Jews From The United States

"A horsefly can't do a horse much real damage, but it can drive it wild anyhow."

"If barbarians recognized that they were barbarians, they wouldn’t be so barbarous any more."

"If you were half as funny as think you are, you’d be twice as funny as you really are."

"Liv worried less about how important other people thought she was and more about things that really mattered."

"“Sometimes I think I don’t know everything that’s going on,” Ulric Skakki said in tones full of mock self-pity. Count Hamnet reached out and set a consoling hand on his arm. “Don’t worry about it. Sometimes I don’t think you know what‘s going on, either.”"

"He didn’t care what she thought, and, in not caring, he felt as if a curse were lifted from his back."

"“And if you don’t bet, how do you expect to win?” Hamnet Thyssen didn’t look at things that way. To him, not betting meant you couldn’t lose. He hadn’t even thought of winning."

"From what I’ve seen, people who brag a lot are usually trying to convince themselves even more than other people."

"“You believe in reincarnation, then?” Eyvind Torfinn asked eagerly. “Have you evidence to support your belief?”"

"“Mammoths make me believe in God,” Trasimund said… “How could mammoths make themselves? God had to do it.” “You could say the same thing about mosquitoes.” Eyvind Torfinn punctuated the observation by slapping. “You could even say God liked mosquitoes better than mammoths, because he made so many more of them.”"

"Women are what made me the way I am now. I do not believe the illness is also the cure."

"If Earl Eyvind wanted to talk nonsense, he was welcome to, as far as Hamnet was concerned. If he wanted anyone else to take him seriously when he did…that was another story altogether."

"He thought she was the most wonderful woman in the world. Of course he did—she agreed with him."

"“By God, you are a hateful man!” “Anyone who tells you anything you don’t want to hear is a hateful man,” Hamnet answered."

"If they had lawyers instead of teeth, they’d be as bad as people."

"Hamnet Thyssen wondered if Witigis was a holy man or simply a madman. His vacant features didn’t promise much in the way of brains."

"A man who gets angry at the truth will have a hard time in life, don’t you think?"

"“Foolishness,” Ulric Skakki said. “Everything that goes on between men and women is full of foolishness.”"

"Mosquitoes laid eggs in those ponds and then rose in buzzing, biting swarms. Sometimes the clouds of them were thick enough to dim the sun. It was as if the soul of a vampire were reincarnated in a million beings instead of just one."

"“And do you know of opossums? Have they come this far north?” “I have seen one or two.” Sarus made a face. “Horrible things, like big rats with pointed faces.”"

"Ulric Skakki’s smile was so charming, it made Hamnet distrust him on sight—as if he didn’t already."

"“Knowledge is strange,” Eyvind Torfinn said. “You never can be sure ahead of time what you may need. Someone who is going to a strange place will carry different tools on his belt. Should he not carry different tools in his head as well?”"

"Believe worked well enough when a man could not measure it against facts. But when he could…Facts crushed to belief like a mammoth crushing a vole."

"Hopes were only shadows that too often vanished in the pitiless light of reality."

"And Ulric was a man of parts, no doubt about it. Just what the parts added up to…Yes, that was a different question."

"What people believed often turned out to be true just because they believed it. Charlatans and mages were quick to take advantage of that."

"For the Spanish Armada to have conquered England in 1588 would not have been easy. King Philip's fleet would have needed several pieces of good fortune it did not get: a friendlier wind at Calais, perhaps, one that might have kept the English from launching their fireships against the Armada; and a falling-out between the Dutch and English that could have let the Duke of Parma put to sea from Dunkirk and join his army to the Duke of Medina Sidonia's fleet for the invasion of England. Getting Spanish soldiers across the Channel would have been the hard part. Had it been accomplished, the Spanish infantry, the best in the world at the time and commanded by a most able officer, very probably could have beaten Elizabeth's forces on land."

"Someone bumped into Shakespeare: Will Kemp. The clown made a leg- a cramped leg, in the crush- at him. "Give you good den, gallowsbait," he said cheerfully. "Go to!" Shakespeare said. "Meseems we are well begun here." "Well begun, ay. And belike, soon we shall be well ended, too." Kemp jerked his head to one side, made his eyes bulge, and stuck out his tongue as if newly hanged. With a shudder, Shakespeare said, "If your wind of wit sit in that quarter, why stand you here and not with the Spaniards?" "Why?" Kemp kissed him on the cheek. "Think you're the only mother's son born a fool in England?""

"But no line of ferocious, lean-faced, swarthy Spaniards appeared. Shouts and cries and the harsh snarl of gunfire suggested the dons were busy, desperately busy, elsewhere in London. When chance swept Shakespeare and Richard Burbage together for a moment, the player said, "Belike they'll make a stand at the tower." "Likely so," Shakespeare agreed unhappily. Those frowning walls had been made to hold back an army, and this... thing he was a part of was anything but. Up Tower Hill, where he'd watched the auto de fe almost a year before. A great roar, a roar full of triumph, rose from the men in front of him as they passed the crest of the hill and swept on towards the Tower Ditch and the walls beyond. And when Shakespeare crested the hill himself, he looked ahead and roared too, in joy and amazement and suddenly flaring hope. Will Kemp had been right, right and more than right. All the gates to the Tower of London stood open."

