Kenneth Roberts > Quotes

“Misery, in cold truth, is a weight less upon those who undergo it than upon the minds of those who see it; for he who is cold and starving is so busy in his efforts to obtain warmth and food that he has little time for self-pity, and endures his unhappy condition better than those who take it upon themselves to suffer for him.”
― Kenneth Roberts

“All of us know history repeats itself, but mighty few of us recognize the repetition until too late.”
― Kenneth Roberts, Oliver Wiswell

“I wouldn't care to shoot my own townsmen over a difference of opinion about politics. Keep 'em yourself if you think you need 'em; but I suggest you'll be better off to put 'em away where you can't get at 'em. The trouble with a pistol is that if you show it, you've got to use it, and once you use it you've committed yourself.”
― Kenneth Roberts, Oliver Wiswell

“Brother," Cap said, "he's a Pig-nut!"
"Pig-nut?" I asked.
"Pig-nut," Cap repeated. "You can tell a man with brains he's wrong and he'll try to fix things up: but you take and tell a pig-nut he's wrong, and he'll spend the rest of his life trying to have something heavy fall on you when you ain't looking."
- From Kennebunk born Pulitzer Prize winner Kenneth Roberts' 1933 novel Rabble in Arms.”
― Kenneth Roberts, Rabble in Arms

“Approaching us through a haze of dust that overhung the road was a long column of men - a slovenly column that marched irregularly and out of step, so that it had the look of a gigantic centipede whose feet hurt.”
― Kenneth Roberts, Oliver Wiswell

“That's all war is - a consuming fever: a period of delirium and insanity, of misery, disappointment, discomfort, anxiety, despair, waste, weariness, boredom, brutality, death; and yet to every man in every war there comes a day worth living for: a day when a lifetime of excitement is packed into a few short hours.”
― Kenneth Roberts, Oliver Wiswell

“That's one reason why a civil war is worse than any other sort. When two parties in a given country resort to arms to settle political differences, every man is a potential enemy to every other man, and the distinction between legalized killing and murder is not clearly drawn in the minds of average men, who are incapable of sustained thought. Death is held to be a fitting reward for those who dare hold contrary views, and a nation involved in a civil war is a breeding ground for children reared to look with tolerance on next to nothing but violence.”
― Kenneth Roberts, Oliver Wiswell

“noisy man is listened to first, and then the quiet man; and since wars are noisy and violent, it may take long for the ability of quiet men to be recognized, or for their voices to be heard above the bellowing of incompetents.”
― Kenneth Roberts, Arundel

“People never believe anything - except scandal - when they first heart it.”
― Kenneth Roberts, Oliver Wiswell

“If it's really education you want for Nathan,' Buell said, 'have him read the papers, so he'll know what's going on in the world, and why. Teach him to be interested in everything he doesn't understand - interested enough to find out about it from books or people that aren't afraid to tell the truth.”
― Kenneth Roberts, Oliver Wiswell

“Far off we heard the clatter of hoofs. Arnold went to the window. “Ho!” he said. “Here’s a friend of yours with”
― Kenneth Roberts, Rabble in Arms

“War's always the same! Children starve, women suffer, men lose their fortunes or turn into beasts!”
― Kenneth Roberts, Oliver Wiswell

“...the vague thought passed through my mind that all of us, probably, would die like that: unexpectedly, in the middle of something we wanted to do, instead of at the end of our endeavors, as we always fondly believe.”
― Kenneth Roberts, Oliver Wiswell

“Never until the wounded came back from Bunker Hill had I realized the lengths of which a determined minority will go in order to achieve its ends. For the first time I understood one of the fundamentals of warfare: that armies cannot be raised by nations or parties unless the rage of the people is first kindled by lies and name-calling.”
― Kenneth Roberts

“If I was a private individual, I'd be more careful; but being as I'm a government, I'm privileged to make a God-damned fool of myself in any way I choose, especially by spending a lot more money than I've got or ever will have, and promising to do things that I ain't got a chance of doing.”
― Kenneth Roberts, Oliver Wiswell

“Allen’s Landing ain’t nothing but a little woodchuck-hole of a place, and if we was forced to borrow boats there, or anything else, we might get into trouble, on account of having no other place to go until our borrowing was completed.”
― Kenneth Roberts, Rabble in Arms

“On every side of us are men who hunt perpetually for their personal northwest passage, too often sacrificing health, strength, and life itself to the search; and who shall say they are not happier in their vain but hopeful quest than wiser, duller folks who sit at home, venturing nothing and, with sour laughs, deriding the seekers for that fabled thoroughfare?”
― Kenneth Roberts, Northwest Passage

“I'll never use force to try to make my enemies think the way I think, George - partly because I don't believe in it, and partly because it's useless. You can't destroy ideas by force, and you can't hide 'em by silence.”
― Kenneth Roberts, Oliver Wiswell

“People never believe anything - except scandal - when they first hear it.”
― Kenneth Roberts, Oliver Wiswell

“A community is an informally constituted group, larger than the family, within which there is a distinctive pattern of interaction, whose members share a feeling of common identity which may be no more than a simple recognition of friendship, and which possesses its own sub-culture, defining how the members of the community should conduct themselves and behave towards one another during their free time.”
― Kenneth Roberts, Leisure

“Great men tell the truth and are never believed. Lesser men are always believed, but seldom have the brains or the courage to tell the truth.”
― Kenneth Roberts, Oliver Wiswell

“I learned, then, beyond question, that if all the property in the world were distributed, and an equal share given to everyone, the bulk of mankind would soon be destitute, and a few would have everything.”
― Kenneth Roberts, Oliver Wiswell

“Anything, I eventually learned, is preferable to war; but that knowledge is something every man must learn for himself—usually at considerable expense.”
― Kenneth Roberts, Northwest Passage

“You needn't worry about me. I know enough to do what every man ought to do in wartime when he's watched and threatened by bullies. I conceal my feelings; lie whenever necessary; pretend to admire the rascals who've ruined our city and our country; cheer dolts, bullies and knaves and damn all wise temperate men!”
― Kenneth Roberts, Oliver Wiswell

“My God, Judge, do men believe whatever lie they hear about an enemy?”
― Kenneth Roberts, Oliver Wiswell

“clear why”
― Kenneth Roberts, Rabble in Arms

“minnow was greeted by derisive howls. And indeed I have found it true that parlous situations bring the greatest merriment and peace of mind to those whose courage has not been wholly shattered”
― Kenneth Roberts, Arundel

“Valiant! The word mocked me, for I knew myself to be anything but valiant. What I had done, I had done in a fit of insane bitterness, not with cool courage, not with brave quick thinking, not with presence of mind - but with absence of it.”
― Kenneth Roberts, Oliver Wiswell

“Brother, if you white men murdered the son of the Great Spirit, we Indians had nothing to do with it. It is none of our affair. If he had come among us we would not have killed him. We would have treated him well. You must make amends for that crime yourself. Brother, we do not wish to destroy your religion or take it from you. We only want to enjoy our own.”
― Kenneth Roberts, Arundel

“I wish it had been my heart.”
― Kenneth Roberts, Rabble in Arms