"It was man who ended the Cold War……" — John le Carre
"It was man who ended the Cold War in case you didn't notice. It wasn't weaponry, or technology, or armies or campaigns. It was just man. Not even Western man either, as it happened, but our sworn enemy in the East, who went into the streets, faced the bullets and the batons and said: we've had enough. It was their emperor, not ours, who had the nerve to mount the rostrum and declare he had no clothes. And the ideologies trailed after these impossible events like condemned prisoners, as ideologies do when they've had their day."
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John le Carre
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126 Quotes by John le Carre
John le Carre has 126 quotes on this site.
A few more worth reading:
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Love is whatever you can still betray. Betrayal can only happen if you love.
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A desk is a dangerous place from which to view the world.
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It's part of a writer's profession, as it's part of a spy's profession, to prey on the community to which…
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Until we have a better relationship between private performance and the public truth, as was demonstrated with Watergate, we as…
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But I think the real tension lies in the relationship between what you might call the pursuer and his quarry,…
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My definition of a decent society is one that first of all takes care of its losers, and protects its…
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History keeps her secrets longer than most of us. But she has one secret that I will reveal to you…
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A spy, like a writer, lives outside the mainstream population. He steals his experience through bribes and reconstructs it.
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A committee is an animal with four back legs.
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The longing we have to communicate cleanly and directly with people is always obstructed by qualifications and often with concern…
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The monsters of our childhood do not fade away, neither are they ever wholly monstrous. But neither, in my experience,…
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Americans believe that if you know something, you should do something about it.
See all 126 quotes by John le Carre »
More Armies Quotes
This quote is filed under Armies Quotes,
one of 287 quotes in that category. Here are a few more:
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That is the great mistake about the affections. It is not the rise and fall of empires, the birth and…
— Amelia Barr
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Justice is an unassailable fortress, built on the brow of a mountain which cannot be overthrown by the violence of…
— Joseph Addison
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The only really committed artist is he who, without refusing to take part in the combat, at least refuses to…
— Albert Camus
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For good or for ill, air mastery is today the supreme expression of military power and fleets and armies, however…
— Winston Churchill
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Many African leaders refuse to send their troops on peace keeping missions abroad because they probably need their armies to…
— Kofi Annan
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God is on everyone's side... and in the last analysis, he is on the side with plenty of money and…
— Jean Anouilh
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Rule 1, on page 1 of the book of war, is: 'Do not march on Moscow'... Rule 2 is: Do…
— Bernard Law Montgomery
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Evil does exist in the world. A non-violent movement could not have halted Hitler's armies. Negotiations cannot convince al Qaeda's…
— Barack Obama
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The students I've been with these twenty years are looking for a world where it becomes a little easier to…
— Colman McCarthy
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If you are situated at a great distance from the enemy, and the strength of the two armies is equal,…
— Sun Tzu
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The supreme excellence is not to win a hundred victories in a hundred battles. The supreme excellence is to subdue…
— Sun Tzu
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When other Generals make mistakes their armies are beaten; when I get into a hole, my men pull me out…
— Duke of Wellington
See all 287 Armies Quotes »