Quotes from Debt of Honor

Tom Clancy ·  990 pages

Rating: (38.2K votes)


“Of all human lamentations, without doubt, the most common is if only I had known. But we can't know, and so days of death and fire so often begin no differently than those of love and warmth.”
― Tom Clancy, quote from Debt of Honor


“The remarkable thing was that everyone accepted the entire process, seemingly as normal as physical laws of nature, despite the fact that it was really as ethereal as a rainbow. The money did not physically exist. Even “real” money was only specially made paper printed with black ink on the front and green on the back. What backed the money was not gold or something of intrinsic value, but rather the collective belief that money had value because it had to have such value.”
― Tom Clancy, quote from Debt of Honor


“A lively discussion is usually helpful, because the hottest fire makes the hardest steel.”
― Tom Clancy, quote from Debt of Honor


“ Visto despuès, podría parecer un modo extraño de empezar una guerra. Solo uno de los implicados sabía de lo que de verdad sucedía, y por casualidad ”
― Tom Clancy, quote from Debt of Honor


“War is the ultimate criminal act, an armed robbery writ large. And it’s always about greed. It’s always a nation that wants something another nation has. And you defeat that nation by recognizing what it wants and denying it to them.”
― Tom Clancy, quote from Debt of Honor



“What backed the money was not gold or something of intrinsic value, but rather the collective belief that money had value because it had to have such value.”
― Tom Clancy, quote from Debt of Honor


“We cannot fail to win—unless we fail to try.”
― Tom Clancy, quote from Debt of Honor


“Diplomatic exchange combined the worst aspects of explaining things to a toddler and talking with a mother-in-law. It was dull, it was tedious, it was exasperating, and it was necessary.”
― Tom Clancy, quote from Debt of Honor


“Intelligence people are no different from anybody else. They have preconceptions, and when they see them in real life, it reinforces how brilliant they think they are.”
― Tom Clancy, quote from Debt of Honor


“Like many weak men, he made a great ceremony of personal strength and power.”
― Tom Clancy, quote from Debt of Honor



“There was nothing like an appeal to honor. It was a virtue that all craved, even those who lacked it. Fundamentally, honor was itself a debt, a code of behavior, a promise, something inside yourself that you owed to the others who saw it in you.”
― Tom Clancy, quote from Debt of Honor


“He had to do so many things and make each appear as though it were the only thing he had to do. He had to compartmentalize everything, when on one task to pretend that the others didn't exist.”
― Tom Clancy, quote from Debt of Honor


“never pick up a baby to kiss it," trent said. "they always puke on you, and somebody always gets a picture. always kiss the baby in the mom's arms.”
― Tom Clancy, quote from Debt of Honor


“You have to know the things you don’t know. You have to figure out what the questions are before you can start looking for answers.”
― Tom Clancy, quote from Debt of Honor


“if you don’t write it down—” “Then it never happened.”
― Tom Clancy, quote from Debt of Honor



“landing a helicopter aboard a ship reminded him of two porcupines making love. It wasn’t lack of willingness; it was just that you couldn’t afford any mistakes.     They”
― Tom Clancy, quote from Debt of Honor


About the author

Tom Clancy
Born place: in Baltimore County, Maryland, The United States
Born date April 12, 1947
See more on GoodReads

Popular quotes

“Back at home I spent so much time on my own, but never once felt lonely. Here, even though I see hundreds more people each day, I've never felt lonelier.”
― Giovanna Fletcher, quote from Billy and Me


“Very sadly, Terry gave his thanks and walked to sit on a brown log. There”
― Tali Carmi, quote from Terry Treetop and the Lost Egg


“I just slipped into my mother’s office to look at the names of my new peer helpers, and I’m so happy! Your name is on the list! I thought maybe I’d scared you by coming right out and asking you to apply. I realize it’s an unusual setup, but try not to think of it as my parents offering to pay people to be my friend. I know there’s something unsettling and prideless in that. I prefer to think of it this way: my parents are paying people to pretend to be my friend. This will be much closer to the truth, I suspect, and I have no problem with this. I’m guessing that a lot of people in high school are only pretending to be friends, right? It’ll be a start, I figure.”
― Cammie McGovern, quote from Say What You Will


“As ilhas são lugares de solidão e nunca isso é tão nítido como quando partem os que apenas vieram de passagem e ficam no cais, a despedir-se, os que vão permanecer. Na hora da despedida, é quase sempre mais triste ficar do que partir e, numa ilha, isso marca uma diferença fundamental, como se houvesse duas espécies de seres humanos: os que vivem na ilha e os que chegam e partem.”
― Miguel Sousa Tavares, quote from Equador


“It was the most perfect moment in my life.

It was the last perfect moment in my life.”
― Cecelia Ahern, quote from Flawed


Interesting books

Fate's Edge
(15K)
Fate's Edge
by Ilona Andrews
NurtureShock: New Thinking About Children
(20.8K)
NurtureShock: New Th...
by Po Bronson
Intuition: Knowing Beyond Logic
(1.9K)
Intuition: Knowing B...
by Osho
Dead of Night
(5.4K)
Dead of Night
by Jonathan Maberry
Burnt Shadows
(4.4K)
Burnt Shadows
by Kamila Shamsie
Conspiracy Game
(10.2K)
Conspiracy Game
by Christine Feehan

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.