305 Quotes by Erik Larson

He embodied the hubris that so marked the last turn of the century when America believed it could do whatever it wanted, wherever it wanted, and could even override nature.

There is a difference in what is focused upon, and the degree of disturbance that the person presents with,

Recovery had a lot to do with resolve and enthusiasm and the pace of rebuilding.

Maybe I'm imagining it, but I sense a deep seam of sorrow in Galveston for the way things have turned out. It was such a glittering little city in 1900, with the promise of becoming another San Francisco or New Orleans,

When I read that, ... I realized that maybe this guy was not quite the hero history has made him out to be.

The broader message is that technological hubris will always get you in trouble with nature.

There was this great sense of hubris that America and Galveston -- Galveston in particular --was going places, could do no wrong, ... Isaac's Storm.

If you can imagine walking out your back door -- and where you ordinarily see somebody's yard, kids playing and houses and the streets and all that stuff -- what you would most likely have seen is a pile in which your neighbors where at that very moment being incinerated,

Place has always been important to me, and one thing today's Chicago exudes, as it did in 1893, is a sense of place. I fell in love with the city, the people I encountered, and above all the lake and its moods, which shift so readily from season to season, day to day, even hour to hour.