"And then, to Shakespeare's amazement and dismay, Burbage and Will Kemp tramped forward together, both of them plainly intent on marching on the Tower of London, too. Shakespeare seized Burbage's arm. "Hold, Dick!" he said urgently. "Let not this wild madness infect your wit. Can a swarm of rude mechanicals pull down those gray stone walls? The soldiers on 'em'll work a fearful slaughter. Throw not your life away." Before Burbage could answer, Will Kemp did: "The soldiery on the walls may work a fearful slaughter, ay, an they have the stomach for't. But think you 'twill be so? A plot that stretcheth to the Theatre surely shall not fall short of the tower.""

"Dying Boudicca managed a feeble nod, and sent her last words out to a breathlessly silent Theatre: "E'en so; 'Tis true. Oh!- I feel the poison! We Britons never did, nor never shall, Lie at the proud foot of a conqueror, But when we do first help to wound ourselves, Come the three corners of the world in arms, And we shall shock them. Naught shall make us rue, If Britons to themselves do rest but true." She fell back and lay dead. Shakespeare strode forward, to the very front of the stage. Into more silence, punctuated only by sobs, he said, "No epilogue here, unless you make it; If you want your freedom, go and take it.""

"“Stuck in fucking Alabama,” Armstrong Grimes grumbled. “What could be worse than this?” Squidface was cleaning his captured automatic Tredegar. He looked up from the work. “Well, you could be in hell,” he said. “Who says I’m not?” Armstrong said. It’s a godforsaken miserable place, and I can’t get out of it. If that’s not hell, what do you call it?” “Pittsburgh,” Squidface answered."

"“Glad you’re back safe. I heard you were wounded—happy it wasn’t too serious.” “Yeah.” The only wound that wasn’t serious was the one that happened to the other guy."

"“Do you know what Mobile is?” Sam Carsten said. “Tell me,” Lon Menefee urged him. “Mobile is what New Orleans would’ve been if it was settled by people without a sense of humor,” Sam said."

"“When I started, no one was sure what the machine gun was worth. Now FitzBelmont talks about blowing up Rhode Island with one bomb.” “Best thing that could happen to it,” Abell observed."

"The only way you could keep from getting old was by dying before you made it."

"After a case like that, writing about the work O’Doull had done during the war didn’t seem so bad. That, at least, had mattered. This? While he was sewing and splinting and cutting, he looked forward to this with a fierce and simple longing. Now that he had it again, he discovered the danger of getting exactly what you thought you wanted. It could prove as unfortunate in real life as in fairy tales."

"Pound got back into his uniform. “See you again, maybe,” he said. She nodded. If she was enthusiastic, she hid it very well. She didn’t mind his money, but she sure wasn’t thrilled about him. Well, he was old enough to be her father. And he was a damnyankee. And she was a whore and he was a trick. That left it fourth down and time to punt."

"You have to understand what you’re fighting for. Otherwise, you were an animal—a brave animal, maybe, but an animal all the same."

"Jonathan Moss didn’t like Houston. It was even hotter and muggier than Georgia and Alabama, and that was saying something. New Orleans was supposed to be just as bad, or maybe worse, but you could have a good time in New Orleans. If you could have a good time in Houston, Moss hadn’t found out how."

"Pound saw problems and solutions with an almost vicious clarity. As far as he was concerned, everything was simple. And damned if watching him in action didn’t make you wonder whether he had it right and everybody else looked at the world through a kaleidoscope that made everything seem much more complicated than it should have."

"“Aren’t you lucky…sir?” “Yeah. I’m lucky like snow is black,” Morrell answered."

"Nothing the government touches ever ends up looking just the way you thought it would before you started—you need to understand that right from the beginning, or else you start going crazy."

"That wasn’t even remotely fair, but politics wasn’t about being fair. Politics was about getting your guy in and keeping the other side’s guy out. Once you’d done that, you could do all the other neat stuff you had in mind. If you stood on the sidelines looking longingly toward the playing field, all the neat ideas in the world weren’t worth a dime."

"The roll of the dice, the turn of the card…Some guys had a shell burst ten feet away from them and didn’t get badly hurt. Some turned into hamburger. Who could say why? God, maybe. From everything Jorge had seen, He had a rugged sense of humor."

"Hal Williamson shook his hand and said, “Good luck to you, buddy. Goddamn if I didn’t learn something from you.” “What’s that?” Cincinnatus asked. “Colored guys—you’re just like anybody else, only darker,” Hal answered. Cincinnatus laughed. “Shit, I’ll that that. Good luck to you, too, man.”"

"Then he realized what it really was: a possum. It looked like a cat-sized rat that had got its nose stuck in a pencil sharpener. The long, bare pinkish tail seemed vaguely obscene. Lieutenant Colonel Torricelli was looking in the same direction. “If that’s not the ugliest thing God ever made, damned if I know what it is,” he said. “Now that Jake Featherston’s dead, I agree with you.”"

"“You may not care about famous, buddy, but famous is gonna care about you,” the photographer predicted."

"It was like trying to kill a butterfly with an axe."

"Down underneath, there wasn’t much difference between people and animals. War brought that out all kinds of ways."