Quotes from Erik Larson

Ferris, himself fed up with construction delays and Burnham's pestering, had told Gronau to turn the wheel or tear it off the tower.

He died angry," Chalmers said, "because I didn't believe him. Even in death he is emphatic and imperious.

I have examined the laws of the United States carefully and I do not find any law which says that a white man shall be punished for killing a Chinaman.

The ministry's array of "secret transmitters," masquerading as English radio stations but based in Germany, were now to be deployed, "to arouse alarm and fear among the British people." They were to take pains to disguise their German origins, even to the point of starting broadcasts with criticism of the Nazi Party, and fill their reports

she suppressed a revolt led by the board's executive secretary that had caused open warfare between factions of elegantly coiffed and dressed women.

He had only to assert the most commonplace thing and it sounded important and convincing.

Far from a clamor for war, there existed a widespread, if naive, belief that war of the kind that had convulsed Europe in past centuries had become obsolete—that the economies of nations were so closely connected with one another that even if a war were to begin, it would end quickly.

Damn those bloody Huns for breaking up an enjoyable party.

Oliver Cromwell in 1653: "You have sat too long here for any good you have been doing! Depart, I say, and let us have done with you! In the name of God, go!

The U.S. Congress had previously codified this antipathy with the passage, starting in 1935, of a series of laws, the Neutrality Acts, that closely regulated the export of weapons and munitions and barred their transport on American ships to any nation at war. Americans were sympathetic toward England, but now came questions as to just how stable the British Empire was, having thrown out its government on the same day that Hitler invaded Holland, Belgium, and Luxembourg.

The wheel had consumed 28,416 pounds of bolts in its assembly;

It was night time, Inspector Thompson wrote. Those in the plane were transfixed with delight to look down from the windows and see the amazing spectacle of a whole city lighted up. Washington represented something immensely precious. Freedom, hope, strength. We had not seen an illuminated city for two years. My heart filled.

Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men's blood.

A single German submarine, Unterseeboot-9—U-9, for short—commanded by Kptlt. Otto Weddigen, had sunk all three ships, killing 1,459 British sailors, many of them young men in their teens.

The resulting prose, he wrote, "may at first seem rough as compared with the flat surface of officialese jargon. But the saving of time will be great, while the discipline of setting out the real points concisely will prove an aid to clear thinking.

You'll see it lovely. I never will. But it will be lovely.

failed Munich Agreement. Churchill, one of Chamberlain's foremost critics, called the agreement "a total and unmitigated defeat.

history is a lively abode, full of surprises.

compose memoranda with brevity and limit their length to one page or less. "It is slothful not to compress your thoughts," he said.

A boutonniere rested beside each plate. Everyone wore tuxedos. There was not a woman in sight.

Do you think all these people would be booking passage on the Lusitania if they thought she could be caught by a German submarine? Why it's the best joke I've heard in many days, this talk of torpedoing the Lusitania.' Both Vanderbilt and Turner laughed.

The only effective defense lay in offense, he said, "which means that you have to kill more women and children more quickly than the enemy if you want to save yourselves.

Mistrust must be sown of the plutocratic ruling caste, and fear must be instilled of what is about to befall. All this must be laid on as thick as possible

most sailors still held the belief that there was no point in knowing how to swim, since it would only prolong your suffering. Turner