# American Empire: Blood and Iron

- Author: [Harry Turtledove](https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove.md)
- Quotes: 39
- Book page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove/american-empire-blood-and-iron

## Quotes

> Of all the sins in this world, which is more unforgivable than the sin of not having enough money? None I can think of.

p. 322 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove/american-empire-blood-and-iron/of-all-the.md)

> “God bless you, suh, for what you done there.”
>
> “I don’t believe in God, anymore than I believe in Mother Goose,” Darrow said. “Foolish notion. But I do believe in justice, and you deserve that. Everyone deserves that.”

p. 154 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove/american-empire-blood-and-iron/god-bless-you.md)

> Some people had a vested interest in trouble. If it looked as if calm threatened to break out, people like that would do anything they could to thwart it.

p. 286 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove/american-empire-blood-and-iron/some-people-had.md)

> A war is a disaster whether you win or you lose—it’s only a worse disaster if you lose.

p. 321 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove/american-empire-blood-and-iron/a-war-is-a-disaster.md)

> That wasn’t even close to fair, and Sylvia knew it. But she’s already seen that political campaigns weren’t designed to be fair. They were designed to convince, by whatever means possible.

p. 356 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove/american-empire-blood-and-iron/that-wasnt-even.md)

> Flora wasn’t sure she liked that in the abstract; whom a man knew shouldn’t have mattered so much as what he knew. But that didn’t change reality one bit.

p. 160 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove/american-empire-blood-and-iron/flora-wasnt-sure.md)

> “That’s logical. That’s a rational,” Hosea Blackford said. “Politics, unfortunately, is neither.”

p. 291 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove/american-empire-blood-and-iron/thats-logical-thats.md)

> Some people, though—some people think yelling something loud enough makes it so.

p. 424 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove/american-empire-blood-and-iron/some-people-though-some.md)

> “He lies. How can you trust a man who lies? You cannot. And any man who comes on the wireless and says, ‘I am going to tell you the truth’—well, what else can he be except a liar?”

p. 473 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove/american-empire-blood-and-iron/he-lies-how.md)

> “Your trouble, Major, is that you think people spell prosecute and convict the same way,” Moss said. “That’s not how it works. Even in military court, the defendant’s entitled to a fair shake.”

p. 336 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove/american-empire-blood-and-iron/your-trouble-major.md)

> Beauty didn’t last. Brains did.

p. 418 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove/american-empire-blood-and-iron/beauty-didnt-last.md)

> In a way, misery loves company. In another way, if everyone’s in trouble, nobody can help anybody else get out of it.

p. 232 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove/american-empire-blood-and-iron/in-a-way.md)

> The Confederate States had been founded on the principle that change was a bad idea.

p. 164 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove/american-empire-blood-and-iron/the-confederate-states.md)

> They eyed each other in perfect mutual incomprehension.

p. 154 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove/american-empire-blood-and-iron/they-eyed-each.md)

> “God done made this happen. He kin make us come through it, too, so long as He take it in His mind He want to do dat.”
>
> “Amen,” Athenaeus said. Scipio made himself nod. He didn’t want to seem out of place—seeming out of place was one of his greatest fears, because it was deadly dangerous. But if God had really wanted to do something about this disaster, couldn’t He have stopped it in the first place?

p. 240 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove/american-empire-blood-and-iron/god-done-made.md)

> Early summer in Nashville made a good practice ground for hell.

p. 446 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove/american-empire-blood-and-iron/early-summer-in-nashville.md)

> The only happy people she saw coming out of the place were a young couple, the man carrying a crying baby. Maternity wards are different, Nellie thought as she went past them. I bet they’re the only place in a hospital where people win instead of losing.

p. 392 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove/american-empire-blood-and-iron/the-only-happy.md)

> “Sir, don’t you think Utah is a special case?”
>
> “Every case has partisans who insist it is special,” Hoover answered. “I recognize none of them. I believe none of them. The same principles must apply throughout the United States.”

p. 457 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove/american-empire-blood-and-iron/sir-dont-you.md)

> Anne saw his attention focus on her. It still wasn’t the look a man gave an attractive woman: more like the look a sniper gave a target.

p. 147 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove/american-empire-blood-and-iron/anne-saw-his.md)

> You can’t get along with somebody who’s bound and determined not to get along with you.

p. 388 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove/american-empire-blood-and-iron/you-cant-get.md)

