Douglas Preston Quotes

Once again, we shall have to operate not only outside the box, but outside the room containing the box.

I hate crew cuts.

Sometimes it takes courage - maybe all the courage you've got - to just live life.

Retribution is just outstanding.

Perhaps it's not a matter of unimportant sites, but unimportant archaeologists.

I need to write in a small room - the smaller the better. I can't write in a big room where someone might sneak up behind my back.

I can see that an insufficent, or perhaps even defective, socialization process has led you to believe that four-letter words add power to languauge

Words, it gave a rather convincing impression of trying to elude pursuit. The dry, faintly ironic delivery

I am indeed sorry to say this, but I fear your microscopic problems do not interest me.

It's a very bad habit, but one I find hard to break.

The value of work? Have I taught them self-reliance? Have I taught them to take care of each

Fire is often the weapon of choice for the insane.

One can reach the gates of hell just as easily by short steps as by large.

Not only eating Lieutenant, but slobbering over the food as well. Clearly, he, she, or it has no manners.

nothing motivated a person quite as much as the desire for vengeance.

there was no reason why having a high iq would somehow protect you from the vicissitudes of life

God give me chastity, but not right now.

We listen to the unspoken, we gaze upon the unseen. Kakuzo Okakura, The Book of Tea

Does a toilet seat get ass?

Mrs. Trask turned to him. When Mr. Pendergast asks for something, we do not say no.

accomplices. This helped assure that the crowd would now move on to the next stage of the sound-and-light show - which

Wine is like many of the fine experiences in life which take time and experience to extract their full pleasure and meaning.

Human beings are disgustingly predictable, and this is as true of psychopaths as it is of grandmothers.

I have often found it true that the louder a person speaks, the less they have to say.

So I'm in the American Secret Service? Damn."
"It was all reported in the press the next day.

To put that statistic into personal terms, make a list of the nineteen people closest to you: All but one will die. (This

My hobbies are mountain biking, horseback riding and packing, canoeing and kayaking, hiking, camping, cooking, and skiing.

I like your custom 1911," the man said, glancing at Pendergast's weapon. "Les Baer Thunder Ranch Special? Nice-looking piece.

to authorize that personally.

There is more in the world than is dreamt of in your philosophy, Doctor - or in the Merck Manual.

guard posts and triple fencing had been bolstered by cutting-edge instrumentation, including laser-beam "lattices

The truth shall make you free, but first it will make you miserable.

When you lose, don't lose the lesson.

who the heck is dorothy gale?

I can scarcely believe the cruelty of the last century. It staggers the soul.

There was a pause while Pendergast considered this. I prefer hypocrisy to poverty.

We all have a Monster within; the difference is in degree, not in kind.

God bless us, everyone," Smithback intoned. Margo punched him playfully.

As I get older, Vincent, I have come to prefer a quiet evening at home to a bracing exchange of gunfire in the dark.

Launches the reader into a story of science and ancient mystery that will blow your mind: [From New York Times bestselling author Douglas Preston]

anyway, the money was great, but the corporate world just wasn't to my liking. i guess i'm not a team player--or an ass-kisser.

I don't know jack about wine, sorry." "You should learn. It is one of the true and ancient pleasures that make human existence tolerable.

But we were just picnicking friends

He had reached an age where he found the best way to deal with unpleasantness was to pretend it didn't exist.

was afraid you wouldn't be permitted to leave the country for ages.

The third board popped off. The opening was now big enough to squeeze through. The dogs in town were barking hysterically.

The twentieth century showed us the evil face of physics. This century will show us the evil face of biology.

There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.

Everything he did, he did well, and as a result he was an accomplished asshole indeed.

the partition was rolled up for ventilation, and she was lying in her hammock reading one of the books Vernon had brought, a thriller called utopia.

intentional: if you meddle in our affairs, we'll

He had done the right thing and that was what counted. That was the best you could do in life. How others took it was beyond his control.

Well ... The old servant hesitated. D'Agosta wanted

Sometimes not knowing can be a lot worse than knowing - even if knowing proves to be very painful.

D'Agosta had long ago learned, when working with Pendergast, to never get caught without two things: a gun and a flashlight.

There is a mountain range behind the town, called the Sierra de Sangre de Cristo. It means the 'Blood of Christ Mountains' in Spanish.

Lead me into all misfortune. Only by that path can I transform the negative into the positive.

J. P. Morgan once said, If you want something too much, you will not succeed in getting it.

Trying to fulfill earthly desires was like carrying water to the sea; a never- ending task, and an ultimately useless one.

Most people are about as aware of their surroundings as a sea cucumber.

New York City. Once it got into your blood, you could never get it out again.

How awful a knowledge of the truth can be.

There is nothing inherently wrong about science.

The Monster's crimes were so horrific that a mere man could not possibly have committed them. Satan, in the end, had to be invoked.

if the count of monte cristo could escape the chateau d'if, william smithback could escape from river oaks

he didn't murder Charles Duchamp, and he didn't murder Michael Decker. His

Sleep is an unfortunate biological requirement that both wastes time and leaves one vulnerable.

You cannot stare evil in the face; it has no face. It has no body, no bones, no blood. Any attempt to describe it ends in glibness and self-delusion.

The wise and good are outnumbered a thousand to one by the brutal and stupid.

This was an intentional frame.

Jennie confirmed my suspicions that television advertising is directed mainly at people with the iq of a pongid

Criticism is a profession which allows one a certain license to be vicious outside the bounds of normal civilized behavior.

The shudder of fear is as sensual as the shudder of pleasure, if not more so.

Like having death poke his stinking mug into your face to make you think about things.

You just put your boot so far up his ass, he'll have to eat his dinner with a shoehorn." "I can always count on you for a suitable bon mot.

What we have here is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.

because it's not enough to have a dream - you need financing.

Hubris and science are incompatible.

nothing is impossible. you just need to learn how to bend the rules.

Project The Forgotten Room Impact The Third Gate The Monster of Florence Terminal Freeze (with Mario Spezi) Deep Storm

The point of a cruise ship is the cruise itself. But an ocean liner's job is to transport people on a schedule. The

You could tell a lot about a person by meeting his brother.

Don't live in the past - you will know what you've lost but not what you've found?

There are so many journalists out there, I hate to say it, who are lazy and don't do their research - and it shows.

While dead men tell no tales, their corpses often speak volumes.

I have found that liars in the end communicate more truth than do truth tellers." "How's that?" "Because truth is the safest lie.