Walter Lord Quotes

#1. Before the Titanic, all was quiet. Afterward all was tumult. That is why, to anybody who lived at the time, the Titanic more than any other single event marks the end of the old days, and the beginning of a new, uneasy era.

Walter Lord

#2. Mrs. George Widener was met not by automobile but by a special train - consisting of a private Pullman, another car for ballast, and a locomotive.

Walter Lord

#3. Brilliantly lit from stem to stern, she looked like a sagging birthday cake.

Walter Lord

#4. Events alone rarely provide much guide to the future.

Walter Lord

#5. Try and get off with Major Butt

Walter Lord

#6. Robertson called his ship the Titan; the White Star Line called its ship the Titanic. This is the story of her last night.

Walter Lord

#7. caused no end of trouble. It took the air cover from all four carriers to handle them properly.

Walter Lord

#8. To the British, Dunkirk symbolizes a generosity of spirit, a willingness to sacrifice for the common good. To Americans, it has come to mean Mrs. Miniver, little ships, The Snow Goose, escape by sea. To the French, it suggests bitter defeat; to the Germans, opportunity forever lost.

Walter Lord

#9. Someone once told me the one thread that runs through them all is a premium on personal courage - not intellectual courage, but just plain physical courage.

Walter Lord

#10. and PWD was soon on the air again. Beyond the perimeter, Snowy Rhoades took charge of mopping up the scattered Japanese. Learning that a small party was hiding up a river near the southeast coast, he loaded a barge with eighteen U.S. infantry and ten armed natives and went after them. They

Walter Lord

#11. I look for something that is highly unusual, involving ordinary people caught in extraordinary situations.

Walter Lord

#12. It is a rash man indeed who would set himself up as final arbiter on all that happened the incredible night the Titanic went down.

Walter Lord

#13. The night was a magnificent confirmation of "women and children first," yet somehow the loss rate was higher for Third Class children than First Class men.

Walter Lord

#14. I never earned a dollar that was not somehow through writing.

Walter Lord

#15. Seen and unseen, the great and the unknown tumbled together in a writhing heap as the bow plunged deeper and the stern rose higher.

Walter Lord

#16. There were exceptions, a couple of families that just plain didn't want to even think about it, although forty years had passed but mostly the people were very interested in talking about it.

Walter Lord

#17. Overriding everything else, the Titanic also marked the end of a general feeling of confidence.

Walter Lord

#18. The clock in the wireless shack said 12:45 A.M. when the Titanic sent the first SOS call in history.

Walter Lord

#19. You have to study the people and the ones that measure up are not always the ones you expect.

Walter Lord

#20. But legends are part of great events, and if they help keep alive the memory of gallant self-sacrifice, they serve their purpose.

Walter Lord

#21. It's a funny thing, but today the Titanic is probably much more - that is people are much more aware of it than they were in 1954, when I was doing my research.

Walter Lord

#22. It would be nice to say the rich people, the fancy people, all behaved like bastards and the poor slobs all came through like heroes. But as a matter of fact, sometimes the poor slobs behave like slobs and the great, noble, privileged characters come off very well, indeed.

Walter Lord

#23. This was the era when gentlemen formally offered their services to "unprotected ladies" at the start of an Atlantic voyage.

Walter Lord

#24. Even against the greatest of odds, there is something in the human spirit - a magic blend of skill, faith, and valor - that can lift men from certain defeat to incredible victory.

Walter Lord

#25. Possession of the ice didn't remain a Third Class monopoly for long.

Walter Lord