Quotes from The Bourne Identity

“I mean, we're all trying to find out who the hell we are, aren't we?”
― Robert Ludlum, quote from The Bourne Identity

“The success of any trap lies in its fundamental simplicity. The reverse trap by the nature of its single complication must be swift and simpler still.”
― Robert Ludlum, quote from The Bourne Identity

“What a man can't remember doesn't exist for him.”
― Robert Ludlum, quote from The Bourne Identity

“I see things and I hear things I do not understand. I'm a skilled, resourceful... vegetable!”
― Robert Ludlum, quote from The Bourne Identity

“The easiest thing in the world is to convince yourself that you're right. As one grows old, it is easier still.”
― Robert Ludlum, quote from The Bourne Identity

“You're on your own now. You are not helpless. You will find your way.”
― Robert Ludlum, quote from The Bourne Identity

“How gratifying to be there when arrogance collapses. How much more so to be the instrument. (Alfred Gillette)”
― Robert Ludlum, quote from The Bourne Identity

“There'll come a moment when you think you can make it, and you'll try.”
― Robert Ludlum, quote from The Bourne Identity

“Men and women walked casually about as they did on the main floor, every now and then stopping one another, exchanging pleasantries or scraps of relevantly irrelevant information. Gossip.”
― Robert Ludlum, quote from The Bourne Identity

“The easiest thing in the world is to convince yourself that you are right. As one grows older, this is easier still.”
― Robert Ludlum, quote from The Bourne Identity

“Before taking her into the library, my wife told me she was an old friend in a marriage crisis. A fatuous lie; at her age there are no crises left in marriage, only acceptance and extraction. (General Villiers)”
― Robert Ludlum, quote from The Bourne Identity

“I loathe him. He stands for everything I hate in Washington. The right schools, houses in Georgetown, farms in Virginia, quiet meetings at their clubs. They've got their tight little world and you don't break in--they run it all. The bastards. The superior, self-inflated gentry of Washington. They use other men's intellects, other men's work, wrapping it all into decisions bearing their imprimaturs. And if you're on the outside, you become part of that amorphous entity, a 'damn fine staff.' (Alfred Gillette)”
― Robert Ludlum, quote from The Bourne Identity

“If I haven't done badly, it's because I've become indispensable to too many like David Abbott. I have in my head a thousand facts they couldn't possibly recall. It's simply easier for them to place me where the questions are, where problems need solutions. (Alfred Gillette)”
― Robert Ludlum, quote from The Bourne Identity

“The silence lasted precisely five seconds, during which time eyes roamed other eyes, several throats were cleared, and no one moved in his chair. It was as if a decision were being reached without discussion: evasion was to be avoided. Congressman Efrem Walters, out of the hills of Tennessee by way of the Yale Law Review, was not to be dismissed with facile circumlocution that dealt with the esoterica of clandestine manipulations. Bullshit was out.”
― Robert Ludlum, quote from The Bourne Identity

“They lived with the intensity of two people aware that change would come. And when it came, it would come quickly; so there were things to talk about which could not be avoided any longer.”
― Robert Ludlum, quote from The Bourne Identity

“Accountants and economists are natural enemies. One views trees, the other forests, and the visions are usually at odds, as they should be.”
― Robert Ludlum, quote from The Bourne Identity

“You appear to be a mass of contradictions," Dr Washburn said. "There's a subsurface violence almost always in control, but very much alive. There's also a pensiveness that seems painful for you, yet you rarely give vent to the anger that pain must provoke.”
― Robert Ludlum, quote from The Bourne Identity

“She's an old soldier's woman, and she has antennae for things that often escape the officer in the field.”
― Robert Ludlum, quote from The Bourne Identity

“I mean, we’re all trying to find out who the hell we are, aren’t we?”
― Robert Ludlum, quote from The Bourne Identity

“They never listened until it was too late, and then only with stern forbearance and strong reminders of what might have been—had things been as they were perceived to be, which they were not.”
― Robert Ludlum, quote from The Bourne Identity

“everything we knew, everything we felt!’ ‘Not quite everything,’ he said, touching her cheek. ‘I’m Jason to you, Bourne to me, because that’s the name I was given, and have to use it because I don’t have any other. But it’s not mine.”
― Robert Ludlum, quote from The Bourne Identity

“Wealth is relative to the amount of time one has to enjoy it.”
― Robert Ludlum, quote from The Bourne Identity

“warmed by the cold sea around him.”
― Robert Ludlum, quote from The Bourne Identity

“One balks, then agrees, then balks again only to agree again; that is the way one learns things.”
― Robert Ludlum, quote from The Bourne Identity

“followed – even now at this moment.’ The one-time beggar”
― Robert Ludlum, quote from The Bourne Identity

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But whether there's some grand design really matters little to me. My only hope was this: To see what might be, to believe that it should be, and then to do all I could to bring it to pass, whatever the cost. When a life spins out as joyfully as mine has done, then the price, one paid so painfully, is now recalled in gladness. I have received full value. Here among the shepherds, my cup is filled with the water of life; it overflows.”
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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.