84 Quotes by Max Hastings

As George Orwell wisely observed a generation later, the only way swiftly to end a war is to lose it.

If you can’t get a job as a pianist in a brothel you become a royal reporter.

We’re taking part in a divine comedy and we should realise that the play is always a comedy, in that we’re all ultimately ridiculous.

What the Red Army did in Germany was the darkest stain on its record in the war.

Polish women and children were used as human shields for the advance of German troops.

Optimism is the elixir of life for the weak.

One of Beria’s most cynical ruses was carried out in August 1941: NKVD agents disguised as Nazi parachutists were dropped into the Volga German autonomous region, to test the loyalty of its citizens. Villages where the new arrivals were offered shelter were liquidated wholesale; the entire region’s surviving population was eventually deported to Siberia and Kazakhstan.

After the armistice, Finland, having failed to gain useful help from Britain and France, turned to Germany for assistance in rearming its forces, which Hitler was happy to provide.

When I am fishing, I think quite a lot about the fish, but I also think about the book I’m writing.