Spy Quotes - Page 9

• Spies could be invaluable in peacetime, once the fighting actually started, their value dropped steeply. When the swords were out, it was the information your own scouts provided that mattered, not reports from unknown people whose veracity you couldn't prove.

  David Weber

  War, Fighting, People

  David Weber (2014). “Safehold Boxed Set 1: Off Armageddon Reef, By Schism Rent Asunder, and By Heresies Distressed”, p.709, Tor Science Fiction

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• From that point on, the extraordinary system of spies and informers which has played an important part in the political work of the French state into our own time took shape. (Sartine, who became lieutenant general de police in 1759, is supposed to have said to Louis XV, "Sire, when three people are chatting in the street one of them is surely my man.") Eighteenth-century police manuals like those of Colquhoun in England or Lemaire in France are no less than general treatises on the government's full repertoire of domestic regulation, coercion, and surveillance.

  Charles Tilly

  Men, People, Political

  Charles Tilly, Gabriel Ardant, Social Science Research Council (U.S.). Committee on Comparative Politics (1975). “The Formation of national States in Western Europe”, Princeton Univ Pr

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• I have a long-standing interest in what I like to think of as "forbidden knowledge": methods of unarmed killing, lock picking, breaking and entry, spy stuff, and other things that the government wants only a few select individuals to know.

  Barry Eisler

  Thinking, Government, Long

  "For Barry Eisler, when it rains, it pours". Interview with Mark Schreiber, www.japantimes.co.jp. September 7, 2003.

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• Can it be entirely accidental that the most famous fictional spy of them all, James Bond, Number 007, deadly marksman, intriguer, the ultimate man behind the curtain, sexual athlete and ruthless patriot, is also a Scot, as was the author, whose wish-fulfilment he was?

  Linda Colley

  Athlete, Men, Numbers

  Linda Colley (2005). “Britons: Forging the Nation, 1707-1837”, p.132, Yale University Press

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• I should probably bequeath the copyrights to my screenplay for Spies Like Us, just in case.

  Nathan Hale

  Should, Cases, Copyright

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• Emulation looks out for merits, that she may exalt herself by a victory; envy spies out blemishes that she may lower another by defeat.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Envy, Victory, Looks

  Charles Caleb Colton (1836). “Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”, p.436

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• She was a Privately funded spy ship owned by the corporation and headed by Juan Cabtillo. The Oregon was his brain child and his one true love.

  Clive Cussler

  Children, Oregon, Brain

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• Before he can become a wolf, the lycanthrope strips naked. If you spy a naked man among the pines, you must run as if the Devil were after you.

  Angela Carter

  Running, Men, Devil

  Angela Carter (1997). “Burning your boats: the collected short stories”, Penguin Group USA

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• I’m really starting to like all this spy work,” Vee said. “When my normal life gets boring, all I have to do is sidle up next to you.

  Becca Fitzpatrick

  Next, Normal, Boring

  Becca Fitzpatrick (2013). “The Complete Hush, Hush Saga: includes Hush, Hush; Crescendo; Silence and Finale”, p.483, Simon and Schuster

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• He'd always known that the world was an interesting place, and his imagination had peopled it with pirates and bandits and spies and astronauts and similar. But he'd also had a nagging suspicion that, when you seriously got right down to it, they were all just things in books and didn't properly exist anymore.

  Terry Pratchett

  Book, Imagination, Interesting

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• The gossip will carry to Attolian spies, who will report to Relius, Attolia's master of spies, and he will carry the news to her." "Her secretary of the archives," murmured the magus. "Hmm?" asked the queen. "Secretary of the archives, Relius. Master of spies is so-" "Accurate?" "Overtly direct," said the magus. Eddis laughed.

  Megan Whalen Turner

  Queens, Gossip, Archives

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• I tried to imagine how things could get much worse. The gods were in the Midwest fighting a huge monster that had almost defeated them once before. Poseidon was under siege and losing a war against the sea Titan Oceanus. Kronos was still out there somewhere. Olympus was virtually undefended. The demigods of Camp Half-Blood were on our own with a spy in our midst. Oh, and according to the ancient prophecy, I was going to die when I turned sixteen—which happened to be in five days, the exact same time Typhon was supposed to hit New York. Almost forgot that.

