The Radetzky March ~ Joseph Roth

"At the start of the 20th Century, commoners were second-class human beings yet certain middle-class officers became personal adjutants to the Kaiser;…Jews could claim no higher distinctions yet certain Jews were knighted and became friends with archdukes;…women had to observe traditional morality yet certain women could philander like a cavalry officer. Those were principles that would be labeled "hypocritical" today because we are so much more relentless: relentless, honest, and humorless, but these exceptions to aristocratic principles were even liked back then."
(Pt. 2, Ch. 13)

"The characterizing tragedy of the 20th Century (is the) counter-brutality of the revolution, and the subsequent degeneration of its ideals into stultifying bureaucracy..."
The Radetzky March (Introduction: The Empire of Joseph Roth, Pt. 1) by Nadine Gordimer

"The stability of the world, the power of laws, and the glory of majesties were all based on deviousness."
(Pt. 1, Ch. 1)

(And perhaps they still are, I add.)

"There were times in every man's life when he had to drink." ~ Major Zoglauer
(Pt. 2, Ch. 11)

"It (is) easier to stop gambling than to stop living." ~ Captain Wagner
(Pt. 2, Ch. 12)

"Freedom is as different from a furlough as a war is from maneuvers."
(Pt. 2, Ch. 14)

"War is the soldier's freedom."
(Pt. 2, Ch. 14)

"It does not behoove an emperor to compete with wags and sophisticates."
(Pt. 2, Ch. 15)