Adrian Underkoffler > Adrian's Quotes

“What the American people didn’t know was how aggressive the government was in protecting our defenses and creating weapons. FDR had already secretly approved the Manhattan Project to build an atomic bomb. And the government saw the waterfront as vital to our defenses. They feared that spies or other saboteurs would infiltrate the docks and interrupt the shipments of supplies or somehow obtain vital information about America’s secrets. They made a deal with the Mafia, specifically gangster Charles “Lucky” Luciano.”
― A.G. Russo, The Cases Nobody Wanted

“She must feel like Lucifer’s frigid breath is running down the back of her delicate neck.”
― Gabriel F.W. Koch, Death Leaves a Shadow

“Sometimes truths are what we run from, and sometimes they are what we seek.”
― R.D. Ronald, The Elephant Tree

“
There are some sins that can never be forgiven, for to do so would be to commit a far greater sin.”
― Ashby Jones, The Little Bird

“Valdin had learnt from Noren that there was no known passes over the Coe. Apparently Noren had heard stories about some underground passage that led through the mountains, but he had never visited the site. South of the Coe Mountains and stretching away to the east and the south were the endless grasslands of the Plains. Valdin had no idea how far he was from Bala’s eastern seaboard. From the vista below him it looked as though he had a long ride to catch up with his quarry.”
― Robert Reid, The Thief

“You shall address me as ‘My Dearest’,’ he repeated in a mocking voice, trying to copy her tone. ‘You will forget all about this conversation when you leave this room.’ It was interesting that tone; it had a sort of hypnotising ring to it.”
― Max Nowaz, The Three Witches and the Master

“My Lady, turn away; do not look into the wagon, it is too frightening for a lady to view.”
― Dorlies von Kaphengst Meissner Rasmussen, Escaping the Russian Onslaught: A Family’s Story of Fleeing the Russian Army after Hitler’s Nazi Regime

“This evening I spied her in the back orchard. I decided to sacrifice one of my better old shirts and carried it out to her. The weather’s been warm of late. Buds on the apple trees are ready to burst. Usually by this time of the year, at that time of day, the back orchard is full of screaming children. Damut’s boys were the only two. They were on the terrace below her, running through the slanted sunlight, chasing each other around tree trunks. She stood above them, like a merlin watching rabbits play.”
― K. Ritz, Sheever's Journal, Diary of a Poison Master

“Whether or not you believe in God, you must believe this: when we as a species abandon our trust in a power greater than us, we abandon our sense of accountability. Faiths… all faiths… are admonitions that there is something we cannot understand, something to which we are accountable. With faith we are accountable to each other, to ourselves, and to a higher truth. Religion is flawed, but only because man is flawed. The church consists of a brotherhood of imperfect, simple souls wanting only to be a voice of compassion in a world spinning out of control.”
― Dan Brown, Angels & Demons

“Surrounded by them, she would growl, “Let me tell a story . . . ” “Please!” the children would chorus, wriggling in anticipation. And she would begin in the way that all Mandinka storytellers began: “At this certain time, in this certain village, lived this certain person.” It was a small boy, she said, of about their rains, who walked to the riverbank one day and found a crocodile trapped in a net. “Help me!” the crocodile cried out. “You’ll kill me!” cried the boy. “No! Come nearer!” said the crocodile. So the boy went up to the crocodile—and instantly was seized by the teeth in that long mouth. “Is this how you repay my goodness—with badness?” cried the boy. “Of course,” said the crocodile out of the corner of his mouth. “That is the way of the world.” The boy refused to believe that, so the crocodile agreed not to swallow him without getting an opinion from the first three witnesses to pass by. First was an old donkey. When the boy asked his opinion, the donkey said, “Now that I’m old and can no longer work, my master has driven me out for the leopards to get me!” “See?” said the crocodile. Next to pass by was an old horse, who had the same opinion. “See?” said the crocodile. Then along came a plump rabbit who said, “Well, I can’t give a good opinion without seeing this matter as it happened from the beginning.” Grumbling, the crocodile opened his mouth to tell him—and the boy jumped out to safety on the riverbank. “Do you like crocodile meat?” asked the rabbit. The boy said yes. “And do your parents?” He said yes again. “Then here is a crocodile ready for the pot.” The boy ran off and returned with the men of the village, who helped him to kill the crocodile. But they brought with them a wuolo dog, which chased and caught and killed the rabbit, too. “So the crocodile was right,” said Nyo Boto. “It is the way of the world that goodness is often repaid with badness. This is what I have told you as a story.” “May you be blessed, have strength and prosper!” said the children gratefully.”
― Alex Haley, Roots: The Saga of an American Family

