John le Carre Quotes

On the pitch, I argue, I shout, I talk rubbish and generally do anything I can to get ahead.

Find out what the other team wants to do. Then take it away from them.

If the charge against me is that I fight to win, and I'm intense, then I'm guilty.

I just challenge the big guys and attack them, and use my quickness to my advantage.

People don't seem to understand that it's a damn war out there. Maybe my methods aren't socially acceptable to some, but it's what I have to do to survive. I don't go out there to love my enemy. I go out there to squash him.

Historically, it is important to try to understand your adversary in order to figure out how they are thinking, what they will be doing, how they will react.

The essence of war is violence. Moderation in war is imbecility.

To fight tyranny and oppression by using tyrannical and oppressive means, to combat a single-minded and ruthless fanaticism by becoming equally fanatical and ruthless, will not further the cause of justice or bring about a meaningful democracy. It can only prolong the cycle of violence.

All you have to do is follow three simple rules. One, never underestimate your opponent. Expect the unexpected. Two, take it outside. Never start anything inside the bar unless it's absolutely necessary. And three, be nice.

After all, if you make your enemy look like a fool, you lose the justification for engaging him.

You cannot win a battle in any arena merely by defending yourself.

Win any way as long as you can get away with it. Nice guys finish last.

Many a maid have I won by a quarrel, when flattery was in no wise helpful; but take heed that thou art in the wrong, so that thou mayest acknowledge thine error.

Every day I wrote in my journal: "How am I going to win today?" So that when the guys are talking about water-boarding I'm telling them they haven't even got the right towels.

'So if we can we'll kill every last of the buggers, and if they can they'll kill every last one of us. As for me,' said Ender, 'I'm in favor of surviving'.

The aggressive spirit, the offensive, is the chief thing everywhere in war, and the air is no exception.

All is fair in love and war and Parliamentary procedure.

I'm a firm believer that if the other side scores first, you have to score twice to win.

If you wage war, do it energetically and with severity. This is the only way to make it shorter and consequently less inhuman.

We should find out as much as possible about someone before coming into conflict with him.

A wiser rule would be to make up your mind soberly what you want, peace or war, and then to get ready for what you want; for what we prepare for is what we shall get.

Perhaps this war will pass like the others which divided us leaving us dead, killing us along with the killers but the shame of this time puts its burning fingers to our faces. Who will erase the ruthlessness hidden in innocent blood?

Keep your own secret, and get out other people's. Keep your own temper, and artfully warm other people's. Counterwork your rivalswith diligence and dexterity, but at the same time with the utmost personal civility to them: and be firm without heat.

If you want to take down your opponent, you do it tactically, point by point.

When you operate in an overbuilt metropolis, you have to hack your way with a meat ax.