flame

“In this job you meet the lazy, the stupid, the cruel, and the indifferent. Unfortunately, that’s what’s called an electorate.”
― Philip Kerr, A Quiet Flame

“After all”
― Philip Kerr, A Quiet Flame

“All newspapers are fundamentally fascist”
― Philip Kerr, A Quiet Flame

“Sometimes the worst has to happen before you can hope for the best? That’s the only reason anyone is going to vote for the Nazis.”
― Philip Kerr, A Quiet Flame

“How did it ever get to be that bad? I think something happened to Germany after the Great War. You could see it on the streets of Berlin. A callous indifference to human suffering.”
― Philip Kerr, A Quiet Flame

“the things you thought weren’t true often turn out not to be false.”
― Philip Kerr, A Quiet Flame

“All Germans carry an image of Adolph Hitler inside them....Even ones like me, who hated Hitler and everything he stood for. This face with its tousled hair and postage-stamp mustache haunts us all now and forevermore and, like a quiet flame that can never be extinguished, burns itself into our souls. The Nazis used to talk of a thousand -year empire. But sometimes I think that because of what we did, the name of Germany and the Germans will live in infamy for a thousand years. That it will take the rest of the world a thousand years to forget. Certainly if I live to be a thousand years old, I'll never forget some of the things I saw. And some of the things I did.”
― Philip Kerr, A Quiet Flame

“The colonel stood up. “I hope you enjoy your trip to Uruguay. Its government is stable, democratic, and politically mature. There’s even a welfare state. Of course, the people are entirely European in origin. I believe they exterminated all the Indians. As a German, you should feel very much at home there.”
― Philip Kerr, A Quiet Flame

“She ordered a coffee, and I ordered something I had no interest in drinking, so long as she was around.”
― Philip Kerr, A Quiet Flame

“She walked toward me, her high heels perforating the polished wooden air of the Richmond’s quiet basement like the slow beat of a tall clock.”
― Philip Kerr, A Quiet Flame

“You talk like the Nazis were going to win the election, Bernie."

"I keep hoping they won't. And I keep worrying that they might. But I've got seven loaves and five fishes telling me the republic needs more than just a lucky break this time. If I wasn't a cop, I might believe in miracles. But I am and I don't. In this job you meet the lazy, the stupid, the cruel, and the indifferent. Unfortunately, that's what's called an electorate.”
― Philip Kerr, A Quiet Flame

“Uki Goni’s excellent book The Real Odessa for much of my information about Nazis in Argentina.”
― Philip Kerr, A Quiet Flame