“Haemon: No city is property of a single man.
Creon: But custom gives possession to the ruler.
Haemon: You'd rule a desert beautifully alone.”
― Sophocles, Antigone

“The receiving radio operator immediately said, “Please tell Sunray Delta Six that Sunray Six is being located and informed immediately. Expect his answer very soon!” A short time later, Harry Smith was summoned to the HQ Delta Company radio. He went to it and was told, “Sir, Lieutenant Colonel Townsend is waiting to speak to you.”
― Michael G. Kramer, A Gracious Enemy

“I want you to go back into the barrack and tell the men to come out after the storm. Tell them to look up at me tied here. Tell them I’ll open my eyes and look back at them, and they’ll know that I survived.”
― Brandon Sanderson, The Way of Kings

“I am the sum total of everything that went before me, of all I have been seen done, of everything done-to-me. I am everyone everything whose being-in-the-world affected was affected by mine. I am anything that happens after I've gone which would not have happened if I had not come. Nor am I particularly exceptional in this matter; each 'I', every one of the now-six-hundred-million-plus of us, contains a similar multitude. I repeat for the last time: to understand me, you'll have to swallow a world.”
― Salman Rushdie, Kiran Desai, Vikram Seth, Siddhartha Deb, William Dalrymple, Amit Chaudhuri, Sunil G

“That’s how we are programmed”
― Max Nowaz, The Polymorph

“Few comprehend celibacy.
”
― K. Ritz, Sheever's Journal, Diary of a Poison Master

“I had come to Europe looking to learn about love and life—and men.”
― Amanda Adams, The Voyeur's Yacht

“Being a leading power couple means not only submitting to media scrutiny but also commanding coverage. To leave the marriage behind is to step out of the spotlight. It means fading into normalcy, returning to ordinary life, perhaps an impossible admission for women who have built their egos on being one member of a leading couple.”
― Anne Michaud, Why They Stay: Sex Scandals, Deals, and Hidden Agendas of Nine Political Wives

“This felt good, but raw – people caring so deeply.”
― Sara Pascoe, Being a Witch, and Other Things I Didn't Ask For

“You don’t need to be loud to get noticed. You don’t have to be big to make a difference. You don’t need to be perfect to earn trust.”
― Warren Kornblum, Notes from the Brand Stand: Thoughts on Emotional Branding from Someone Who Has Fought for Consumer Attention and Won

“He reminds me a bit of myself – I had to learn quickly when I was young.”
― J.L. Marrain, THE GRIDD: PERILS OF THE LIGHTHOLDER

“The hatchet. The key to it all. Nothing without the hatchet. Just that would take all his thanks. And”
― Gary Paulsen, Brian's Winter

“The music of hope is everywhere, but to hear it, you need to ignore the muddy jangle of life's hassles.”
― Christine M Knight, Life Song

“Man in his arrogance thinks himself a great work, worthy of the interposition of a deity. More humble, and I believe truer, to consider him created from animals.”
― Charles Darwin

“Chance fights ever on the side of the prudent.”
― Euripides

“Secrets are the kind of adventure she needs. Secrets are safe, and they do much to make you different. On the inside where it counts.”
― E.L. Konigsburg, From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler

“We are forlorn like children, and experienced like old men, we are crude and sorrowful and superficial – I believe we are lost.”
― Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front