Edward Rutherfurd > Quotes

“You can do what you like, sir, but I'll tell you this. New York is the true capital of America. Every New Yorker knows it, and by God, we always shall.”
― Edward Rutherfurd, New York

“as I said,I believe in fate.Things happen as they are meant to be.We just have to recognize our destiny.”
― Edward Rutherfurd, Russka: the Novel of Russia

“So does nobody care about Ireland?"
"Nobody. Neither King Louis, nor King Billie, nor King James." He nodded thoughtfully. "The fate of Ireland will be decided by men not a single one of whom gives a damn about her. That is her tragedy.”
― Edward Rutherfurd, The Rebels of Ireland

“All empires become arrogant. It is their nature.”
― Edward Rutherfurd, New York

“She was quiet for a moment or two. Then she said: 'Cruel words are a terrible thing, Quash. Sometimes you regret them. But what's been said cannot be unsaid.”
― Edward Rutherfurd, New York

“True the greater part of the Irish people was close to starvation. The numbers of weakened people dying from disease were rising. So few potatoes had been planted that, even if they escaped bight, they would not be enough to feed the poor folk who relied upon them. More and more of those small tenants and cottagers, besides, were being forced off the land and into a condition of helpless destitution. Ireland, that is to say, was a country utterly prostrated.
Yet the Famine came to an end. And how was this wonderful thing accomplished? Why, in the simplest way imaginable. The famine was legislated out of existence. It had to be. The Whigs were facing a General Election.”
― Edward Rutherfurd, The Rebels of Ireland

“Paris. City of love. City of dreams. City of splendour. City of saints and scholars. City of gaiety.
Sink of iniquity.
In two thousand years, Paris had seen it all.”
― Edward Rutherfurd, Paris

“Don't you know that there's another bubble as well An expectations bubble. Bigger houses private planes yachts ...... stupid salaries and bonuses. People come to desire these things and expect them. But the expectations bubble will burst as well as all bubbles do.
Come to my gallery and I will sell you beautiful things at a more reasonable price. But the point is that they will have value. Things of real beauty things of the spirit.”
― Edward Rutherfurd, New York

“When a voyager begins a journey, he prepares his ship, decides upon his course and sets sail. What else can he do? But he cannot know the outcome – what storms may arise, what new lands he may find, or whether or not he will return. That is destiny, and you must accept it. Never think you can escape destiny.”
― Edward Rutherfurd, London

“However much you may fall in love, do not waste that love on a woman who is not considerate in return.”
― Edward Rutherfurd, Paris

“And suddenly it came to him. That Strawberry Fields garden he'd come from, and the Freedom Tower he'd been thinking of: taken together, didn't they contain the two words that said it all about this city, the two words that really mattered? It seemed to him that they did. Two words: the one an invitation, the other an ideal, an adventure, a necessity. "Imagine" said the garden. "Freedom" said the tower. Imagine freedom. That was the spirit, the message of this city he loved. You really didn't need anything more. Dream it and do it. But first you must dream it.”
― Edward Rutherfurd, New York

“Fate was cruel, but it was fate.”
― Edward Rutherfurd, New York

“For the increase in the number of my Brennan cousins," Conall remarked dryly, "we must thank the potato.”
― Edward Rutherfurd, The Rebels of Ireland

“When people are angry, any insult will do; and prejudice is magnified into a cause.”
― Edward Rutherfurd, New York

“Love might come suddenly, unsought, from a place not looked for, and stay for a while before departing into the distance, to a place where it cannot be reached.”
― Edward Rutherfurd, Paris

“In my opinion the best writer of historical novels. He makes you feel, smell, see every thing he describes in all his books. He doesn't only write, he makes you linked images in your mind with his words.”
― Edward Rutherfurd

“The fault in his son lay not in his nature, which was honorable, but in his perceptions, which were limited.”
― Edward Rutherfurd, Paris

“Then he noticed the belt. He pulled it out. The thing had been handed down in the family since God knows when. His father had told: 'Better keep it. It's wampum. Supposed to be lucky.' William shrugged. He could sure as hell use some luck today. On an impulse, he decided to put it on. Under his shirt of course-- he didn't want to look like a damn fool. Then he dressed as usual, every inch the successful man. If he was going down, he'd go down in style. Anyway, you should never give up hope.”
― Edward Rutherfurd, New York

“And he glanced down at Mercy beside him, and saw in her face such radiant goodness, such a calm certainty, that it seemed to him that if he could only be with her all his life, he should know a love, and happiness, and peace that he had never known before.”
― Edward Rutherfurd, New York

“For the French army was going to war. In taxis.”
― Edward Rutherfurd, Paris

“Small wounds are healed by time, but time can only bandage great wounds, which continue to bleed in secret.”
― Edward Rutherfurd, Paris

“What he needed Gorham to understand - what his son was heir to - the thing that really mattered - was the New Yorkers indomitable spirit”
― Edward Rutherfurd, New York

“So how would you define a Londoner, then?” Lady Penny asked curiously. “Someone who lives here. It’s like the old definition of a cockney: someone who’s born within hearing distance of Bow bells. And a foreigner,” he added with a grin, “is anyone, Anglo-Saxon or not, who lives outside.”
― Edward Rutherfurd, London

“It was politics and religion, in van Dyck’s private view, that made men dangerous. Trade made them wise.”
― Edward Rutherfurd, New York

“You never know in life. Sometimes people can mean what they say.”
― Edward Rutherfurd, China

“Can you do it?' 'Maybe I can, and maybe I can't. But I am going to make MacDuff think that I can. And belief,' said Gabriel Love, with the smile of an angel, 'is a wonderful thing.”
― Edward Rutherfurd, New York

“And to learn, he must be curious and also humble. For a proud man never learns anything.”
― Edward Rutherfurd, China

“son los destinos individuales los que trazan el devenir de los grandes acontecimientos.”
― Edward Rutherfurd, Sarum: La novela de Inglaterra

“About the nobles—not just de Cygne, all of them. They don’t care. Just remember that. Do what you have to do with them, because they have the power. I don’t know if they’ll always have it, but they do now, and they’ll have it as long as you live, my son. So don’t ever go against them. But just remember, no matter what they say, don’t ever trust them. Because they don’t care about you, and they never will, because you’re not one of them.” He”
― Edward Rutherfurd, Paris

“Human nature, gentleman. It is original sin that leads men to misfortune, every time. I am a speculator in the market, gentlemen, and that is part of God's plan. Men only learn through suffering. So I punish human weakness, and God rewards me.”
― Edward Rutherfurd, New York