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a17022c Home's where you go when you run out of homes. homelessness belonging homecoming attachment roots home John le Carré
922ee87 The more identities a man has, the more they express the person they conceal. John le Carré
bb352df Do you know what love is? I'll tell you: it is whatever you can still betray. love espionage John le Carré
513ff50 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 Carré
ce3962d The fact that you can only do a little is no excuse for doing nothing. John le Carré
a91ccb0 There are moments which are made up of too much stuff for them to be lived at the time they occur. John le Carré
1b77d1e I have a theory which I suspect is rather immoral,' Smiley went on, more lightly. 'Each of us has only a quantum of compassion. That if we lavish our concern on every stray cat, we never get to the centre of things. espionage spy John Le Carré
14de5c0 Survival...is an infinite capacity for suspicion. John le Carré
2c17bfc It's the oldest question of all, George. Who can spy on the spies? John le Carré
00ecebb All men are born free: just not for long. equality education-system John le Carré
99fa787 It is also the pardonable vanity of lonely people everywhere to assume that they have no counterparts. John le Carré
5c76482 Tessa distinguished absolutely between pain observed and pain shared. Pain observed is journalistic pain. It's diplomatic pain. It's television pain, over as soon as you switch off your beastly set. Those who watch suffering and do nothing about it, in her book, were little better than those who inflicted it. They were the bad Samaritans. suffering John le Carré
64f81c8 in the hands of politicians grand designs achieve nothing but new forms of the old misery... John le Carré
31e5319 This is a war," Lemas replied. "It's graphic and unpleasant because it's fought on a tiny scale, at close range; fought with a wastage of innocent life sometimes, I admit. But it's nothing, nothing at all besides other wars - the last or the next." -- war spy John le Carré
3b5508d 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 Carré
4ef8f05 Everyone who is not happy must be shot. violence shooting oppression John le Carré
2f8c530 We have to live without sympathy, don't we? That's impossible of course. We act it to one another, all this hardness; but we aren't like that really, I mean...one can't be out in the cold all the time; one has to come in from the cold...d'you see what I mean? loneliness isolation spying John le Carré
0739457 I once heard someone say morality was method. Do you hold with that? I suppose you wouldn't. You would say that morality was vested in the aim, I expect. Difficult to know what one's aims are, that's the trouble, specially if you're British. morality british John Le Carré
60ca79e It is said that men condemned to death are subject to sudden moments of elation; as if, like moths in the fire, their destruction were coincidental with attainment. death John le Carré
11da133 Treason is very much a matter of habit, Smiley decided. treason John Le Carré
4025445 Look... we're getting to be old men, and we've spent our lives looking for the weaknesses in one another's systems. I can see through Eastern values just as you can see through our Western ones. Both of us, I am sure, have experienced ad nauseam the technical satisfactions of this wretched war. But now your own side is going to shoot you. Don't you think it's time to recognise that there is as little worth on your side as there is on mine? John le Carré
c4aa68e I would say that since the war, our methods-out and those of the opposition-have become much the same. I mean you can't be less ruthless than the opposition simply because your government's 'policy' is benevolent, can you now? war politics John le Carré
891043c Spying is waiting. spying John le Carré
4135df9 Intelligence work has one moral law - it is justified by results. John le Carré
bc78f86 An artist is a bloke who can hold two fundamentally opposing views and still function: John le Carré
c56c202 A dead man is the worst enemy alive, I thought. You can't alter his power over you. You can't alter what you love or owe. And it's too late to ask him for his absolution. He has beaten you all ways. enemy regret John le Carré
565d3a0 Let's die of it before we're too old. life_universe_everything John le Carré
b0d4d2b Don't give it to them all at once, make them work for it. Confuse them with detail, leave things out, go back on your tracks. Be testy, be cussed, be difficult. Drink like a fish; don't give way on the ideology, they won't trust that. They want to deal with a man they've bought; they want the clash of opposites, Alec, not some half-cock convert. lying-games spy John le Carré
4b93c3e He met failure as one day he would probably meet death, with cynical resentment and the courage of a solitary. John le Carré
7d3af45 The most peaceble people will do the most terrible things when they're pushed. John le Carré
a000118 Wives?" she asked, interrupting him. For a moment, he had assumed she was tuning to the novel. Then he saw her waiting, suspicious eyes, so he replied cautiously, "None active," as if wives were volcanoes." marriage circumspection married-life wives separation husbands John le Carré
8d604c9 There will be no war, but in the pursuit of principle no stone will be left standing. John le Carré
405269e She's become a Russian again, he thought. When something works, she's grateful. When it doesn't work, it's life. politics life-philosophy russia John le Carré
dd714f8 We've had enough." He took back the report and jammed it under his arm. "We've had a bellyful, in fact." "And like everyone who's had enough," said Control as Alleline noisily left the room, "he wants more." greed saturation desires dissatisfaction John le Carré
9d1e521 also took for granted that secret services were the only real measure of a nations political health, the only real expression of its subconscious. John le Carré
bb25fca A lot of people see doubt as legitimate philosophical posture. They think of themselves in the middle, whereas of course really, they're nowhere. John le Carré
581d8c7 Yet it's not for want of future that I'm here, he thought. It's for want of a present. present life lack purpose John le Carré
936d8bb It is not fashionable to quote Stalin but he said once, "half a million liquidated is a statistic, and one man killed in a traffic accident is a national tragedy." John le Carré
26d2fbf Gerald Westerby, he told himself. You were present at your birth. You were present at your several marriages and at some of your divorces, and you will certainly be present at your funeral. High time, in our considered view, that you were present at certain other crucial moments in your history. John le Carré
8d98f4b You could be the perfect spy. All you need is a cause. John le Carré
fce45f0 Smiley was soaked to the skin and God as a punishment had removed all taxis from the face of London. John le Carré
6e2f4c9 When a problem threatens to engulf you, there's nothing like irrelevant detail to keep your head above water. details problems John le Carré
f5149ed A man who lives apart, not to others but alone, is exposed to obvious psychological dangers. In itself, the practice of deception is not particularly exacting; it is a matter of experience, of professional expertise, it is a facility most of us can acquire. John le Carré
254de6f What else has a journalist to do these days, after all, but report life's miseries? John le Carré
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