37 Quotes By Robert Harris

In the realm of historical fiction and thrilling narratives, few authors have captured the imagination quite like Robert Harris. Known for his meticulous research and gripping storytelling, Harris has crafted novels that transport readers through time and politics, offering profound insights into human nature and power dynamics. Within his works, certain quotes resonate deeply, reflecting not only the essence of his stories but also universal truths and contemplations. In this post, we've brought together a selection of the top 37 quotes by Robert Harris, each one offering a glimpse into his deft ability to weave wisdom with narrative. Whether you're a longtime admirer of his work or a curious newcomer, these quotes may spark inspiration and reflection.

1. “Death solves all problems - no man, no problem. - J. V. Stalin, 1918” - Robert Harris

2. “But clever people all make one mistake. They all think everyone else is stupid. And everyone isn't stupid. They just take a bit more time, that's all.” - Robert Harris

3. “His scars and his tattoos were the medals of his lifetime. He was proud to wear them.” - Robert Harris

4. “To choose one's victims, to prepare one's plans minutely, to slake an implacable vengeance, and then to go to bed ... there is nothing sweeter in the world. - J. V. Stalin” - Robert Harris

5. “more enemies, more honour.” - Robert Harris

6. “Quod volimus credimus libenterwe always believe what we want to believe” - Robert Harris

7. “The foundations of Empire are often occasions of woe; their dismemberment, always.” - Robert Harris

8. “He glanced around the reading room and closed his eyes, trying to keep hold of the past for a minute longer, a fattening and hungover middle-aged historian in a black corduroy suit.” - Robert Harris

9. “Nothing is more important to a nation than its history. It is the earth upon which any society stands.” - Robert Harris

10. “Kelso's hangover had gone, to be replaced by that familiar phase of post-alcoholic euphoria - always in the past, his most productive time of day - a feeling that alone was enough to make getting drunk worthwhile.” - Robert Harris

11. “Push out a bayonet. If it strikes fat, push deeper. If it strikes iron, pull back for another day.” - Robert Harris

12. “From the subjective perspective, he may seem cruel, even wicked. But the glory of the man is to be found in the objective perspective.” - Robert Harris

13. “Does a name stick because it suits a man or does the man, unconsciously, evolve into his name?” - Robert Harris

14. “Acceptance. That, he had learned in Russia many years ago, was the secret of survival. ... Accept it. Wait. Let the system exhaust itself. Protest will only raise your blood pressure.” - Robert Harris

15. “He felt more human with his boots on. A man can face the world with something on his feet.” - Robert Harris

16. “Time. Now here is a peculiar commodity, boy. The measurement of time. Best accomplished, obviously, with a watch. But, lacking a watch, a man may use instead the ebb and flow of light and dark. Lacking, however, a window through which to see such movement, the reliance must be devolved upon some inner mechanism of the mind. But if the mind has received a shock, the mechanism is disturbed, and time becomes as the ground is to a drunkard, variable.” - Robert Harris

17. “A dog looks up to you, a cat looks down on you, but a pig looks you straight in the eye.” - Robert Harris

18. “If you are afraid of wolves, keep out of the woods. - J. V. Stalin, 1936” - Robert Harris

19. “She didn't say goodbye. She set off up the street, dodging the pedestrians, walking fast. He watched her, waiting to see if she might look back. But of course she didn't. He knew she wouldn't. She wasn't the looking-back kind.” - Robert Harris

20. “You are a bird of ill-omen, thought Kelso. You circle the world and wherever you land there is famine and death and destruction: in an earlier and less credulous age, the local citizens would have gathered at the first sight of you and driven you off with stones -” - Robert Harris

21. “In the concealed darkness of the bag her fingers began to work her rosary, clumsily at first but with increasing dexterity - Push. Click. Slide. Press -” - Robert Harris

22. “You can't make sense of the present unless a part of you lives in the past.” - Robert Harris

23. “What she needed was someone who would take her for the whole night. Someone decent and respectable, with an apartment of his own. But how could you ever judge what men were really like? It was the young ones with the swaggering walks and the loud mouths who ended up bursting into tears and showing you pictures of their girlfriends. It was the bespectacled bankers and lawyers who liked to knock you around.” - Robert Harris

24. “... he tried to visualise her apartment, but he couldn't do it, he didn't know enough about her.” - Robert Harris

25. “History wasn't made without taking risks, that much he knew. So maybe sometimes you had to take risks to write it, too?” - Robert Harris

26. “He wondered what O'Brian would have been like in a real war, one in which he actually had to fight rather than just take pictures. Then he wondered what he would have been like. Most of the men he knew asked themselves that question, as if never having fought somehow made them incomplete - left a hole in their lives where a war should have been.Was it possible that this absence of war - marvellous though it was and so forth: that went without saying - was it possible that it had actually trivialised people? Because everything was so bloody trivial now, wasn't it? This was The Trivial Age. Politics was trivial. What people worried about was trivial - mortgages and pensions and the dangers of passive smoking. Jesus! - is this what we've been reduced to, worrying about passive smoking, when our parents and our grandparents had to worry about being shot or bombed?And then he began to feel guilty, because what was he implying here? That he wanted a war? ... He was glad it was over, of course, in a way - but at least while it was on people like him had known where they stood, could point to something and say: well, we may not know what we do believe in, but we don't believe in that.” - Robert Harris

27. “Their souls were contagious. ... Bloodsuckers, spiders and vampires: that was what Lenin called them.” - Robert Harris

28. “Violence is Inevitable.” - Robert Harris

29. “She had the resigned indifference of extreme old age. Buildings and empires rose and fell. It snowed. It stopped snowing. People came and went. One day death would come for her, and she would not find that surprising either, and she would not care -” - Robert Harris

30. “the likeness was stricking. Not exact, of course - no man ever looks exactly like his father - but there was something there, no doubt about it, even with the younger man's beard and straggling hair. Something in the cast of the eyes and the bone structure, perhaps, or in the play of the expression: a kind of ponderous agility, a genetic shadow that was beyond the skills of any actor.” - Robert Harris

31. “... unfortunately, freedom alone is not enough, by far. If there is a shortage of bread, a shortage of butter and fats, a shortage of textiles, and if housing conditions are bad, freedom will not carry you very far. It is very difficult, comrades, to live on freedom alone.” - Robert Harris

32. “We are born in a clear field and die in a dark forest.” - Robert Harris

33. “These rough notes and our dead bodies must tell the tale -” - Robert Harris

34. “Gratitude", he said, quoting Stalin, "is a dog's disease.” - Robert Harris

35. “A comrade who deserts a comrade is a cowardly dog, and all such dogs should die a dog's death, comrade -” - Robert Harris

36. “Have you ever seen fishermen when a storm is brewing on a great river? I have seen them many a time. In the face of a storm one group of fishermen will muster all their forces, encourage their fellows and boldly put out to meet the storm: 'Cheer up, lads, hold tight to the tiller, cut the waves, we'll pull her through!' But there is another type of fishermen - those who, on sensing a storm, lose heart, begin to snivel and demoralise their own ranks: 'What a misfortune, a storm is brewing; lie down, boys, in the bottom of the boat, shut your eyes; let's hope she'll make the shore somehow.” - Robert Harris

37. “The most important thing in any endeavour is to get involved in the fight, and in that way learn what to do next.” - Robert Harris