Quotes from Iain Pears

It was, for the time being, an empty threat, and he must have sensed it also, for he laughed easily and with contempt. "You will do what your masters tell you to do, doctor. As do we all.

Shame, I do believe, is the most powerful emotion known to man; most discoveries and journeys of importance have been accomplished because of the ignominy that would be the result if the attempt was abandoned.

His idleness was his refuge, and in this he was like many others in [occupied] France in that period; laziness became political.

I believe firmly... that science can never contradict true religion, and that if they seem at variance, then that is due to our faulty understanding of one or the other. God gave us the Bible and he gave us nature to show his creation; it is absurd to think he might contradict himself. It is man who fails.

I learned that I' have to be detached if I was ever to achieve anything at all.

I (John Stone) have never had any great desire to abolish poverty or save fallen women; I am, and always have been, deeply suspicious of those who wish to do these things. They normally cause more harm than good and, in my experience, their desire for power, to control others, is very much greater than that of any businessman. p 455 Stone's Fall

Rouvier was the Finance Minister; I knew him by sight, although I had not yet met him. He was not widely liked. Apart from the whiff of indecency that Lucien referred to, he was also rumoured to be less than straightforward in his dealings with his fellow men. To put it another way, he was devious even by the standards of politicians; a long and successful career awaited him.

although individuals and small events did affect the course of historical development, the influence of even major figures was strictly limited. In

Stick to journalism, Mr Cort, where you never have to understand anything.

The walls are bare; look out of the window and you have a finer sight than any painter has ever placed on a piece of canvas.

I know that the sun exists because I can see it; I believe that the earth goes around it because logical calculation concludes that, and it is not contradicted by what I can see. I know that unicorns exist because such a creature is possible in nature and reliable people have seen one, even though I have not myself

But innocence is only pleasurable because it is transient.

Men reacted as they always did; some with an extreme of generosity, giving what little they could spare to strangers; others behaved with an equal and opposite extreme of harshness, demanding outrageous things in exchange. Honest men became thieves, honest women prostitutes, criminals became saints, all driven onward by an idea of what they were leaving behind.

You are far more powerful than that, are you not? You change the way people think, shape the way they see the world.

Young men of my type are prone to be impatient of details, and give their loyalties without regard to evidence.

But what's the point of freedom? Do you think you can change anything?' 'Of course not. We are waiting.' 'For what?' 'Until the world changes on it's own. That is the one truth of history. Everything ends. Civilisations, empires, however powerful and strong. They all end, sooner or later. When it does, we will be there, with all the old ideas and thoughts, preserved and ready to blossom.

Still, beauty can flourish in even the most inhospitable terrain.

You become the weather you live in.

The French, I knew, were well ahead in this area, constructing gigantic palaces in the centre of cities which offer every luxury to travellers prepared to pay well to avoid any real contact with the place they were visiting.

Life, like a good painting, needs balance, a harmonious arrangement to avoid being chaotic, a mess, a failure.

creating a void which others seek to fill through conversation.

All you have to do is give people what they want, reflect themselves back into their own eyes, and they will fall over to crush money into your outstretched hand.

I painted not what I saw but how you wished to be seen.

They respect their betters, and fear those below them.