Invitation to Die Quotes

“Dictators love to talk. It is remarkable how men who wield excessive sole power will be consistent in this: Given a captive audience, they all drone on for hours. And hours. The human brain can only concentrate for twenty minutes, ask any teacher. Dictators have rarely been despatched on a training course to learn that simple fact. Many dictators are completely untrained; tyranny comes to them naturally.”
― Lindsey Davis, Invitation to Die: A Novella of Ancient Rome

“When they speak, everything else stops. Nobody dares interrupt. Everyone sits looking rapt, hanging on these words of wisdom even while they are wondering what the flowing tirade really means. Clearly it is their own inadequacy if they are not transported into astounding inspiration by the demagogue’s words of wisdom, so many words, so long in the delivery.… No one can leave.”
― Lindsey Davis, Invitation to Die: A Novella of Ancient Rome

“Most Romans saw Greek as a secretarial language.”
― Lindsey Davis, Invitation to Die: A Short Story of Falco's Rome

“Though he had been brought up to be polite, clean around the house, witty when he was in the mood, still nothing could change his core personality: he was a gruff loner.”
― Lindsey Davis, Invitation to Die: A Short Story of Falco's Rome