Quotes from Philip Kerr

I dislike a man who's not precise about what he wants to drink," said Maugham. "You can't rely on a fellow who's vague about his favorite tipple. If he's not precise about something he's going to drink then it's clear he's not going to be precise about anything.

O homem era advogado e, por vezes, quando nos armamos em espertos com advogados, eles chamam-lhe desrespeito e metem-nos na cadeia.

It seems to me that lawyers can justify almost anything to themselves as long as it's legal. But you can make anything legal when you put a gun to parliament's head.

I've come to believe that in life it's best to live for a purpose greater than oneself.

The living always get over the dead. That's what the dead never realize. If ever the dead did come back, they'd only have been sore that somehow you managed to get over their dying at all.

Yes indeed, I thought, a neat piece of theatre. I was going to enjoy putting these people away. You can sometimes forgive a man who works a line, but not the ones who prey on the grief and suffering of others. That was like stealing the cushions off a pair of crutches.

I'll be honest," I said. "I don't like it one little bit. But I'm delighted to see it exhibited without any interference from people who know as little about art as I do. Looking at it is like looking inside the head of someone who disagrees with you about nearly everything. It makes me feel uncomfortable." I shook my head sadly and sighed, "That's democracy, I guess." Another

If there's one thing history has taught me to believe it is that it's dangerous to believe in anything very much.

abyss stares

Hmm. That's what I suspected, you mad bastard.

She glanced at it and her eyes widened a few f-stops.

as great a blight on our world as a missionary landing on Tahiti with a boxful of brassieres.

There are so many ways of escaping from that which one fears, and not the least of these is hatred.

I wouldn't say we lived in a tough neighborhood, but when I was growing up we still called a story with a happy ending an alibi.

Well, now I come to think of it, there was another Johann Diesbach, Johann Jacob Diesbach, a Berlin paint maker who invented the color Prussian blue, back in 1706. The whole Prussian army wore coats of Prussian blue until the Great War, when it moved over to field gray. At one time every Berlin schoolboy used to know the name of Johann Jacob Diesbach. So how about that, sir? How about Prussian blue?

Revenge is personal. An act of passion. An injury is revenged. But I think vengeance is about justice. That's something very different. Crimes are avenged, don't you think so?

You give people chances. What they do with those chances is their own affair. It's

It might interest you to know,' she said, 'that many of Josef Kahn's fellow inmates at the Herzeberge Asylum are those whose organic dementia is a direct result of their syphilis. Contradictory statements can be made and accepted. The mood varies between euphoria and apathy, and there is general emotional instability. The classic type is characterized by a demented euphoria, delusions of grandeur and bouts of extreme paranoia.

Is that what we are? Fools?" "Certainly. But at least we know we're fools. And in today's Germany, that counts as a kind of wisdom." •

If you make yourself like sugar, the ants will eat you.

I had to admit one thing. If Haupthändler had killed the Pfarrs then he was as cool as a treasure chest in fifty fathoms of water.

It's your hypocrisy that's offensive, not your brutality. You're the worst kind of fascists. The kind that think they're liberals.

the things you thought weren't true often turn out not to be false.

A essência do engano não é a mentira que se diz, mas as verdades que se contam para a apoiar.