There will be no war, but in the pursuit of principle no stone will be left standing.

I think the greatest single enemy is the misuse of information, the perversion of truth in the hands of terribly skillful people.

Fools, most linguists. Damn all to say in one language, so they learn another and say damn all in that.

In itself, the practice of deception is not particularly exacting; it is a matter of experience, of professional expertise, it is a facility most of us can acquire.

What do you think spies are: priests, saints and martyrs? They're a squalid procession of vain fools, traitors too, yes; pansies, sadists and drunkards, people who play cowboys and Indians to brighten their rotten lives.

A desk is a dangerous place from which to view the world.

In the hands of politicians grand designs achieve nothing but new forms of the old misery.