David Baldacci Quotes

29 Sourced Quotes

The military is a very cool world to write about. I went down to Fort Benning, Georgia, for military training, and I learned a lot about soldiers and officers and why they joined up and what their life has been like. I also got my butt kicked.

David Baldacci
Why waste time trying to discover the truth, when you can so easily create it?

David Baldacci
John Fiske: The real worth of a person came from how he acted during the bad times.

David Baldacci
Life was not fair. If you wanted something you had to take it. Before someone else took it from you. Neatly dissected down to its essence, life was one long series of lily pad hoppings. The quick and the resourceful were able to adapt and survive; all others were simply crushed as a more nimble creature landed on the lily pad they had occupied for too long.

David Baldacci
Nothing, absolutely nothing, was above corruption so long as human beings were involved.

David Baldacci
Human beings are infinitely fallible, completely unreliable. Science is not. Science is absolute. Under strict principles, if you do A and B, then C will occur. This rarely happens if you inject the inefficiences of humanity into the process.

David Baldacci
Only I could drink a thousand drinks and never forget a damn thing. I would just remember every detail of the thousand drinks down to the shapes of the ice cubes.

David Baldacci
That's what civilization sometimes did to threats, real or perceived. They walled them off. Us against them. Survival of the fittest. You die so I can live.

David Baldacci
A young man's ambition, can there be a more fleeting prospect?

David Baldacci
Two people can care for each other but not want the same things.

David Baldacci
It's often said that God works in mysterious ways. You have to really think about what He's trying to do. You can't be lazy and believe in God; He doesn't make it that easy. It takes spirit and faith and passion to really believe. Like most things worthwhile in life, you get back what you put into it. Only with faith, you get back a lot more.

David Baldacci
You haven't yet seen me be rude. When I am it's unmistakable. - Michelle Maxwell.

David Baldacci
If I worried too much about publishers' expectations, I'd probably paralyze myself and not be able to write anything.

David Baldacci
Why can't people just sit and read books and be nice to each other?

David Baldacci
You know what kind of person it takes to run for President? Not normal. They could start out okay, but by the time they reach that level they've sold their soul to the devil so many times and stomped the guts out of enough people that they are definitely not like you and me, not even close.

David Baldacci
See, that why I ain't go to church. Figger I got me a church wherever I be. Want'a talk to God, well I say, 'howdy-howdy, God,' and we jaw fer a bit.' - Jimmy 'Diamond' Skinner

David Baldacci
It's the hardest thing in the world to put yourself in someone else's place, try to really feel what they feel, figure out why they do the things they do. Especially when it's easier to stick a label on something. Or someone.

David Baldacci
Small mistakes tend to lead to large ones. Ours is a lifetime appoinment, and all you have is your reputation. Once it's gone, it doesn't comeback.

David Baldacci
Depending on the situation, sometimes you can know a person better in ten minutes than someone you have crossed paths with all your life.

David Baldacci
It's not getting from A to B. It's not the beginning or the destination that counts. It's the ride in between...This train is alive with things that should be seen and heard. It's a living, breathing something — you just have to want to learn its rhythm.

David Baldacci
Pender laughed. "Verify? In this day and age? Who cares about verifying anything? It's all about the speed. Who gets there first defines the truth. You know that as well as any man living.

David Baldacci
Because life doesn't work that way. You can do everything perfectly. Do everything you think you're supposed to be doing. Fulfill every expectation that other people may have. And you still won't get the results you think you deserve. Life is crazy and maddening and often makes no sense.

David Baldacci
Today might not be so good. But tomorrow, you got another chance to get it right.

David Baldacci
On the one side you have Tea Partiers and on the other side people in the parks protesting Wall Street. A lot of people now are questioning the motives of people who hold elective office and the motives of those who hold power over them by virtue of their wealth and the access to power they control. That's healthy for a democracy.

David Baldacci
It's hard, Cotton. To let yourself love something you know you may never have.

David Baldacci