Quotes from Patriot Games

Tom Clancy ·  503 pages

Rating: (157.7K votes)


“A conscience is the price of morality, and morality is the price of civilization.”
― Tom Clancy, quote from Patriot Games


“Tradition is important,” Evans said. “For a soldier, tradition is often the reason one carries on when there are so many reasons not to. It’s more than just yourself, more than just your mates—but it’s not just something for soldiers, is it? It is true—or should be true—of any professional community.”
― Tom Clancy, quote from Patriot Games


“The human mind has a way of punishing itself for killing a fellow man. It remembers and relives the incident again and again.”
― Tom Clancy, quote from Patriot Games


“No complaints. The kid is back in the saddle,” Jackson said, sitting down. “You should have been up in the Tomcat with me last week. Oh, man, I’m finally back in the groove. I was hassling with a guy in an A-4 playing aggressor, and I ruined his day. It was so fine.” He grinned like a lion surveying a herd of crippled antelope. “I’m ready!” “When”
― Tom Clancy, quote from Patriot Games


“we are enemies. I would as soon kill you as have dinner with you. But even enemies can negotiate, can’t they, now?”
― Tom Clancy, quote from Patriot Games



“If you’re really good, they’d taught him at Quantico, you don’t have to be arrogant.”
― Tom Clancy, quote from Patriot Games


“To a man, professional soldiers despised terrorists, and each would dream about getting them in an even-up-battle; the idea of the Field of Honor had never died for the real professionals. It was the place where the ultimate decision was made on the basis of courage and skill, on the basis of manhood itself, and it was this concept that marked the professional soldier as a romantic, a person who truly believed in the rules.”
― Tom Clancy, quote from Patriot Games


“You can act like a policeman or a soldier, but not both.”
― Tom Clancy, quote from Patriot Games


“Victory comes only to those prepared to make it, and take it ~Tom Clancy”
― Tom Clancy, quote from Patriot Games


“It's all about intelligence; and intelligence comes down to a bunch of faceless bureaucrats sifting through all this crap.”
― Tom Clancy, quote from Patriot Games



“After three weeks in this environment, Sally was probably doing the cutest curtsies in the history of Western Civilization. By this time the Palace staff was probably fighting for the right to look after her. Sally was a true daddy’s girl. The ability to manipulate the people around her came easily. She’d practiced on her father for years.”
― Tom Clancy, quote from Patriot Games


About the author

Tom Clancy
Born place: in Baltimore County, Maryland, The United States
Born date April 12, 1947
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Popular quotes

“The hatred of your country is not because it attacks theirs; it is because it keeps theirs safe. Never seek popularity. You can have supremacy or be loved but never both. What is felt toward you is ten percent genuine disagreement and ninety percent envy. Never forget two things! No man can ever forgive his protector. There is no loathing that any man harbors more intense than that toward his benefactor.”
― Frederick Forsyth, quote from Avenger


“We ought to love virtue; but it is well to realize that we ought to only because it is a convenient expedient invented by men in order that they may live comfortably together. What we call morality is simply and solely a desperate enterprise, a forlorn hope on the part of our fellow men to reverse the order of the Universe, which is constant strife and murder, blind, ceaseless and implacable. All is self-destruction, and the more I think of it, the more I am convinced that the the Universe is mad.”
― Anatole France, quote from The Gods Will Have Blood


“I don't care if Todd Rand is as kind as Jesus himself, my place was with you and I will never regret that. You and Damien and Spencer gave Dominique and me an amazing life that I love more than I can ever tell you. Things worked out the way they were supposed to. This family was always the best option for me, Dante, the only option I'd ever have chosen if I'd been given the choice. This changes nothing in my heart. We were all meant to be together, meant to make up a family that defied the odds. I hope that Todd and Flynn are wonderful and that I can have relationships with both, but if they don't want to know me, I'm not going to be upset. I already have the perfect family for me, and since you're the head of this family, that's on you.”
― Ella Fox, quote from Loving Hart


“Adventuring turned out to be boring. Zach thought back to all the fantasy books he'd read where a team of questers traveled overland, and realized a few things. First he'd pictured himself with a loyal steed that would have done most of the walking, so he hadn't anticipated the blister forming on his left heel or the tiny pebble that seemed to have worked its way under his sock, so that even when he stripped off his sneaker he couldn't find it.

He hadn't thought about how hot the sun would be either. When he put together his bunch of provisions, he never thought about bringing sunblock. Aragorn never wore sunblock. Taran never wore sunblock. Percy never wore sunblock. But despite all that precedent for going without, he was pretty sure his nose would be lobster-red the next time he looked in the mirror.

He was thirsty, too, something that happened a lot in books, but his dry throat bothered him more than it had ever seemed to bother any character.

And, unlike in books where random brigands and monsters jumped out just when things got unbearably dull, there was nothing to fight except for the clouds of gnats, several of which Zach was pretty sure he'd accidentally swallowed.”
― Holly Black, quote from Doll Bones


“I think you've got to get out whatever's hurting you through your art, so it doesn't twist you up inside.”
― Cheryl Rainfield, quote from Scars


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