Ken Follett > Quotes

“Having faith in God did not mean sitting back and doing nothing. It meant believing you would find success if you did your best honestly and energetically.”
― Ken Follett, The Pillars of the Earth

“The most expensive part of building is the mistakes.”
― Ken Follett, The Pillars of the Earth

“She loved him because he had brought her back to life. She had been like a caterpillar in a cocoon, and he had drawn her out and shown her that she was a butterfly.”
― Ken Follett, The Pillars of the Earth

“Nevertheless, the book gave Jack a feeling he had never had before, that the past was like a story, in which one thing led to another, and the world was not a boundless mystery, but a finite thing that could be comprehended. ”
― Ken Follett, The Pillars of the Earth

“The duck swallows the worm, the fox kills the duck, the men shoot the fox, and the devil hunts the men.”
― Ken Follett, The Pillars of the Earth

“She wanted to say 'I love you like a thunderstorm, like a lion, like a helpless rage'...”
― Ken Follett, The Pillars of the Earth

“Why do you have to be the same as the others? ...Most of them are stupid.”
― Ken Follett, Winter of the World

“A baby was like a revolution, Grigori thought: you could start one, but you could not control how it would turn out.”
― Ken Follett, Fall of Giants

“The greater their ignorance, the stronger their opinions.”
― Ken Follett, Edge of Eternity

“Hunger is the best seasoning.”
― Ken Follett, The Pillars of the Earth

“Why was it, Lloyd wondered, that the people who wanted to destroy everything good about their country were the quickest to wave the national flag?”
― Ken Follett, Winter of the World

“I imagined it. I wrote it. But I guess I never thought I'd see it.”
― Ken Follett, The Pillars of the Earth

“Proportion is the heart of beauty.”
― Ken Follett, The Pillars of the Earth

“You never know," Jack said speculatively. "There may come a time when savages like William Hamleigh aren't in power; when the laws protect the ordinary people instead of enslaving them; when the king makes peace instead of war. Think of that - a time when towns in England don't need walls!”
― Ken Follett, The Pillars of the Earth

“When things are simple, fewer mistakes are made. The most expensive part of a building is the mistakes.”
― Ken Follett, The Pillars of the Earth

“Man who betrayed you once would betray you twice.”
― Ken Follet

“She was unique: there was something abnormal about her, and it was that abnormal something that made her magnetic.”
― Ken Follett, The Pillars of the Earth

“When you're thinking, please remember this: excessive pride is a familiar sin, but a man may just as easily frustrate the will of God through excessive humility.”
― Ken Follett, The Pillars of the Earth

“And here's my advice to you. If you get the chance of the mad kind of love, grab it with both hands, and to hell with the consequences.”
― Ken Follett, Winter of the World

“But the lesson of Abraham's story is that God demands the best we have to offer, that which is most precious to us.”
― Ken Follett, The Pillars of the Earth

“We’re all good when it suits us, he used to say: that doesn’t count. It’s when you want so badly to do something wrong—when you’re about to make a fortune from a dishonest deal, or kiss the lovely lips of your neighbor’s wife, or tell a lie to get yourself out of terrible trouble—that’s when you need the rules. Your integrity is like a sword, he would say: you shouldn’t wave it until you’re about to put it to the test.”
― Ken Follett, World Without End

“President Wilson says a leader must treat public opinion the way a sailor deals with the wind, using it to blow the ship in one direction or another, but never trying to go directly against it.”
― Ken Follett, Fall of Giants

“you should first follow the plow if you want to dance the harvest jig.”
― Ken Follett, World Without End

“To someone standing in the nave, looking down the length of the church toward the east, the round window would seem like a huge sun exploding into innumerable shards of gorgeous color.”
― Ken Follett, The Pillars of the Earth

“It was an odd relationship, but then she was an extraordinary woman: a prioress who doubted much of what the church taught; an acclaimed healer who rejected medicine as practised by physicians; and a nun who made enthusiastic love to her man whenever she could get away with it. If I wanted a normal relationship, Merthin told himself, I should have picked a normal girl.”
― Ken Follett, World Without End

“Trusting someone was like holding a little water in your cupped hands - it was so easy to spill the water, and you could never get it back.”
― Ken Follet

“Don't look so sad," she said. Her eyes were full of tears.
"I can't help it," he said. "I am sad."
"I'm sorry I've made you so unhappy."
"Don't be sorry for that. Be sorry that you made me so happy. That's what hurts, woman. That you made me so happy.”
― Ken Follett, The Pillars of the Earth

“The ability to listen to smart people who disagree with you is a rare talent”
― Ken Follett, Fall of Giants

“Little things please little minds.”
― Ken Follett, Fall of Giants

“Knotty theological questions are the least worrying of problems to me. Why? Because they will be resolved in the hereafter, and meanwhile they can be safely shelved.”
― Ken Follett, The Pillars of the Earth