Fletcher Knebel Quotes

Smoking is one of the leading causes of statistics.

Jim MacVeigh had reached the conclusion that the President of the United States was insane.

Canada will bring us power for the future, Scandinavia the character, the steadiness…It’s the grand concept for survival…a union of know-how, that’s us, with power and character.

Suddenly the thought struck MacVeagh: President (Mark) Hollenbach must not be allowed to go into the conference with Zuchek (Russian premier). My God, Mark might be capable of anything. Who knew what Zuchek, a patient, steel-nerved negotiator, utterly devoted to Russia’s self-interest, vs Hollenbach, whose once brilliant mind now was obsessed with fancied tormentors and played like a child’s with the toy blocks of destiny.

Oh Senator, how could you be so cruel – and so ignorant of the true facts.” “Facts are facts, Mrs. Byerson….There are no such things as true facts, for then we’d have to have false facts, wouldn’t we.

Zuchek, a patient, steel-nerved negotiator, utterly devoted to Russia's self-interest, vs. Hollenbach, whose once brilliant mind now was obsessed with fancied tormentors and played like a child's with the toy blocks of destiny.

He's trying to belittle the presidency and drag it down to his own smart-aleck level.

Nobody in this country can tell a president of the United States that his mind is sick.

O'Malley did it for the express purpose of embarrassing me in an election year.” The President's eyes locked on MacVeagh's, but the younger man grinned.

The mental business is almost impossible to handle at the apex of government

You double-crossed me, MacVeagh,” continued Hollenbach, his speech... You've joined the plot to discredit me and disgrace the administration—for what exact purposes, I don't know yet.

Who knew what fantastic secret agreement might emerge from such a meeting?

Freedom of the press is one thing, but unbridled license to degrade and ridicule officials who devote their lives to this country is something else again.

The last time a madman mashed the button, we got the Second World War and six million Jews were cremated. The next time the button is mashed, we could cremate the human race.

The General’s preoccupation with electronic gadgetry irked Randall. The world had become a wondrous fabric of instant communication, linking millions of people in the same old abundance of problems and poverty of solutions.