“All men are born free: just not for long.”
― John le Carré, quote from A Murder of Quality
“It was from us they learnt the secret of life: that we grow old without growing wise. They realized that nothing happened when we grew up: no blinding light on the road to Damascus, no sudden feeling of maturity.”
― John le Carré, quote from A Murder of Quality
“I used to think it was clever to confuse comedy with tragedy. Now i wish i could distinguish them.”
― John le Carré, quote from A Murder of Quality
“He hated to be alone, but people bored him. Being alone was like being tired, but unable to sleep.”
― John le Carré, quote from A Murder of Quality
“Smiley himself was one of those solitaires who seem to have come into the world fully educated at the age of eighteen. Obscurity was his nature, as well as his profession. The byways of espionage are not populated by the brash and colourful adventurers of fiction. A man who, like Smiley, has lived and worked for years among his country's enemies learns only one prayer: that he may never, never be noticed. Assimilation is his highest aim, he learns to love the crowds who pass him in the street without a glance; he clings to them for his anonimity and his safety. His fear makes him servile - he could embrace the shoppers who jostle him in their impatience, and force him from the pavement. He could adore the officials, the police, the bus conductors, for the terse indifference of their attitudes. (ch. 9)”
― John le Carré, quote from A Murder of Quality
“Urgent equals ephemeral, and ephemeral equals unimportant.”
― John le Carré, quote from A Murder of Quality
“Only adults had nervous breakdowns in those days, so the methods of survival for boys who refused to join the system were animal cunning, “internal immigration” as the Germans call it, or simply getting the hell out. I practised the first two, then opted for the third and took myself to Switzerland.”
― John le Carré, quote from A Murder of Quality
“Smiley was not opposed to social distinctions but he liked to make his own.”
― John le Carré, quote from A Murder of Quality
“It was like feeding a small child. You couldn't over load the spoon.”
― John le Carré, quote from A Murder of Quality
“Shane was horrid to her, always sneering at her because she was honest and simple about the things she liked. Shane hated Stella—I think it was because Stella didn’t want to be a lady of quality. She was quite happy to be herself. That’s what really worried Shane. Shane likes people to compete so that she can make fools of them.”
― John le Carré, quote from A Murder of Quality
“He hated to be alone, but people bored him.”
― John le Carré, quote from A Murder of Quality
“There was a fellow called Smiley married Ann Sercomb, Lord Sawley’s cousin. Damned pretty girl, Ann was, and went and married this fellow. Some funny little beggar in the Civil Service with an OBE and a gold watch. Sawley was damned annoyed.”
― John le Carré, quote from A Murder of Quality
“right…What do you do for a living, Smiley?” “After the war I was at Oxford for a bit. Teaching and research. I’m in London now.” “One of those clever coves, eh?”
― John le Carré, quote from A Murder of Quality
“He hated to be alone, but people bored him. Being alone was like being tired, but unable”
― John le Carré, quote from A Murder of Quality
John le Carré
Born place: in Poole, Dorset, England, The United Kingdom
Born date October 19, 1931
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“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.”
― quote from Holy Bible: New International Version
“All the seven deadly sins are peccadilloes but without three of them, Pride, Lust, and Sloth, poetry might never have been born.”
― Vladimir Nabokov, quote from Pale Fire
“I wake up thinking of yesterday. The joy is in remembering; the pain is in knowing it was yesterday.”
― David Levithan, quote from Every Day
“Come what come may, time and the hour run through the roughest day.”
― William Shakespeare, quote from Macbeth
“Seldom, very seldom, does complete truth belong to any human disclosure; seldom can it happen that something is not a little disguised or a little mistaken.”
― Jane Austen, quote from Emma
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