> Agnes might know what she was doing heading into this marriage, but he didn’t. He had no clue; marriage wasn’t part of the curriculum at West Point. Maybe it should be, he thought. It might not produce better officers, but was very likely to produce happier ones.

p. 277 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove/american-empire-blood-and-iron/agnes-might-know.md)

> “Something wrong, sir?” Lieutenant Jenkins asked.
>
> “No good deed goes unpunished,” Morrell answered.

p. 460 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove/american-empire-blood-and-iron/something-wrong-sir.md)

> “What’s Guinness?” Hirskowitz asked Carsten.
>
> “It’s what they make in Ireland instead of beer,” Sam said helpfully. “It’s black as fuel oil, and almost as thick. It tastes kind of burnt till you get used to it. After that, it’s not so bad.”
>
> “Oh.” Hirskowitz weighed that. “Well, I’ll see. They make real beer, too?”

p. 15 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove/american-empire-blood-and-iron/whats-guinness-hirskowitz.md)

> When he came up for air, he gasped, “You never kissed me like that before.”
>
> “Well, you never asked me to marry you before, either,” Rita answered.
>
> He laughed. They kissed again. Heart pounding, he asked, “What else don’t I know?”
>
> “You’ll find out,” she said. “After the wedding.”

p. 113 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove/american-empire-blood-and-iron/when-he-came.md)

> Proclaiming they had the answers was the easy part. Really having them, and making them work—that looked harder. That looked a hell of a lot harder to him. But some people would buy castles in the air because they were short of beans on the ground.

p. 205 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove/american-empire-blood-and-iron/proclaiming-they-had.md)

> Anne took her own attractiveness so much for granted, a man who showed he wasn’t completely in her grasp often succeeded in piquing her interest by sheer contrariness.

p. 185 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove/american-empire-blood-and-iron/anne-took-her.md)

> Yes, I know I haven’t told you anything. No offense, Sis, but you like running people’s lives so much, you don’t like it when they try and run their own.

p. 97 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove/american-empire-blood-and-iron/yes-i-know.md)

> They wouldn’t understand no matter what, any more than they would understand what life in the trenches was like. Experience brought understanding. Nothing else came close.

p. 445 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove/american-empire-blood-and-iron/they-wouldnt-understand.md)

> He spent years alternately chasing her and trying—always without much luck—to get her out of his mind. Now that he’d finally got her, finally found out just how much woman she was, losing her was the last thing he wanted. But two had to say yes. One was plenty for no.

p. 45 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove/american-empire-blood-and-iron/he-spent-years.md)

> That held enough truth to be provocative, not enough to be useful.

p. 114 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove/american-empire-blood-and-iron/that-held-enough.md)

> He hated parliamentary procedure, but he’d started learning it anyhow, even if he did think it was only a way to cheat by the numbers.

p. 85 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove/american-empire-blood-and-iron/he-hated-parliamentary.md)

> “I don’t hide anything I aim to do; I just come right out and say it.” An alarm whistle went off in Anne’s head; any man who said something like that was almost bound to be lying.

p. 148 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove/american-empire-blood-and-iron/i-dont-hide.md)

> She knew the sea too well ever to trust it.

p. 142 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove/american-empire-blood-and-iron/she-knew-the.md)

> Falling asleep in a corset was impressive proof of what exhaustion could do.

p. 284 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove/american-empire-blood-and-iron/falling-asleep-in-a-corset.md)

> There’s no such thing as glory, near as I can tell. If the machine guns didn’t kill it, the artillery did.

p. 88 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove/american-empire-blood-and-iron/theres-no-such.md)

> Your deplorable taste in politics aside, you’re an intelligent man.

p. 141 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove/american-empire-blood-and-iron/your-deplorable-taste.md)

> Soldiers don’t make policy. We only carry it out, and get blamed when it goes wrong.

p. 87 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove/american-empire-blood-and-iron/soldiers-dont-make.md)

> “I’ll be all right,” Nellie said. “This is something God meant women to do.” And if that doesn’t prove God is a man, I don’t know what does.

p. 122 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove/american-empire-blood-and-iron/ill-be-all.md)

> He was still very young, young enough to believe in the tooth fairy, the common sense of Congress, and a great many other unlikelihoods.

p. 130 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove/american-empire-blood-and-iron/he-was-still.md)