Quotes
The British had the gall to call Robert Clive 'Clive of India' as if he belonged to the country, when all he really did was to ensure that much of the country belonged to him.
Bureaucracy is simultaneously the most crippling of Indian diseases and the highest of Indian art forms.
The British are the only people in history crass enough to have made revolutionaries out of Americans.
Basic truth about the colonies, Heaslop. Any time there's trouble, you can put it down to books. Too many of the wrong ideas getting into the heads of the wrong sorts of people. If ever the Empire comes to ruin, Heaslop, mark my words, the British publisher will be to blame.
The only thing rarer than louts who think is louts who read.
p. 96
“Anything interesting in the paper?”
“Some tragedy, some comedy, nothing that’ll matter in a hundred years,” I said.
p. 238
Old gods sometimes do that in their retirement. They become galactic social workers, self-appointed do-gooders.
p. 502
Many men of importance were gathered there to be seen talking with other men of importance, resulting in an abundance of conspicuous but immaterial discourse.
p. 40
“Humans are unique in holding their gods so cheap they peck at them like pigeons, constantly intruding upon them with prayer! Prayer from all sides of every conflict, prayer before each contest, during every issue. Private prayer, public prayer, shepherded prayer baa-ed from congregation, sports prayer before games, prayer parroted and prayer spontaneous, endless instructions to god, endless...plockutta.
“‘Intercede for me and solve my problems; give me, grant us; hear the words I’m saying; suspend the laws of nature in this instance; cure her; save him; don’t let them; listen to me; do this!’” The Visitor sighed. “Beneath it, one hears devils’ laughter.”
p. 458
He blunders about like an ape in an apiary, infuriating the inhabitants and missing all the sweetness!
p. 176
People don’t seem to rob bookstores much, more’s the pity for them.
p. 88
The practice of diplomacy, I have found, is sometimes like eating soup with a fork: much activity yielding little nourishment.
p. 358
