Covert Quotes

For we are opposed around the world by a monolithic and ruthless conspiracy that relies primarily on covert means for expanding its sphere of influence–on infiltration instead of invasion, on subversion instead of elections, on intimidation instead of free choice, on guerrillas by night instead of armies by day. It is a system which has conscripted vast human and material resources into the building of a tightly knit, highly efficient machine that combines military, diplomatic, intelligence, economic, scientific and political operations.  Its preparations are concealed, not published. Its mistakes are buried, not headlined. Its dissenters are silenced, not praised. No expenditure is questioned, no rumor is printed, no secret is revealed. It conducts the Cold War, in short, with a war-time discipline no democracy would ever hope or wish to match For we are opposed around the world by a monolithic and ruthless conspiracy that relies primarily on covert means for expanding its sphere of influence–on infiltration instead of invasion, on subversion instead of elections, on intimidation instead of free choice, on guerrillas by night instead of armies by day. It is a system which has conscripted vast human and material resources into the building of a tightly knit, highly efficient machine that combines military, diplomatic, intelligence, economic, scientific and political operations. Its preparations are concealed, not published. Its mistakes are buried, not headlined. Its dissenters are silenced, not praised. No expenditure is questioned, no rumor is printed, no secret is revealed. It conducts the Cold War, in short, with a war-time discipline no democracy would ever hope or wish to match.

I wouldn't like to be invisible for a day. But if I was... I'd probably be up to no good.

Sometimes the best hiding place is the one that's in plain sight.

The Annex is an ideal place to hide in. It may be damp and lopsided, but there's probably not a more comfortable hiding place in all of Amsterdam. No, in all of Holland.

Central Intelligence Agency’s Intention To Send Hoodlums to Cuba to Assassinate Castro

There is no place where espionage is not possible.

Don't you think that any secret course is an unworthy one?

I lived a very don't-ask, don't-tell life.

Espionage and sabotage need money.

Excellent." Captain nods. "Cabel. What's your job?" Watching in agony, sir." Captain suppressed a smile. "I'd make you stay home if I didn't know you'd sneak out, anyway. while you are watching in agony, feel free to take note of anyone who comes or goes that's not on the list.

A secret process is inherently suspect.

There's no such thing as a secret meeting. There's no such thing as a secret document.... That's a fact of life.

You are about as covert as a sledgehammer.

When people ask me if I have worked for the C.I.A., I often answer: what good to you is my answer? Because if I did, I might not say so.

He was a secret agent, and still alive thanks to his exact attention to the detail of his profession.

Take the back door," she said. "Claire, you and your strang friend-" "Eve," they both said simultaneously, and Eve held out her fst for a bump. "Or, you could call me Eve the Great, Mistress of All She Surveys. Eve for short.

The trick to following someone without getting caught is to follow somebody who doesn't think they're being followed.

'Mission' was a mind game. The ideal mission was getting in and getting out without anyone ever knowing we were there.

Where secrecy or mystery begins, vice or roguery is not far off.

Cyber war takes place largely in secret, unknown to the general public on both sides.

In this world of lies, Truth is forced to fly like a scared white doe in the woodlands; and only by cunning glimpses will she reveal herself, as in Shakespeare and other masters of the great Art of Telling the Truth, even though it be covertly, and by snatches.

I felt like a thief with a bagful of stolen glances.

Exposing the activities of a foreign intelligence service renders them ineffective, since it removes plausible deniability, which is the hallmark of covert intelligence operations.

I can walk through a hotel lobby and watch people at the desk and see what they're doing. People don't look at me. They don't even know I'm there.

When nobody is paying attention, anything is possible.