KFKen Follett

49 collected words

Ken Follett

Dates not recorded

Name supplied in the contributor-provided quotation collection. Basic attribution label; identity, lifetime and quotation authenticity have not been independently verified.

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Quotations and sayings

01Undated

Why do you have to be the same as the others? ...Most of them are stupid.

Ken Follett / quote

02Undated

The first casualty of a civil war was justice, Philip had realized.

Ken Follett / quote

03Undated

When I'm brave and strong, and care for children and the sick and the poor, I become a better person. And when I'm cruel, cowardly, or tell lies, or get drunk, I turn into someone less worthy, and I can't respect myself. That's the divine retribution I believe in

Ken Follett / quote

04Undated

When you're thinking, please remember this: excessive pride is a familiar sin, but a man may just as easily frustrate the will of God through excessive humility.

Ken Follett / quote

05Undated

Two blades clashed, ringing like a bell. Like all small boys, Philip thought his father was invincible; and this was the moment when he learned the truth.

Ken Follett / quote

06Undated

Americans talked about voters the same way Russians talked about Stalin. They had to be obeyed.

Ken Follett / quote

07Undated

Fathers were supposed to be invulnerable - but that attitude was childish, he now saw. Irritatingly, he might have to change his outlook. He could no longer be merely indignant and resentful. He was not the only sufferer. Dad had hurt him, but he had hurt Dad as well, and they were both responsible. Feeling responsible was not as comfortable as feeling outraged.

Ken Follett / quote

08Undated

All his life he would cherish the memory of an endless caravan of camels alongside the railway line, the laden beasts plodding patiently through the snow, ignoring the twentieth century as it hurtled past them in a clash of iron and a shriek of steam.

Ken Follett / quote

09Undated

Most rich people have a gangster in their ancestry somewhere.

Ken Follett / quote

10Undated

In the grounds of the château was a churchsaid to date from the year 1000, and he went to look at it, but he had never really understood what people saw in oldchurches.

Ken Follett / quote

11Undated

He had forgotten that God saw through the silk robes to the sinful heart, that the only wealth worth having was treasure in heaven, and that even the king had to kneel down in church. Feeling that everyone else was so much more powerful and sophisticated than he was, he had lost sight of his true values, suspended his critical faculties, and placed his trust in his superiors. His reward had been treachery.

Ken Follett / quote

12Undated

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.

Ken Follett / quote

13Undated

Monks committed all the same sins that ordinary people did. He had just been shocked by the woman's shamelessness. The sight of her nakedness remained with him, the way the hot heart of a candle flame, stared at for a few moments, would burn on behind closed eyelids.

Ken Follett / quote

14Undated

Philip looked incredulously at the tiny bundle in Johnny’s arms. He reached out a hand tentatively, and lifted a corner of the blanket. He saw a wrinkled pink face, an open toothless mouth and a little bald head—a miniature of an aging monk.

Ken Follett / quote

15Undated

When he thought about how he had been slighted, condescended to, manipulated and deceived, he became angry. Obedience was a monastic virtue, but outside the cloisters it had its drawbacks, he thought bitterly. The world of power and property demanded that a man be suspicious, demanding, and insistent.

Ken Follett / quote

16Undated

the war taught me that nothing counts as much as loyalty" "Bullshit. you still haven't learned that when humans are under pressure, we're all willing to lie" "even to the people we care?" "we lie more to our loved ones, because we care about them so damn much. why do you think we tell the truth to priests and shrinks and total strangers we meet on trains? it's because we don't love them, so we don't care what they think.

Ken Follett / quote

17Undated

Why is it that those who want to destroy everything good about their country are the quickest to waive the national flag?

Ken Follett / quote

18Undated

She was unique: there was something abnormal about her, and it was that abnormal something that made her magnetic.

Ken Follett / quote

19Undated

He was looking forward eagerly to seeing her again. He had coped perfectly well on his own, of course, but it was very reassuring to have someone in your life who was always ready to fight for you, and he had missed that comforting feeling,

Ken Follett / quote

20Undated

... sentiments which Feliks had already come to recognise as being characteristic of The Times, which would have described the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse as strong rulers who could do nothing but good for the stability of the international situation.

Ken Follett / quote

21Undated

politicians often had the knack of seeming to know everyone intimately. Either they had remarkable memories, or their secretaries reminded them efficiently.

Ken Follett / quote

22Undated

World War II is the greatest drama in human history, the biggest war ever and a true battle of good and evil. I imagine writers will continue to get stories from it, and readers will continue to love them, for many more years.

Ken Follett / quote

23Undated

One of the hardest things for me, now that I'm famous, is finding people who can read my stuff and give me an honest critique.

Ken Follett / quote

24Undated

In my books, women often solve the problem. Even if the woman is not the hero, she's a strong character. She does change the plot. She'll often rescue the male character from some situation.

Ken Follett / quote