I have a theory which I suspect is rather immoral,' Smiley went on, more lightly. 'Each of us has only a quantum of compassion. That if we lavish our concern on every stray cat, we never get to the centre of things.

Sometimes we have to do a thing in order to find out the reason for it. Sometimes our actions are questions, not answers.

The pharmaceutical corporations are engaged in the systematic corruption of the medical profession, country by country

Never trade a secret, you'll always get the short end of the bargain.

I don't know whether it's age or maturity, but I certainly find myself committed more and more to the looser forms of Western democracy at any price.

The fact that you can only do a little is no excuse for doing nothing.

I was the British spy who had come out of the woodwork and told it how it really was, and anything I said to the contrary only enforced the myth. And since I was writing for a public hooked on Bond and desperate for the antidote, the myth stuck.