Quotes from Ken Follett

Most spies were amateurs: frustrated revolutionaries of the left or right, people who wanted the imaginary glamour of espionage, greedy men or lovesick women or blackmail victims. The few professionals were very dangerous indeed; they were not merciful men.

Any fool can get into a fight, but a wise man knows how to stay out of them.

Such disappointments, betrayals and reconciliations were the stuff of married life, but she and Jack had gone through them before the wedding. Now, at least, she felt confident that she knew him. Nothing was likely to surprise her. It was a funny way to do things, but it might be better than making your vows first and getting to know your spouse afterward.

the book gave Jack a feeling he had never had before, that the past was like a story, in which one thing led to another, and the world was not a boundless mystery, but a finite thing that could be comprehended.

Erik said: "But the Aryan race must be superior—we rule the world!" "Your Nazi friends don't know any history," Father said. "The Ancient Egyptians built the pyramids when Germans were living in caves. Arabs ruled the world in the Middle Ages—the Muslims were doing algebra when German princes could not write their own names. It's nothing to do with race.

Some men craved deference; others craved wine, or the bodies of beautiful women, or the monastic life of order and obedience. What did Ned crave? The answer came into his mind with a speed and effortlessness that took him by surprise: justice.

I may yet go through anguish in hell for my sin. But if I had to live that time again I would do the same, to end Margery's ordeal. I preferred to suffer myself than to know that her agony continued. Her well-being was more important to me than my own. I have learned, during the course of a long life, that that is the meaning of love.

Ha creído que, al servicio de Dios, el fin justifica los medios.

Privacy was an extravagance of lords: everyone else slept and made love downstairs in the communal hall.

No candidate is perfect' said Lloyd. 'It's how you deal with your weaknesses that matters

Los manifestantes pueden causar un gran impacto, pero al final son los gobiernos los que remodelan el mundo.

He wondered if he really was capable of it. Then he thought what a thrill it would be to create something from nothing; to see, one day in the future, a new church here where now there was nothing but rubble, and to say: I made this.

Philip believed that caring for people was the service of God. That was what salvation was about.

Just because someone asks you a question, don't you think you have to answer.

Fascism is on the march," Lloyd began. "And it is dangerously attractive. It gives false hope to the unemployed. It wears a spurious patriotism, as the Fascists themselves wear imitation military uniforms.

If I've learned one thing in Spain, it's that we have to fight the Communists just as hard as the Fascists. They're both evil.

La clase trabajadora es más numerosa que la dirigente, y más fuerte. Dependen de nosotros para todo. Les proporcionamos la comida, construimos sus casas, les hacemos la ropa, y sin nosotros se mueren. No pueden hacer nada a menos que se lo permitamos. Nunca lo olvides.

He was only a boy from a Welsh hill village who had the good fortune to become a monk. Today he would speak to the king. What gave him the right?

And where are you going? His voice was playfully challenging. To get some breakfast, she said without stopping. He leered. I've got something for you to eat, he called after her. I might bite it off, though, she said over her shoulder.

And what if Britain lost? There would be a financial crisis, unemployment, and destitution. Working-class men would take up Ethel's father's cry and say that they had never been allowed to vote for the war. The people's rage against their rulers would be boundless.

Meanwhile the subject peoples of the Austrian Empire were starting to think they might rule themselves—which was why the Bosnian nationalist Gavrilo Princip had shot Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo.

Desperate men are dangerous. And I do know that the United States is not ready to go to war against Japan. Our navy isn't ready and our air force isn't ready.

Su mente era como una casa que había ido amueblando durante toda su vida. Las mesas y las camas eran las canciones que sabía cantar, las obras que había visto, las catedrales que había admirado y los libros que había leído en inglés, francés y latín.

For me the words should be like a pane of glass that you look through, not at.