Lindsey Davis Quotes

Never lend if you need repayment; never give where you want a return.

Sometimes you run away by yourself purely so someone who cares will come to find you. Half the time nobody does. That's the tragedy of life.

I despise women who rely on men entirely for their own existence.

You could tell those two had been married by the way that she ignored him.

The plumber plodded along in silence, like a man who has learned to be polite to lunatics through dealing with civil engineers.

In my experience, men who sit in corners are the ones to watch.

Some men are born lucky. Others are born Marcus Didius Falco.

I like my women in a few wisps of drapery: then I can hope for a chance to remove the wisps. If they start out with nothing I tend to get depressed because either they have just stripped off for someone else or, in my line of work, they are usually dead.

I had been right in the first place. Getting involved with politicians is complete stupidity.

He listened with the mild demeanour of a man who had waited eight years for his town council to draw up a specification for emergency repairs.

Emperors may come and go, bringing more or less chaos, but the bureaucrats keep the wheels turning.

popular men who laugh at your jokes pose a threat which blatant villains can never command.

She called me a rat.’ ‘Oh yes, I gathered you two were very close!

Have any sheep been seen walking out of the Library with seagoing adventurers clinging to their wool?

Free time, time to do whatever you liked, or to do absolutely nothing, alone or in company you valued: of all the luxuries in the Empire, perhaps this was the greatest.

But, remember, a tyrant hates to admit he is one,’ Faustus said quietly. ‘The worse he is, the more he claims – and even believes – that traditional religion and democracy matter to him deeply and determine all his actions.

It struck me there might be a reason why Helena Justina whipped along at such a cracking pace: she did not want to be stuck in the wilderness with my corpse. I thanked Jove for her ruthless good sense. I did not want my corpse to be stuck with her in any case.

We managed to make a good night of it, in the desperate way people do when the choice is between dogged survival or sliding under the morass.

I like my women in a few wisps of drapery: then I can hope for a chance to remove the wisps.

They were not beggars; well, not in the usual sense. They were Christians, who wanted not just my nephew's money but their souls.

The grander the temple, the lousier its hangers-on.

Hello, still waiting for an unexpected development? There was none. It happens. It happens all the time.

There was one good side to my male relations. Since they were married to my sisters, they had all learned to be swiftly subdued by sarcasm.

Even the impetuous Helena Justina was an advocate of traditional family councils. However, every Roman matron knows that domestic councils were devised by our foremothers purely so the views of the matron of a household may prevail.

Dictators love to talk. It is remarkable how men who wield excessive sole power will be consistent in this: Given a captive audience, they all drone on for hours. And hours. The human brain can only concentrate for twenty minutes, ask any teacher. Dictators have rarely been despatched on a training course to learn that simple fact. Many dictators are completely untrained; tyranny comes to them naturally.

Falco readers are, I must say, the most strikingly nice group of people.

All bankers assume your money is theirs to play with.

Once you permit individuals to maneuver in secret, unasked, and for their own purposes, there is chaos.

The host with the most horrible manners. If he invites you, send a sick note. If he insists, take to your bed and die.

No woman who builds a career on hard work and talent will ever compliment a much younger one who uses the shallow gift of her looks.

Even men who use fear as their weapon can themselves be threatened. We all have something we don’t want to lose.

Good omens let you down. Bad ones give you something to fight against.

Emperors came and went while bureaucracy continued, as rampant as mould.

You know nothing about me, Falco," she muttered in a low voice. I whipped back, more intensely than I meant, "But oh my soul, I wanted to find out!

It is possible to take against someone, then continue to loathe them out of pure prejudice.

I would rather see Rome ruled by a man who once had to ask his accountant tricky questions before his steward could pay the butcher’s bill than by some mad limb like Nero, who was brought up believing himself the son and the grandson of gods, and who thought wearing the purple gave him free rein to indulge his personal vanities, execute real talent, bankrupt the Treasury, burn half of Rome – and bore the living daylights out of paying customers in theatres!

In 1884, the American physician William Pancoast injected sperm from his “best-looking” student into an anesthetized woman—without her knowledge—whose husband had been deemed infertile. Nine months later, she gave birth to a healthy baby. Pancoast eventually told her husband what he had done, but the two men decided to spare the woman the truth. Pancoast’s experiment remained a secret for twenty-five years. After his death in 1909, the donor—a man ironically named Dr. Addison Davis Hard—confessed to the underhanded deed in a letter to Medical World.)

It was very dark. Cassius boldly crossed to a window and threw back a shutter; it dropped off in his hand. He cursed as the heavy wood crashed to the floor, leaving splinters in his fingers and grazing his leg on the way. “Frankly,” Helena decided at once, “this seems a bit too elegant for us!

