Best 80 quotes of David Baldacci on MyQuotes

And he has guns and dogs that would make the Hound of Baskervilles seem like a bleeding Pekinese.

And he goes round with a fat roll of dollar bills, and got this nice farm, and all them fancy machines, and man let his family starve.’ - Louisa Mae Cardinal

A smart man understood that victory was not inevitable. An even smarter man knew that defeat was never really total if you figured out how to handle the aftermath with skill and just the right spin. And the smartest men of all, even when they lost, they actually won.

But the fact is, as one grows close to death, the only thing that matters is family. I hope you can see that.

Dark, cool, musty, smoky, where light fell funny and everyone looked like someone you knew or wanted to know. Or, more likely, wanted to forget.

Decker looked behind him. 'That's nice.' 'What?' said Mars, looking too. 'Where the NAACP office was they built a public library. You know people who read are a lot more tolerant and open-minded than those who don't.' 'Great, so let's get everybody in the world a library card.

For DeHaven it was well worth the extra money to a federal budget that had always allocated more to war than it ever did to peaceful purposes. For a fraction of the cost of one missile he could purchase on the open market every work the library needed to round out its rare books collection. Yet politicians believed that missiles kept you safe, whereas actually books did, and for a simple reason. Ignorance caused wars, and people who read widely were seldom ignorant.

He'd been given an assignment to write about teen beauty pageants [...], which he'd accepted because he enjoyed blood sports as much as the next person.

He rose, placed another small log on the fire, sat back down in his armchair, and opened his book. "What are you reading?" Reggie asked. "On a wild night like this? Agatha Christie, of course. I still feel compelled to see if Hercule Poirot's 'little gray cells' will do their job one more time. It seems to often inspire my own brain, however inferior it might be to the diminutive Belgian's.

Déjà vu Orwell's 1984

If Jackson had learned one thing over the years it was that nothing, absolutely nothing, was above corruption so long as human beings were involved, because, in truth, most people were not above the lure of the dollar or other material entitlements.

In his mind progress was always to be measured in inches, especially when you didn’t have yards or even feet of success to show off.

In some ways, it was far easier to be bad than good. When you're bad, you don't care what happens to anyone other than yourself. When you're trying to do god, you have to worry about everyone.

It’s been my experience that most folk who ride trains could care less where they’re going. For them it’s the journey itself and the people they meet along the way. You see, at every stop this train makes, a little bit of America, a little bit of your country, gets on and says hello. That’s why trains are so popular at Christmas. People get on to meet their country over the holidays. They’re looking for some friendship, a warm body to talk to. People don’t rush on a train, because that’s not what trains are for. How do you put a dollar value on that? What accounting line does that go on?

It would actually constitute more than a miracle, he realised. It would take divine intervention plus luck, plus some unknown element of cosmic wizardry.

It would cut into him at unpredictable moments, like a gutting knife made of colored light.

I’ve fought for and against pretty much every cause there is. There will always be war of some kind. At first it was over fertile soil and good water, then precious metal and then the most popular version of human disagreement, ‘My God is better than your God.’ Whether you draw your faith from Jeremiah and Jesus, Allah and Muhammad or Brahma and Buddha, it doesn’t matter. Someone will tell you you’re wrong, and he’ll fight you over it. Me, I believe in aliens, and to hell with all earthly gods. In the grand scheme of a trillion planets in the universe we’re just not that damn important anyway. And humans are rotten to the core.

Lou looked at Davis there praying like God was in his heart and home, while his family remained behind in rags and fear and would have starved except for the kindness of Louisa Cardinal. She could only shake her head.

Number of children fathered got little enough to do with being a good daddy.’ - Louisa Mae Cardinal

Shaw didn't answer, He didn't know anything, not for sure. But what he did have was an instict that almost never led him down the wrong path. And every inner warning signal he had was blaring away.

She apparently didn't expect any trouble but she also never expected everything to go perfectly either. That was a good rule to live by Robie knew. Because perfection was rarely the case in the field.

She glanced around at the tombstones. “You’re surrounded by death here. Way too depressing. You really might want to think about getting another job.” “You see death and sadness in these sunken patches of dirt, I see lives lived fully and the good deeds of past generations influencing the future ones.

So the criminals win, that's what you're saying? For now they do. But it's a long game, Jamison. And I always play for the long game.

That was your past, Michelle. You can't live in the past. Sure you can, Sean. If you're not too thrilled with your future.

The report helpfully provided that Quakers are a religious group that pride themselves on their nonviolent beliefs. That was a stupid principle on which to found a religion, Chung-Cha thought. One could not rule out violence, because violence was often necessary. And since other religions routinely employed violence, those that did not were in constant danger of being rendered extinct.

They rode in a cab to the rendezvous spot. It was a warehouse, which didn't surprise Shaw. "It's usually a damn warehouse," he said to Reggie.

Well, that dog was all Diamond had. When you love something, you can’t just sit by and not do anything.’ ‘I suppose it may be God’s way of telling us to love people while they’re here, because tomorrow they may be gone. I guess that’s a pretty sorry answer, but I’m afraid it’s the only one I’ve got.’ ‘You’re wise beyond your years. And what you say makes perfect sense. But I think when it comes to matters of the heart, perfect sense may be last thing you want to listen to.’ - Cotton Longfellow

-“Why do men like you do the job you do? It can’t be for the medals. And it’s certainly not the money.” Stone said nothing. -“Why then? God and country?” -“Both simpler and more complex, Mr. President.” -“What then?” -“So I can look at myself in the mirror.

Woe be to the wug who forgets that destroying one part of a thing does not equal victory

you ask too many questions," snapped Cletus. I kept my gaze on Roman. "that's because I get too few answers.