John Le Carré

world destroyed madmen experts bureaucrats

"When the world is destroyed, it will be destroyed not by its madmen but by the sanity of its experts and the superior ignorance of its bureaucrats."

—John Le Carré (1931-2020)

politician grand design old misery

“...in the hands of politicians grand designs achieve nothing but new forms of the old misery...”

—John Le Carré (1931-2020)

committee animal four back legs

”A committee is an animal with four back legs.”

—John Le Carré (1931-2020)

unhappy shot

“Everyone who is not happy must be shot.”

—John Le Carré (1931-2020)

enemy misinformation perversion truthskilful people

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

—John Le Carré (1931-2020)

fact do little excuse nothing

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

—John Le Carré (1931-2020)

repetition lie fact

"By repetition, each lie becomes an irreversible fact upon which other lies are constructed."

—John Le Carré (1931-2020)

multi-billion corporations exploit sick duty shareholder

"Multi-billion-dollar multinational corporations view the exploitation of the world's sick and dying as a sacred duty to their shareholders."

—John Le Carré (1931-2020)

eternat truth politics reason doing nothing

"If there is one eternal truth of politics, it is that there are always a dozen good reasons for doing nothing."

—John Le Carré (1931-2020)

worse change status quo

"There's one thing worse than change and that's the status quo."

—John Le Carré (1931-2020)

men small stature courage big

"Why is it that so many men of small stature have more courage than men of size?"

—John Le Carré (1931-2020)