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1 " It was his shoes, he noticed to his pleasure, that she most objected to; and he thought: bloody good, that's what shoes are for. "
― John le Carré , A Small Town in Germany
2 " They had met at oxford; she had taken a better degree than Avery. But somehow marriage had made her childish; dependence had become an attitude, as if she had given him something irredeemable, and were always asking for it back. Her son was less her projection than her excuse; a wall against the world and not a channel to it. "
3 " It was simpler in those days. We could say they’d died for their country. We didn’t have to tell them the details; they didn’t expect that. "
4 " That’s the trouble with Americans, isn’t it, really? All that emphasis on the future. So dangerous. It makes them destructive of the present. "
5 " The most effective deceit is the one which is never discovered. "
6 " That’s the point, isn’t it: the opposite of love isn’t hate. It’s lethargy. "
7 " The opposite of love is not hate but apathy "
8 " No one thanks you for shaving, no one thanks you for democracy. Now we’ve come out the other side. Democracy was only possible under a class system, that’s why: it was an indulgence granted by the privileged. We haven’t time for it any more: a flash of light between feudalism and automation, and now it’s gone. What’s left? The voters are cut off from parliament, parliament "
