Patrick Slavin

“(It was said that Vyacheslav Molotov, the Soviet foreign minister, spoke only four words of English: “Yes,” “No,” and “Second front.”) Moscow”
― Rick Atkinson, The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy, 1943-1944

“If the global temperature rises by 4°C over the next fifty years, as is evidently possible, the whole of the Appalachian wilderness below New England could become savanna. Already trees are dying in frightening numbers. The elms and chestnuts are long gone, the stately hemlocks and flowery dogwoods are going, and the red spruces, Fraser firs, mountain ashes, and sugar maples may be about to follow. Clearly, if ever there was a time to experience this singular wilderness, it was now.”
― Bill Bryson, A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail

“Italian troops from the Assietta and Aosta Divisions surrendered by the thousands, grousing at German betrayal. “One never seemed to be able to do enough to please them,” an Italian POW explained.”
― Rick Atkinson, The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy, 1943-1944

“Despite the UN secretary-general’s grand title, he was named in the UN Charter as the administrator of the organization. For this reason, former secretary-general Kofi Annan described the position as “more secretary than general.”
― Samantha Power, The Education of an Idealist: A Memoir