John le Carre Quotes

Quotes about:

• I think the greatest single enemy is the misuse of information, the perversion of truth in the hands of terribly skillful people.

  John le Carre

  Truth, Power, Thinking

  30 Copy quote

• A desk is a dangerous place from which to view the world.

  John le Carre

  Inspirational, Leadership, Reality

  53 Copy quote

• When the world is destroyed, it will be destroyed not by its madmen but by the sanity of its experts and the superior ignorance of its bureaucrats.

  John le Carre

  Ignorance, Experts, World

  John le Carre (2004). “The Russia House: A Novel”, p.197, Simon and Schuster

  6 Copy quote

• The fact that you can only do a little is no excuse for doing nothing.

  John le Carre

  Littles, Doing Nothing, Facts

  John le Carre (2008). “A Most Wanted Man”, p.121, Simon and Schuster

  13 Copy quote

• By repetition, each lie becomes an irreversible fact upon which other lies are constructed.

  John le Carre

  Lying, Facts, Repetition

  John le Carre (2004). “Absolute Friends”, p.132, Hachette UK

  11 Copy quote

• The cat sat on the mat is not a story. The cat sat on the other cat’s mat is a story.

  John le Carre

  Writing, Cat, Stories

  29 Copy quote

• In every operation there is an above the line and a below the line. Above the line is what you do by the book. Below the line is how you do the job.

  John le Carre

  Jobs, Book, Lines

  John le Carre (2002). “A Perfect Spy”, p.316, Simon and Schuster

  5 Copy quote

• There is a terrible alienation in the ordinary man between what he is being told and what he secretly believes.

  John le Carre

  Believe, Men, Ordinary

  17 Copy quote

• The only reward for love is the experience of loving.

  John le Carre

  Love, Dream, Experience

  37 Copy quote

• Let's all pretend to be someone else, and then perhaps we'll find out who we are.

  John le Carre

  Who We Are

  33 Copy quote

• A good man knows when to sacrifice himself, a bad man survives but loses his soul.

  John le Carre

  Sacrifice, Men, Soul

  "The Mission Song". Book by John le Carré, 2006.

  24 Copy quote

• I used to think it was clever to confuse comedy with tragedy. Now I wish I could distinguish them.

  John le Carre

  Clever, Thinking, Tragedy

  John le Carre (2002). “A Murder of Quality”, p.7, Simon and Schuster

  28 Copy quote

• Multi-billion-dollar multinational corporations view the exploitation of the world's sick and dying as a sacred duty to their shareholders.

  John le Carre

  Views, Sick, Dying

  4 Copy quote

• Having your book turned into a movie is like seeing your oxen turned into bouillon cubes.

  John le Carre

  Movie, Book, Reading

  15 Copy quote

• Sometimes we have to do a thing in order to find out the reason for it. Sometimes our actions are questions, not answers.

  John le Carre

  Order, Answers, Our Actions

  1986 A Perfect Spy, ch.1.

  9 Copy quote

• My definition of a decent society is one that first of all takes care of its losers, and protects its weak. What I see in my country, progressively over these years, is that the rich have got richer, the poor have got poorer. The rich have become indifferent through a philosophy of greed, and the poorer have become hopeless because they're not properly cared for. That's actually something that is happening in many Western societies. Your own, I am told, is not free from it.

  John le Carre

  Country, Philosophy, Years

  33 Copy quote

• A committee is an animal with four back legs.

  John le Carre

  Animal, Legs, Four

  1974 Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, pt.3, ch.34.

  8 Copy quote

• Blackmail is more effective than bribery.

  John le Carre

  Bribery, Blackmail

  "Smiley's People". Book by John le Carre, November 1979.

  28 Copy quote

• All power corrupts but some must govern.

  John le Carre

  Power Corrupts

  John le Carre (2002). “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy”, p.235, Simon and Schuster

  4 Copy quote

• A spy, like a writer, lives outside the mainstream population. He steals his experience through bribes and reconstructs it.

  John le Carre

  Spy, Population, Literature

  26 Copy quote

• If there is one eternal truth of politics, it is that there are always a dozen good reasons for doing nothing.

  John le Carre

  Political, Dozen, Politics

  FaceBook post by John le Carré from Oct 20, 2010

  16 Copy quote

• Jesus Christ only had twelve, you know, and one of them was a double.

  John le Carre

  Jesus, Twelve, Christ

  John le Carre (2002). “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy”, p.192, Simon and Schuster

  4 Copy quote

• No problem exists in isolation, one must first reduce it to its basic components, then tackle each component in turn.

  John le Carre

  Firsts, Problem, Isolation

  "The Mission Song". Book by John le Carre, September 2006.

  5 Copy quote

• Without a pen in my hand I can't think.

  John le Carre

  Writing, Thinking, Hands

  6 Copy quote

• There was nothing dishonourable in not being blown about by every little modern wind. Better to have worth, to entrench, to be an oak of one's own generation.

  John le Carre

  Wind, Choices, Generations

  John le Carre (2002). “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy”, p.26, Simon and Schuster

  4 Copy quote

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