Quotes from A Perfect Spy

John le Carré ·  608 pages

Rating: (13.3K votes)


“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, quote from A Perfect Spy


“You could be the perfect spy. All you need is a cause.”
― John le Carré, quote from A Perfect Spy


“He was learning to live on several planes at once. The art of it was to forget everything except the ground you stood on and the face you spoke from at that moment.”
― John le Carré, quote from A Perfect Spy


“A vida tem de ser paga. A vida é fazer-se o que tem de ser feito, mesmo que se morra por causa disso.”
― John le Carré, quote from A Perfect Spy


“Mas em diplomacia nada é duradouro, nada é absoluto e uma conspiração entre assassinos não é motivo para interromper o fluxo da conversa”
― John le Carré, quote from A Perfect Spy



“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 Carré, quote from A Perfect Spy


“And what am I thinking? I am thinking that a man who cannot speak clearly cannot think clearly.”
― John le Carré, quote from A Perfect Spy


About the author

John le Carré
Born place: in Poole, Dorset, England, The United Kingdom
Born date October 19, 1931
See more on GoodReads

Popular quotes

“My dinner party,' Miles grated. 'It's just breaking up.' And sinking. All souls feared lost.
― Lois McMaster Bujold, quote from A Civil Campaign


“Horses were never wrong. They always did what they did for a reason, and it was up to you to figure it out.”
― Jeannette Walls, quote from Half Broke Horses


“I survive by finding the sweet spot between reason and unreason, between the rational and irrational.”
― Dean Koontz, quote from Forever Odd


“It's my privilege to love you.”
― Jessica Shirvington, quote from Endless


“You must remember that he was a boy. That he had a mother. And that her heart is breaking.”
― Clare Mackintosh, quote from I Let You Go


Interesting books

Nadja
(6.4K)
Nadja
by André Breton
Scott Pilgrim, Volume 3: Scott Pilgrim & The Infinite Sadness
(32.4K)
Scott Pilgrim, Volum...
by Bryan Lee O'Malley
All That Matters
(1.4K)
All That Matters
by Susan X. Meagher
The Imperfectionists
(43K)
The Imperfectionists
by Tom Rachman
A Killing Frost
(15.7K)
A Killing Frost
by John Marsden
My Unfair Godmother
(6.8K)
My Unfair Godmother
by Janette Rallison

About BookQuoters

BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.