Quotes from David Downing

Days off are one of the great joys of an ordinary working life, perhaps

Wars between classes might just replace one set of pigs with another, but they had some underlying point to them. Wars between nations, as far as Russell could see, had absolutely none. The

who they are and not which

The rest of the world should know who really defeated the Germans.

the remark of a Middlesex Regiment officer in 1918. "Intelligence services," the man had said, "are prone to looking up their own arses and wondering why it's dark.

Nothing tears the heart like a glimpse of happiness.

I've known a lot of political figures but never another one whose self-control seemed so fragile.

It is a shameful spectacle to see how the whole democratic world is oozing sympathy for the poor tormented Jewish people, but remains hard-hearted and obdurate when it comes to helping them.' More than a little rich when coming from the tormentor in chief, but hard to dispute.

Of the Wobblies, most probably, but not just them. Of hope, perhaps, that her country might rise to the challenge, might override the legacies of slavery, Indian slaughters, and tenement squalor and actually place itself at the forefront of human progress.

once the existence of facts was denied then everything was a lie.

Hitler understands that National Socialism needs to appear socialistic, even as he seeks to destroy everything in Germany that actually fits the description.

These past few days I've realised—we're strangers to each other. I feel like I'm standing outside their house and watching them through the window. I love them, of course, but more in memory than anything else. And love should be more than an echo.

Listen for an hour, speak for a minute

We talked—mostly, he talked—about the war. He has no interest in why it had happened or why Germany had lost—his stock of anecdotes all seem to revolve around an essential disbelief that men could do such things to one another. And not just the cruel and violent things. In such conditions he finds man's humanity to man even harder to credit.

The government has verbal diarrhea- if there's a war, they'll end up talking the enemy to death.

And maybe one day people will accept each other for who they are and not which race they're born to," I said. He gave me the classic Walter look, the one that says, "You may be the adult, but who do you think you're kidding?

This, I think, is how political poison infects a whole culture—it enters the bloodstream through the cuts and bruises of personal disappointment and feeds on hearts wounded by feelings of inadequacy or rejection.

there was no shame in crying when something or someone was worth crying over.

While walking back down through the woods to the station, I felt, for a few minutes, an almost overwhelming sense of loss. With the late afternoon sun still pouring down through the trees and Anna's blonde hair dancing on her shoulders in front of me, I needed all my discipline to keep from crying. Nothing tears the heart like a glimpse of happiness.

When I was about Walter's age, I remember asking my father why one's country should demand more loyalty than friends, family, or conscience, and seeing the look of surprise on his face when he found he lacked a convincing answer.

What life has become, as Andreas said. And the only answer I have to that—the only one I've ever had—is what life could be. I have to admit: I'm no longer holding my breath.

The Gunners' bomb-damaged ground at Highbury was still under repair, so they were hosting the Dynamos at nearby White Hart Lane on the following Wednesday.

Carquinez Strait

A woman in a fur coat emerged from the shop with two pedigree schausers in tow. Both had enamel swastikas fastened to their collars, and Russell wondered if they had pictures of the Fuehrer pinned up in their kennels.