Erik Larson Quotes

There began to appear before my romantic eyes...a vast and complicated network of espionage, terror, sadism and hate, from which no one, official or private, could escape.
Erik Larson
Dodd acknowledged Congress's reluctance to become entangled abroad but added, "I do, however, think facts count; even if we hate them.
Erik Larson
My between-books strategy was reading voraciously and on a whim.
Erik Larson
My prophetic task would be twofold: to stand up to him, and to stand by him. To awaken his conscience, and to salve the pain this would cause him.
Erik Larson
I always thought a shipwreck was a well-organized affair, but I've learned the devil a lot in the last five minutes.
Erik Larson
During World War I, Germany had only 25 of its vaunted submarines sailing at any one time.
Erik Larson
If you had to jump six or seven feet or certainly drown, it's surprising how far even older people will jump.
Erik Larson
There were always those passengers who came aboard bearing grudges against the modern age.
Erik Larson
Murder was a fascination as always.
Erik Larson
New York's perennial attraction was shopping.
Erik Larson
They looked more like day laborers than seamen.
Erik Larson
But one thing was quite clear…” he wrote. “[B]eing broke didn’t disturb me in the least. I had started with nothing, and if I now found myself with nothing, I was at least even. Actually, I was much better than even: I had had a wonderful time.” Bloom went on to become a congressman and one of the crafters of the charter that founded the United Nations.
Erik Larson
The intermittent depression that had shadowed him throughout his adult life was about to envelop him once again.
Erik Larson
American political discourse had framed the Jewish problem as an immigration problem. Germany's persecution of Jews raised the specter of a vast influx of Jewish refugees at a time when America was reeling from the Depression.
Erik Larson
Wasplike with their long slender hulls, these were ships not seen in these waters before. They approached in a line, each flying a large American flag. To the hundreds of onlookers by now gathered on shore, many also carrying American flags, it would be a sight they would never forget and into which they read great meaning. These were the descendants of the colonials returning now at Britain's hour of need....
Erik Larson
No one cared what St. Louis thought, although the city got a wink for pluck.
Erik Larson
He disliked the social obligations of the captaincy.
Erik Larson
It's all right to drill your crew, but why not drill the passengers.
Erik Larson
You wish you had not come. If there were not so many around, you would reach out your arms, with the prayer on your lips for it all to come back to you. It seems cruel, cruel, to give us such a vision; to let us dream and drift through heaven for six months, and then to take it out of our lives.
Erik Larson
Germans grew reluctant to stay in communal ski lodges, fearing they might talk in their sleep. They postponed surgeries because of the lip-loosening effects of anesthetic. Dreams reflected the ambient anxiety. One German dreamed that an SA man came to his home and opened the door to his oven, which then repeated every negative remark the household had made against the government.
Erik Larson
I will be on the look out for you, my dear girl," he wrote. "You must expect to give yourself up when you come." For this buttoned-up age, for Burnham, it was a letter that could have steamed itself open.
Erik Larson