We both had a tender regard for this god. Min had not only helped us learn something material; more importantly, his presence had helped Tiberius. Working in disguise at the lettuce booth, though ludicrous, had taken his mind off his troubles after the lightning strike. Min had restored my man to me.

Stevie thought that “Silver Springs” would be her dominant song on the new album; it couldn’t fail. The only problem was that Lindsey hated the song. He said it was too much in his face, and he gave Stevie a very hard time about working on the song in the studio. To Lindsey Buckingham, “Silver Springs” was not a prophesy. It was a curse.

Afterwards, sometimes she dared to remember being in his arms. How, after only clumsy couplings with others, she and this man had straightaway come together as a perfect fit. How they moved together, in effortless synchronicity and with such deep pleasure. How when their exercise left them exhausted, she cried a little, so Vinius wiped her eye with his index finger, murmuring kindly, 'No tears!' before they both fell into profound sleep. How her troubled mind had drowned in peace, her body melting against his... He was dead. No point speculating. Cherish the past for what it was, an ideal, a signal that human happiness might be a possibility. Raise your standards. Make a decent life, Lucilla. Life is all there is. If it's only once, it must be good... He had been right. If perfection only happened once, that was better than never. Now nothing for her would ever again entail complete despair. So thank you, Gaius Vinius Clodianus, son of Marcus, thank you for your good deed, a deed that brightened somebody's dark world.

convey musically in her songs. Nobody else had this. As for Lindsey, he was angry about everything. He blamed Fleetwood Mac and the pressures of being in the band for the breakup with Stevie. He told his girlfriend Carol he didn’t like Stevie, but he was still in love with her. Even decades later, he confessed to an interviewer: “I was devastated when she took off.

When they speak, everything else stops. Nobody dares interrupt. Everyone sits looking rapt, hanging on these words of wisdom even while they are wondering what the flowing tirade really means. Clearly it is their own inadequacy if they are not transported into astounding inspiration by the demagogue’s words of wisdom, so many words, so long in the delivery.… No one can leave.

Petronius would take his free bread buns and run. I happened to know that since Petro had been elected to the watch he had never cast a vote. He believed a man on a public salary should be impartial. I didn’t agree but I admired him being so stubborn in his eccentricities. Aufidius Crispus would be an unusual politician if he had allowed for such morality in the voters he was courting.

We marched him to the turfy shack where he lived with his parents and while the youth sulked Petronius Longus put the whole moral issue in succinct terms to them: Ollia’s father was a legionary veteran who had served in Egypt and Syria for over twenty years until he left with double pay, three medals, and a diploma that made Ollia legitimate; he now ran a boxers’ training school where he was famous for his high-minded attitude and his fighters were notorious for their loyalty to him… The old fisherman was a toothless, hapless, faithless cove you would not trust too near you with a filleting knife, but whether from fear or simple cunning he co-operated eagerly. The lad agreed to marry the girl and since Silvia would never abandon Ollia here, we decided that the fisherboy had to come back with us to Rome. His relations looked impressed by this result. We accepted it as the best we could achieve.

legendary. ‘Oh no!

They were not beggars; well, not in the usual sense. They were Christians, who wanted not just my nephews' money but their souls.

Aprender una lengua extraña: asimilas nociones de gramática, vocabulario básico y un acento espantoso que apenas sirve para que te entiendan. Te esfuerzas durante años y de repente, sin saber por qué, todo fluye, captas cómo funciona...

Sabía que el mundo era un lugar sucio. Lo que pasa es que no quería pensar que pudiera ser tan deprimente.

But, remember, a tyrant hates to admit he is one,” Faustus said quietly. “The worse he is, the more he claims—and even believes—that

One day you will be a prim middle-rank bureaucrat who wears a clean toga every day. You’ll talk of economics over breakfast and only eat lettuce for lunch. And I’ll have to sit at home with my face in an inch-thick flour pack, forever checking laundry bills.” I controlled a smile. “Well, that’s a relief. I thought you were going to be difficult about my plans.

The ghost accused the widow’s new husband of having murdered her old one (himself), leaving Moschion in anguish about what to do. Obviously the rest of the play concerned Moschion’s frustrated efforts to get the ghost into court as a witness.

Spies have no sense of timing.

Curiosity is a terrible inducement.

Their work was undercover—yet their existence unconcealed. That is how fear works.

Sometimes information you barely noticed consciously comes back to you of its own accord.

any henchman who thinks himself the equal of his superior is dangerous.

Premature action alerts the opposition.

this was a solitary walk where the sun and the scents of wild flowers would act on a tortured mind like a soothing drug.

