Allan Massie > Quotes

“Life is not mathematics, and few things have only one correct answer”
― Allan Massie, The Evening of the World: a Romance of the Dark Ages

“The word ‘steward’ derives from the Anglo-Saxon ‘stig’, meaning a hall, and ‘weard’, which is ward, guardian or keeper.”
― Allan Massie, The Royal Stuarts

“William Dunbar, the most accomplished virtuoso among Scottish poets, was employed as his court laureate, complaining, however, as writers will, that he was inadequately rewarded.”
― Allan Massie, The Royal Stuarts

“And when I look at him, and see that kind intelligent monkey-face rivered with tears, and yet somehow gloating over his shame, what do I see but a mirror, in which I am reflected, and behind me, the shade of France? Isn't our acceptance of the Occupation an acceptance of rape? Isn't the humiliation and pain what we - I - have for so long and so intensely desired?”
― Allan Massie, A Question of Loyalties

“Macbeth was played before the first Stuart king of Great Britain and Ireland, James VI of Scots and I of England, and this scene served as a compliment to him.”
― Allan Massie, The Royal Stuarts

“There is a singular absence of his own father in the fragmentary jottings Lucien made concerning his early life. Indeed, he never seems to have been there at all. He was a regular soldier of course, and this displeased my grandmother's family, who were the Blackest of Blacks – by which I mean – I write for those ignorant of the language of Third Republic France – zealous clericals, Royalists also, who disapproved of the recognition of the Republic implicit in a military career. The Balafrés however were proud of their tradition of military service – they saw themselves as soldiers of France irrespective of the regime, and one of them indeed, though brought up as an émigré after the Revolution, had been so fired by the splendour of Napoleonic warfare that he had been among the numerous Royalists who had found service in the imperial army an irresistible temptation; he never returned from the Russian campaign. Accordingly, my grandfather, Etienne like myself, may never even have questioned the suitability of a military career. Anyway, like so many of his fellow officers, he saw the Army as the real bastion against Jews, Protestants, Socialists and Masons. French life has always been complicated; at least since the Revolution. He was of course convinced that Dreyfus was guilty, and even when his innocence seemed to have been proved, continued to believe the whole thing had been a Jewish/Socialist plot set up to discredit the Army.”
― Allan Massie, A Question of Loyalties

“Besides,' said Lucien, 'you're evading your duty. Your duty is to remain here and repair the damage of our debacle. That at least is clear enough to me. And the chance exists. We are offered the opportunity to take part in a national revolution, which, unlike previous revolutions, is not founded on spite, hatred, the desire for revenge and all the irrationality of destructive natures, but rests on a tranquil confidence and a profound love of France.”
― Allan Massie, A Question of Loyalties

“I acted, without hope, which, brother, is ultimately the only way to act and which is the justification of all actions.”
― Allan Massie, A Question of Loyalties