Quotes by 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.

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.

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.

Its all right to drill your crew, but why not drill the passengers.

He disliked the social obligations of the captaincy.

No one cared what St. Louis thought, although the city got a wink for pluck.

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 Britains hour of need....

American political discourse had framed the Jewish problem as an immigration problem. Germanys persecution of Jews raised the specter of a vast influx of Jewish refugees at a time when America was reeling from the Depression.

The intermittent depression that had shadowed him throughout his adult life was about to envelop him once again.

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.

They looked more like day laborers than seamen.

There were always those passengers who came aboard bearing grudges against the modern age.

Murder was a fascination as always.

New Yorks perennial attraction was shopping.

If you had to jump six or seven feet or certainly drown, its surprising how far even older people will jump.

I always thought a shipwreck was a well-organized affair, but Ive learned the devil a lot in the last five minutes.

During World War I, Germany had only 25 of its vaunted submarines sailing at any one time.

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.

My between-books strategy was reading voraciously and on a whim.

Dodd acknowledged Congresss reluctance to become entangled abroad but added, I do, however, think facts count; even if we hate them.