Matt Barkus > Matt's Quotes

“Men go to far greater lengths to avoid what they fear than to obtain what they desire.”
― Dan Brown, The Da Vinci Code

“History is always written by the winners. When two cultures clash, the loser is obliterated, and the winner writes the history books-books which glorify their own cause and disparage the conquered foe. As Napoleon once said, 'What is history, but a fable agreed upon?”
― Dan Brown, The Da Vinci Code

“These books can't possibly compete with centuries of established history, especially when that history is endorsed by the ultimate bestseller of all time."
Faukman's eyes went wide. "Don't tell me Harry Potter is actually about the Holy Grail."
"I was referring to the Bible."
Faukman cringed. "I knew that.”
― Dan Brown, The Da Vinci Code

“Faith ― acceptance of which we imagine to be true, that which we cannot prove.”
― Dan Brown, The Da Vinci Code

“The Bible did not arrive by fax from heaven. The Bible is the product of man, my dear. Not of God. The Bible did not fall magically from the clouds. Man created it as a historical record of tumultuous times, and it has evolved through countless translations, additions, and revisions. History has never had a definitive version of the book.”
― Dan Brown, The Da Vinci Code

“By its very nature, history is always a one-sided account.”
― Dan Brown, The Da Vinci Code

“Telling someone about what a symbol means is like telling someone how music should make them feel.”
― Dan Brown, The Da Vinci Code

“When a question has no correct answer, there is only one honest response.
The gray area between yes and no.
Silence.”
― Dan Brown, The Da Vinci Code

“Every faith in the world is based on fabrication. That is the definition of faith―acceptance of that which we imagine to be true, that which we cannot prove. Every religion describes God through metaphor, allegory, and exaggeration, from the early Egyptians through modern Sunday school. Metaphors are a way to help our minds process the unprocessible. The problems arise when we begin to believe literally in our own metaphors.

Should we wave a flag and tell the Buddhists that we have proof the Buddha did not come from a lotus blossom? Or that Jesus was not born of a literal virgin birth? Those who truly understand their faiths understand the stories are metaphorical.”
― Dan Brown, The Da Vinci Code

“Nothing in Christianity is original.”
― Dan Brown, The Da Vinci Code

“Can you keep secrets? Can you know a thing and never say it again?”
― Dan Brown, The Da Vinci Code

“Learning the truth has become my life's love.”
― Dan Brown, The Da Vinci Code

“Today is today. But there are many tomorrows”
― Dan Brown, The Da Vinci Code

“Those who truly understand their faiths understand the stories are metaphorical.”
― Dan Brown, The Da Vinci Code

“The Pentacle - The ancients envisioned their world in two halves - masculine and feminine. Their gods and goddesses worked to keep a balance of power. Yin and Yang. When male and female were balanced, there was harmony in the world. When they were unbalanced there was chaos.”
― Dan Brown, The Da Vinci Code

“At this gathering [Council of Niceau in 324 AD] many aspects of Christianity were debated and voted upon ― the date of Easter, the role of the bishops, the administration of sacraments, and, of course, the divinity of Jesus... until that moment in history, Jesus was viewed by His followers as a mortal prophet... a great and powerful man, but a man nonetheless. A mortal.”
― Dan Brown, The Da Vinci Code

“Coincidence was a concept he did not entirely trust. As someone who had spent his life exploring the hidden interconnectivity of disparate emblems and ideologies, Langdon viewed the world as a web of profoundly intertwined histories and events. The connections may be invisible, he often preached to his symbology classes at Harvard, but they are always there, buried just beneath the surface.”
― Dan Brown, The Da Vinci Code

“The Last Supper is supposed to be thirteen men. Who is this woman?

"Everyone misses it, our preconceived notions of this scene are so powerful that our mind blocks out the incongruity and overrides our eyes.”
― Dan Brown, The Da Vinci Code

“We fear what we do not understand...”
― Dan Brown, The Da Vinci Code

“إن سوء الفهم يولّد الشك.”
― Dan Brown, The Da Vinci Code

“أن الرجال قد يفعلون أي شيء لتجنب ما يخشونه أكثر مما قد يبذلونه للحصول على شيء يرغبون فيه.”
― Dan Brown, The Da Vinci Code

“اولئك الذين ينشدون الحقيقة هم اكثر من اصدقاء، انهم اخوة.”
― Dan Brown, The Da Vinci Code

“I would have thought you'd import an English staff?"

"Good heavens, no! I would not wish a British chef on anyone except the French tax collectors.”
― Dan Brown, The Da Vinci Code

“PHI is one H of a lot cooler than PI!”
― Dan Brown, The Da Vinci Code

“In which year did a Harvard sculler last outrow an Oxford man at Henley?" Langdon had no idea, but he could imagine only one reason the question had been asked. "Surely such a travesty has never occurred.”
― Dan Brown, The Da Vinci Code

“الحياة مليئة بالأسرار ولا يمكنك أن تعرفيها كلها دفعة واحدة.”
― Dan Brown, The Da Vinci Code

“إن رياح التغيير قادمة بلا شك.”
― Dan Brown, The Da Vinci Code

“It seemed Eve’s bite from the apple of knowledge was a debt women were doomed to pay for eternity.”
― Dan Brown, The Da Vinci Code

“Symbologists often remarked that France-a country renowned for machismo, womanizing, and diminutive insecure leaders like Napoleon and Pepin the Short-could not have chosen a more apt national emblem than a thousand-foot phallus.”
― Dan Brown, The Da Vinci Code

“So dark the con of man.”
― Dan Brown, The Da Vinci Code