Latin, the language of politicians, provides a fine medium for lies, malpractice, obfuscation and straight bamboozling. It’s perfect for buffoons, inadequates and crooks.

Pompeya contaba con vino, cereales, lana, metalistería, aceite de oliva, un ambiente de pujante prosperidad y diez atalayas estratégicas empotradas en la muralla de la ciudad. —¡Es un lugar que se propone durar!— exclamé y fue uno de mis comentarios más sagaces.

Si una mujer con el aspecto de la Venus de Praxíteles se hubiese apeado de una fuente para sentarse en mi regazo, ataviada un par de sandalias de fantasía y una sonrisa, la habría apartado y me habría alejado para rumiar a solas.

Olympus, of course not! If you are to be a politician, your natural medium is lying. Surely your agent has explained that?

Rumours would do. When you blacken someone’s name in politics, hearsay can be freely deployed. Scandal needs to be colourful, not true.

Only the rich can stand for office.

I laughed. ‘Claudius Laeta means, Faustus, the Emperor’s choice should be steered by his freedmen. Government by secretariat. Democracy through bureaucracy.

was not confident that I could withstand a formal complaint of harassment from a praetor. Vespasian would take it amiss even if I had evidence against the man – and I had none. Well, not at this stage. His rank didn't daunt me, but I would have to be certain first.

We had certainly failed to find any scribbled notes from him saying, "What are the women like in Rome?" or "Mother had another bad turn last week," let alone that old family favourite, "Please send more money." If he was real, he was strangely unfraternal in making a nuisance of himself.

A todos nos gusta contar con una autoridad contra la cual despotricar. No se puede culpar a la climatología de todos los males que nos agobian.

Los banquetes de Vespasiano eran realmente chapados a la antigua. Las camareras se dejaban la ropa puesta y el emperador jamás envenenaba los alimentos.

Life would be only what they chose to make it, grappling within the straitjacket of society

nadgered

Her name was Cassiana Clara.

Slavegirls' brats, sir, are not heralded by proud fathers in the 'Daily Gazette.' The fact that I exist is marked only by my standing here before you, blood and bone decked out in a new dress. The modern philosophers may grant me a soul, but nobody – lord, nobody – burdens me with a fate to be foreseen!

I had no idea whether Faustus enjoyed gossip. If not, I could teach him. All you need is curiosity and a sense of humor. He had those.

Any

Mathematics is a suspicious activity. All those hypotenuse drawings must be plans for assassination attempts. Algebra is treacherous code. When did you ever meet a student of infinitesimal calculus who didn’t harbour rabid ambitions to rule the world? And anyone who tells you Archimedes was killed at the capture of Syracuse by a soldier who didn’t know who he was, is ignorant of how military forces work. There will have been a secret order: man making diagrams in the dust equals number one target.

By this evening, the mad murderer would have a golden alabastron containing a deadly potion made by Cappadocian dwarfs from a recipe handed down through thirty generations, to which there was no antidote except moonbeams, and he would identify himself by etching a Greek letter onto the foreheads of all his victims as they twitched and gasped their last. The Omega Killer had been born, and it was my fault.

He had the kind of personality that makes you think a boy will grow up to be a public torturer. However,

As well as her benevolence toward the nation as a whole, a busy task, Salus also guards every individual. I was going to need her myself today.

to scare them away. Wisely her thoughts around Ryder she kept to herself. When she’d finished speaking, Davy said, ‘Well, firstly I have no doubt, from what you’ve told me, that someone did follow you home.’ Lily sighed with relief that her husband believed her and didn’t consider her to be foolish. ‘Also, I wouldn’t put it past Aunt Maud to do something like that. However, without being certain it was her, there’s not much we can do. Even if we were to up and move, Lily, Maud wouldn’t be able to move into the house, as it would be up for sale and she couldn’t afford to buy it.’ Lily saw the sense of his words and nodded. ‘Having said all that, I’m taking no chances. Tomorrow morning I will hire a cabbie to take you to Webb’s and bring you home in the evenings.’ ‘Thank you,’ Lily said as she smiled. Feeling relieved, she went to the kitchen to prepare their dinner. As she set the kettle to boil, Lily’s mind transported her back. She’d

She told her close friend, the beautiful, ultrafeminine former model Sara Recor, that she didn’t think she would ever fully trust a man after what she’d been through with Lindsey, who now seemed so against her all the time.

the land.

Sometimes you run away by yourself purely so someone who cares will come to find you. Half the time nobody does. That’s the tragedy of life.

Though he had been brought up to be polite, clean around the house, witty when he was in the mood, still nothing could change his core personality: he was a gruff loner.

Most Romans saw Greek as a secretarial language.