|
017e275
|
That was the way it was, the burial ritual. You set them in the earth and walked away to keep living, until it was your turn to be left behind.
|
|
|
David Baldacci |
|
256f4c5
|
He'd been given an assignment to write about teen beauty pageants [...], which he'd accepted because he enjoyed blood sports as much as the next person.
|
|
beauty-pageants
ruthlessness
shows
teen-beauty-pageants
ambition
satire
teenagers
sarcasm
|
David Baldacci |
|
9d9c146
|
Well, that dog was all Diamond had. When you love something, you can't just sit by and not do anything.'
|
|
wish-you-well
|
David Baldacci |
|
99e00b1
|
I'm actin' pro se. Do you even know what that means?" "Yeah, it's Latin for 'dumbass."
|
|
|
David Baldacci |
|
917797f
|
I want you to know that if I could've stayed with you I would have. I fought as hard as I could. I will never understand why I had to be taken from you so soon, but I have accepted it. Yet I want you to know that there is nothing more important to me than you. I loved you from the moment I saw you. And the happiest day of my life was when you agreed to share your life with mine. I promised that I would always be there for you. And my love f..
|
|
marriage
life
love
inspirational
powerful
|
David Baldacci |
|
526e1af
|
People like to talk about other people's misery; it makes them feel their own life is somehow better when it usually isn't.
|
|
|
David Baldacci |
|
6bf3fc2
|
If you really love each other, you'd be surprised what you can accomplish.
|
|
|
David Baldacci |
|
a76d522
|
love is like a good piece of wood: It just gets stronger and stronger as the years go by.
|
|
|
David Baldacci |
|
2710b93
|
Why are trains so popular at Christmas? People get on to meet their country over the holidays.
|
|
|
David Baldacci |
|
523f57f
|
toward the small pond that he had seen before. The walls of fire ended there. An instant later the remains of the cottage exploded. He ducked and rolled again from the concussive force, almost pitching into the right side of the wall of fire. He rose and redoubled his efforts, thinking that he would reach the water. Water was a great antidote to fire. But as he neared the edge of the pond, something struck him. No scum. No algae on the surf..
|
|
|
David Baldacci |
|
49f3475
|
Lots of people don't talk about their military service." "I bet heroes do." "No. A pretty accurate rule of thumb is the people who did the most talk about it the least. The blowhards are the ones who did squat."
|
|
|
David Baldacci |
|
ce97c16
|
The avenues he had taken as a young man had pretty much dictated what the remaining years of his life would be like.
|
|
|
David Baldacci |
|
816f06f
|
His jumpsuit was white, and on the back were the letters D and R printed in black. They stood for "death row". Mars had equated it to a snake's rattle, warning folks to stay the hell away."
|
|
|
David Baldacci |
|
86cbc00
|
Things sometimes did not work out. Even if you wanted them to more than anything else. You couldn't will someone to love you back. You had to move on.
|
|
|
David Baldacci |
|
ccfd588
|
We build walls because we are afraid. We do not like change. We do not like it when others who do not look or think like us come along and try and change things. Thus we run from it. Or, even worse, attack it." I"
|
|
|
David Baldacci |
|
6220c6f
|
It had always bothered Tom that women thought they could win an argument with a man simply by appealing to his baser instincts, by holding out the mere possibility of award-winning carnal knowledge. It was the gender equivalent of a preemptive nuclear strike. He thought it unfair and, quite frankly, disrespectful of the entire male population.
|
|
|
David Baldacci |
|
1280292
|
She apparently didn't expect any trouble but she also never expected everything to go perfectly either. That was a good rule to live by Robie knew. Because perfection was rarely the case in the field.
|
|
trouble
|
David Baldacci |
|
c53e836
|
I figure if you think too much about things, life sometimes just passes you by.
|
|
|
David Baldacci |
|
5ad8cb4
|
Zero Day was here.
|
|
john-puller
the-forgotten
|
David Baldacci |
|
8ad6f8c
|
In fact, something always leads to something else.
|
|
|
David Baldacci |
|
cdf6ef1
|
National security trumps a lot. It can trampke civil rights. It can denude personal liberties. But it cannot and never will triumph over political gamesmanship. - Kelly Paul
|
|
|
David Baldacci |
|
8f7bf61
|
There was a time when Stone would have rated a platoon of crackerjack killers coming for him by land, sea and air. Those days apparently were over. A quartet of suits in a Cadillac on steroids was enough.
|
|
|
David Baldacci |
|
fc0842e
|
Smart, dedicated people lost their lives all the time as they trained to be the best they could be to serve their country. Celebrities broke a nail and they immediately took to Twitter, alerting their millions of followers to the "injury," which in turn elicited thousands of replies from people with apparently not enough going on in their lives. And all the while brave men and women died in silence, forgotten by all except their families."
|
|
|
David Baldacci |
|
826ef50
|
Dark, cool, musty, smoky, where light fell funny and everyone looked like someone you knew or wanted to know. Or, more likely, wanted to forget.
