Trevanian Quotes

Confession is good for the soul, it empties the spirit making more room for sin.

~ Trevanian

Irony is Fate's most common figure of speech.

~ Trevanian

And he recalled the ancient adage: Who must do the harsh things? He who can.

~ Trevanian

It was not their irritating assumption of equality that annoyed Nicholai so much as their cultural confusions. The Americans seemed to confuse standard of living with quality of life, equal opportunity with institutionalized mediocrity, bravery with courage, machismo with manhood, liberty with freedom, wordiness with articulation, fun with pleasure - in short, all of the misconceptions common to those who assume that justice implies equality for all, rather than equality for equals.

~ Trevanian

Ripe for romance? Is that not only the self-conscious and sensitive young man's way of saying he was heavy with passion? Is not, perhaps, romance only the fiction by means of which the tender-minded negotiate their lust?

~ Trevanian

It's not Americans I find annoying; it's Americanism: a social disease of the postindustrial world that must inevitably infect each of the mercantile nations in turn, and is called 'American' only because your nation is the most advanced case of the malady, much as one speaks of Spanish flu, or Japanese Type-B encephalitis. It's symptoms are a loss of work ethic, a shrinking of inner resources, and a constant need for external stimulation, followed by spiritual decay and moral narcosis. You can recognize the victim by his constant efforts to get in touch with himself, to believe his spiritual feebleness is an interesting psychological warp, to construe his fleeing from responsibility as evidence that he and his life are uniquely open to new experiences. In the later stages, the sufferer is reduced to seeking that most trivial of human activities: fun.

~ Trevanian

Niko? I have decided to christen this little pool Le Cagot's Soul.Oh?Yes. Because it is clear and pure and lucid.And treacherous and dangerous?You know, Niko, I begin to suspect that you are a man of prose. It is a blemish on you.No one's perfect.Speak for yourself.

~ Trevanian