Quotes by James Jones

“In my old age I have come to believe that the whole of written history is miscreated and flawed by these discrepancies in the two ideals systems: the one of how we would all like to believe humanity might be, but only the privileged can afford to bel”

“When he finished packing, he walked out on to the third-floor porch of the barracks brushing the dust from his hands, a very neat and deceptively slim young man in the summer khakis that were still early morning fresh.”

“Judge Michael was a wonderful person and will be sorely missed by his colleagues on the bench and the other members of our court family,”

“Over the past half-dozen years theyve spent almost $2 billion in various kinds of safeguards, to make sure that people are registered correctly, to make sure that theres minimum opportunity for fraud on the voting cards, to have as much of a foolproof conduct of the election as possible,”

“We had these guys, but special teams hurt us a lot. We couldnt stop them as well sometimes on defense in situations. Weve just got to make more plays.”

“I like the way they play. They get up and down the floor, which is something I like. But more importantly, I feel like I can play anywhere. I consider myself a basketball player that can do a number of different things.”

“They just tell you work every day as if youre playing, because your opportunity will come. Every player in this league gets an opportunity, you just have to make the most of it.”

“Im pretty sure Ill get a chance to showcase some of those talents that my family members dont know about.”

“What President Zedillo has tried to do is to make the campaign and the election day counting both fair and honest. Thats whats historic. Mexico will truly be a democracy.”

“And when that happens, Mexico will have really leapt forward to first-world respectability.”

Warden had a theory about women: For years he had been asking them to sleep with him, the ones that interested him. Will you go to bed with me? and they were always shocked, even the rummy barflies. Of course, they always did, but that was only later, after he had fulfilled the proper requirements of approach. No woman ever said, Why, yes, Id like to go to bed with you. They couldnt do it. It wasnt in them to be that honest.

In spite of all of the training you get and the precautions you take to keep yourself alive its largely a matter of luck that decides whether or not you get killed.

“Fife... simply walked off by himself, into the jungle to look at all the things which would continue to exist after he had ceased to. There were a lot of them. Fife looked at them all. They remained singularly unchanged by his scrutiny.”

“He could not believe that any of them might actually hit somebody. If one did, what a nowhere way to go: killed by accident; slain not as an individual but by sheer statistical probability, by the calculated chance of searching fire, even as he himself might be at any moment. Mathematics! Mathematics! Algebra! Geometry! When 1st and 3d Squads came diving and tumbling back over the tiny crest, Bell was content to throw himself prone, press his cheek to the earth, shut his eyes, and lie there. God, oh, God! Why am I here? Why am I here? After a moments thought, he decided he better change it to: why are we here. That way, no agency of retribution could exact payment from him for being selfish.”

“As they prepared themselves to go ashore no one doubted in theory that at least a certain percentage of them would remain on the island dead, once they set foot on it. But no one expected to be one of these. Still it was an awesome thought and as the first contingents came struggling up on deck in full gear to form up, all eyes instinctively sought out immediately this island where they were to be put, and left, and which might possibly turn out to be a friends grave.”