|
|
forget
regrets
memory
|
David Baldacci |
|
d46c09d
|
her room now?" They were led down the hall by Beth. Before she turned away she took a last drag on her smoke and said, "However this comes out, there is no way my baby would have had anything to do with something like this, drawing of this asshole or not. No way. Do you hear me? Both of you?" "Loud and clear," said Decker. But he thought if Debbie were involved she had already paid the ultimate price anyway. The state couldn't exactly kill ..
|
|
|
David Baldacci |
|
738e2b8
|
She glanced around at the tombstones. "You're surrounded by death here. Way too depressing. You really might want to think about getting another job." "You see death and sadness in these sunken patches of dirt, I see lives lived fully and the good deeds of past generations influencing the future ones."
|
|
inspiration
death
life
good-deeds
graveyard
caretaker
tombstones
|
David Baldacci |
|
cf186fb
|
And he goes round with a fat roll of dollar bills, and got this nice farm, and all them fancy machines, and man let his family starve.' - Louisa Mae Cardinal
|
|
wish-you-well
|
David Baldacci |
|
4863f81
|
They made you hate everyone, even the ones who were like you. That is what they do, so the prisoners will not rise up against them.
|
|
|
David Baldacci |
|
0f95cda
|
Lou looked at Davis there praying like God was in his heart and home, while his family remained behind in rags and fear and would have starved except for the kindness of Louisa Cardinal. She could only shake her head.
|
|
wish-you-well
|
David Baldacci |
|
17d74e0
|
It was not known precisely how many labor camps there were in North Korea, although the international consensus was six. The fact that they were numbered and those numbers reached at least as high as twenty-two was an indicator of their pervasiveness. At least two hundred thousand North Koreans, or nearly one percent of the entire population, called these labor camps home.
|
|
|
David Baldacci |
|
2996dca
|
Give an economist a result you want, and he'll find the numbers to justify it.
|
|
|
David Baldacci |
|
c8913aa
|
In some ways, it was far easier to be bad than good. When you're bad, you don't care what happens to anyone other than yourself. When you're trying to do god, you have to worry about everyone.
|
|
good
bad
|
David Baldacci |
|
8871408
|
What grade does she teach?" "Eighth. Where kids make the jump from nice, innocent kids to something a lot more complicated and emotional drama runs deep and hormones are out of control. Some days she comes home looking like she got hit by a bus." "In my book, all teachers are underpaid," said Decker."
|
|
|
David Baldacci |
|
0a99e29
|
You fought for the flag and country you represented. But you really fought for the guy beside you.
|
|
|
David Baldacci |
|
bf5ee6a
|
Justice. It wasn't about the greater good. It was about what was right and wrong on an individual basis. Person by person. Because if you neglected the people, the idea of a greater good was a pipe dream created by those whose idea of the "greater good" almost always tended to favor themselves and people like them."
|
|
|
David Baldacci |
|
4cb26e3
|
They were not rich. They were not powerful. They were truly the forgotten.
|
|
|
David Baldacci |
|
dcac207
|
No, a nightmare is what's coming for the rest of these assholes.
|
|
|
David Baldacci |
|
44121b7
|
Lying caused a physiological reaction that cut the flow of blood to the capillaries located at the end of the nose. It caused a tingling feeling that usually made the liar rub at the spot.
|
|
|
David Baldacci |
|
6aa7411
|
That was your past, Michelle. You can't live in the past. Sure you can, Sean. If you're not too thrilled with your future.
|
|
king-maxwell
michelle-maxwell
sean-king
the-future
the-past
|
David Baldacci |
|
4ee74f1
|
for once in a long time, he felt good. No worries, just possibilities. Endless possibilities.
|
|
|
David Baldacci |
|
36b215d
|
Politics is a dirty, ruthless business, Agent Robie. It makes the intelligence sector look relatively honorable by comparison.
|
|
|
David Baldacci |
|
ce8ff7e
|
on their target about now. Six on one, overwhelming force, or so they thought. Puller was a first-rate, superbly trained close-quarters fighter. But he was not Superman. This was not a movie where he could Matrix his way to victory. It would be fearful men fighting, making mistakes but certainly landing some blows. Puller tipped the scales at well over two hundred pounds. The men he would be facing tonight collectively weighed about a thous..
|
|
|
David Baldacci |
|
1f0f938
|
him." "Do you have anyone else you're tight with?" asked Julie. "Used to. Not anymore." "Because they're not around anymore?" asked Julie. "Something like that." "Robie really respects you. I can tell." "I would imagine there aren't many who he does respect," replied Reel. "I bet you're the same." "We trained together, Robie and me," said Reel. "He was the best, Julie. I always thought I was, but I have to admit, he's better." "Why?" "The i..
|
|
|
David Baldacci |
|
99caa70
|
My God, the whole world is collapsing. Why can't people just sit and read books and be nice to each other?
|
|
|
David Baldacci |