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

“Patience, thought Milligan, that word was invented by dull buggers who couldn't think quick enough.”
― Spike Milligan, quote from Puckoon


“Everyone should have someone that cares.Someone that doesn't give up on them.Someone to always care what they're doing.Right at this moment,I make it my goal to be that someone for Park.”
― Cheryl McIntyre, quote from Before Now


“In his endless journeys of exploration, crawling on all fours around the Urals and the Amazon and the Australian archipelagos which the furniture of the house was to him, sometimes he no longer knew where he was. And he would be found under the sink in the kitchen, ecstatically observing a patrol of cockroaches as if they were wild colts on the prairie. He even recognized a ttar in a gob of spit.
But nothing had the power to make him rejoice as much as Nino's presence. It seemed that, in his opinion, Nino concentrated in himself the total festivity of the world, which everywhere else was to be found scattered and divided. For in Giuseppe's eyes, Nino represented by himself all the myriad colors, and the glow of fireworks, and every species of fantastic and lovable animal, and carnival shows. Mysteriously, he could sense Nino's arrival from the moment when he began the ascent of the stairs! And he would hurry immediately, as fast as he could with his method, toward the entrance, repeating ino ino, in an almost dramatic rejoicing of all his limbs. At times, even, when Nino came home late at night, he, sleeping, would stir slightly at the sound of the key, and with a trusting little smile he would murmur in a faint voice: Ino.”
― Elsa Morante, quote from History


“Homeopathy seemed . . . both mathematical and poetic.”
― Scarlett Thomas, quote from PopCo


“Achievement was worthy of praise and honor, but excessive achievement was pernicious and a threat to the state.”
― Tom Holland, quote from Rubicon: The Last Years of the Roman Republic


Interesting books

The Lost Girl
(5.7K)
The Lost Girl
by Sangu Mandanna
A Sudden Light
(10.4K)
A Sudden Light
by Garth Stein
Greywalker
(12.2K)
Greywalker
by Kat Richardson
Birds, Beasts and Relatives
(4.7K)
Birds, Beasts and Re...
by Gerald Durrell
Dead City
(2.3K)
Dead City
by James Ponti
Sleepwalking Land
(1.9K)
Sleepwalking Land
by Mia Couto

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.