There was a time when nails were high-tech. There was a time when people had to be told how to use a telephone. Technology is just a tool. People use tools to improve their lives.
Tom ClancyAnd so began something that had not quite begun and would not soon end, with many people in many places moving off in directions and on missions which they all mistakenly thought they understood. That was just as well. The future was too fearful for contemplation, and beyond the expected, illusory finish lines were things fated by the decisions made this morning -- and, once decided, best unseen.
Tom ClancyEvery person you meet - and everything you do in life - is an opportunity to learn something.
Tom ClancyIt is a principle of diplomacy that one must know something of the truth in order to lie convincingly.
Tom ClancyIt was one thing to use computers as a tool, quite another to let them do your thinking for you.
Tom ClancyLife was such a strange thing, so permanent when one had it, so fleeting when it was lost- and those who lost it could never tell you what it was like, could they?
Tom ClancyThere is a long and honorable tradition of citizens in service to their nation that goes back at least as far as Cincinnatus, the Roman citizen who, more than once answered his country's call, then returned to his farm and his family and his work.
Tom ClancyNever ask what sort of computer a guy drives. If he's a Mac user, he'll tell you. If not, why embarrass him?
Tom ClancyTwo questions form the foundation of all novels: "What if?" and "What next?" (A third question, "What now?", is one the author asks himself every 10 minutes or so; but it's more a cry than a question.) Every novel begins with the speculative question, What if "X" happened? That's how you start.
Tom ClancySuccess is a finished book, a stack of pages each of which is filled with words. If you reach that point, you have won a victory over yourself no less impressive than sailing single-handed around the world.
Tom Clancy(Stereotyping) is only for those without the imagination to see people as they are instead of being like someone else they understand.
Tom ClancyAbout forty percent of the people vote Democrat. About forty percent vote Republican. Of those eighty percent, most wouldn't change their votes if Adolf Hitler was running against Abe Lincoln - or against FDR. . . . That leaves twenty percent of the people who swing back one way or another . . . the true independents. . . . That twenty percent controls the destiny of the country.
Tom ClancySuspense is achieved by information control: What you know. What the reader knows. What the characters know.
Tom ClancyThe only person who has artistic control is the director, and 'director' is how you spell God in Hollywood.
Tom ClancyThe Good of the People was a laudable enough goal, but in denying a man's soul, an enduring part of his being, Marxism stripped away the foundation of human dignity and individual value. It also cast aside the objective measure of justice and ethics which, he decided, was the principal legacy of religion to civilized life.
Tom ClancyEvery novel begins with the speculative question, What if "X" happened? That's how you start.
Tom ClancyFighting wars is not so much about killing people as it is about finding things out. The more you know, the more likely you are to win a battle.
Tom ClancyI am a politician which means I am a liar and a crook. When I am not kissing babies I am stealing their lollypops.
Tom ClancyThere are two kinds of people: the ones who need to be told and the ones who figure it out all by themselves.
Tom ClancyI think it's an intellectual duty for a person who lives in a free society to read material not only with which you agree, but with which you disagree. Because every so often somebody you think is wrong will actually turn out to be right.
Tom ClancyI'd rather talk to people who do things than complain about other people who do things. I say they're idiots.
Tom ClancyThe KGB still killed people, the KGB would not execute its last prisoner until the final days of its existence in 1991, but by the eighties a termination required paperwork and signatures and a post-action review.
Tom ClancyProbably what pushed the Russians over the edge was SDI... They realized they couldn't beat us...
Tom ClancyThey fought their first action in March of 1775. Embarked on eight small ships, they sailed to the Bahamas and captured a British fort near Nassau, seizing gunpowder and supplies. Later, during the Revolutionary War, Marines fought several engagements in their distinctive green coats, such as helping George Washington to cross the Delaware River, and assisting John Paul Jones on the Bonhomme Richard to capture the British frigate Serapis during their famous sea fight.
Tom ClancyI've been telling people for 12 years that if you want to get a nuclear device into the United States, just bring it through the port of Miami disguised as cocaine.
Tom ClancyThere is an old saying: In history nothing is true but the names and dates. In fiction everything is true but the names and dates. The difference between reality and fiction? Fiction has to make sense.
Tom ClancyLiberation and equal-rights issues notwithstanding, it was a man's job to make a woman feel cherished and respected.
Tom ClancyThere is more to military units than hardware. There is the character of the unit's personnel: their strengths, experience, and knowledge, their ability to get along and work together amid the horrors of the battlefield. There is an almost undefinable quality. That quality is the Marine Corps' secret weapon. Their edge. That quality is their ethos.
Tom ClancyThere are people in government who don't want other people to know what they know. It's just another example of elitism. And I spit on elitism. Show me an elitist, and I'll show you a loser.
Tom ClancySwitzerland is a land where crime is virtually unknown, yet most Swiss males are required by law to keep in their homes what amounts to a portable, personal machine gun.
Tom ClancyPeople live longer today than they ever have. They live happier lives, have more knowledge, more information. All this is the result of communications technology. How is any of that bad?
Tom Clancy