  Rick Riordan

  New York, War, Fighting

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• Science is an investigation," Coach said, sanding his hands together. "Science requires us to transform into spies." Put that way, science almost sounded fun. But I'd been in Coach's class long enough not to get my hopes up.

  Becca Fitzpatrick

  Fun, Hands, Class

  Becca Fitzpatrick (2013). “The Complete Hush, Hush Saga: includes Hush, Hush; Crescendo; Silence and Finale”, p.10, Simon and Schuster

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• Don’t mind me,” I said. “I’m just the person who tried to rob the place last July.” “No, you diddn’t,” Abby said, appearing on the roof. She was wearing a trim suit and tall black boots. Her hair was pulled into a sleek ponytail at the nape of her neck, and either i was imagining things or Townsend wasn’t quite as good a spy as I thought, because I could have sworn I saw him drool a little. Note to self: your aunt is a hottie.

  Ally Carter

  Aunt, Hair, July

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• Two days after my dad's funeral, my mom went on a mission. I never understood it until then--that sometimes a spy doesn't need a cover so much as she needs a shield.

  Ally Carter

  Broken Heart, Mom, Dad

  Ally Carter (2007). “I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You”, Hyperion

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• We'll choose knowledge no matter what, we'll maim ourselves in the process, we'll stick our hands into the flames for it if necessary. Curiosity is not our only motive; love or grief or despair or hatred is what drives us on. We'll spy relentlessly on the dead; we'll open their letters, we'll read their journals, we'll go through their trash, hoping for a hint, a final word, an explanation, from those who have deserted us--who've left us holding the bag, which is often a good deal emptier than we'd supposed.

  Margaret Atwood

  Grief, Flames, Hands

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• I didn’t know what was more disturbing—the fact that something was obviously wrong, or that three faculty members of the world’s premiere spy school had forgotten to lock the door.

  Ally Carter

  School, Doors, Faculty Members

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• We can't spy on them if they aren't spying on us, now can we?" Warped logic, but okay.

  Gena Showalter

  Logic, Okay, Ifs

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• Do you have spies in Clan Heavy?” “I have spies everywhere.” I looked at Andrea, who was hoarding bacon on her plate. “She had tea with Mahon’s wife.” Andrea said. Aunt B looked at her. “You and I need to work on your air of mystery.

  Ilona Andrews

  Aunt, Air, Wife

  Ilona Andrews (2013). “Magic Rises: A Kate Daniels Novel”, p.27, Penguin

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• I'm a spy, Cam. I was born to do this- to be this. It's in my blood. And I will do it until the day I die. It's who I am... The thing is I don't think you realise is... it's who you are too.

  Ally Carter

  Thinking, Who I Am, Blood

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• What is a Gallagher Girl? She's a genius, a scientist, a heroine, a spy... a Gallagher Girl is whatever she wants to be.

  Ally Carter

  Girl, Genius, Want

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• A handful of red sand from the hot clime
  Of Arab deserts brought,
  Within this glass becomes the spy of Time,
  The minister of Thought.

  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

  Time, Glasses, Red

  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1867). “The Poetical Works of H. W. Longfellow. Complete Edition”, p.135

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• Here Stormbringer spies the Stepsons, the Theban fighters, and the 3rd Commando, attending to their own. In the face of such unflinching determination and unswerving devotion, the hurricane pauses and calms. Its ravings turn to mutters.

  Janet Morris

  Loyalty, Determination, Revenge

  Janet Morris, Chris Morris (2010). “The Sacred Band”, p.491, Paradise Publishing

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• I was born into no true class and it was my decision early in life to insinuate myself into the middle class like a spy so that I would have an advantageous position of attack, but I seem now and then to have forgotten my mission, and to have taken my disguises too seriously.

  John Cheever

  Taken, Class, Decision

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• Computer security can simply be protecting your equipment and files from disgruntled employees, spies, and anything that goes bump in the night, but there is much more. Computer security helps ensure that your computers, networks, and peripherals work as expected all the time, and that your data is safe in the event of hard disk crash or a power failure resulting from an electrical storm. Computer security also makes sure no damage is done to your data and that no one is able to read it unless you want them to.

  Bruce Schneier

  Night, Damage Is Done, Data

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