Len Deighton Quotes

#1. When old men decided to barter young men for pride and profit, the transaction was called war.

Len Deighton

#2. Sokrates' wife, Xanthippe, had in antiquity a reputation as a shrew - but being married to such a man would have tried anyone's patience, and the evidence is not conclusive.

Hilary J. Deighton

#3. Compliment others on the virtues they have; and they're not half as pleased as being complimented for the ones they don't have.

Malcolm Forbes

#4. Perhaps all fear is worse than reality, just as all hope is better than fulfilment.

Len Deighton

#5. Write a biography of him. I had recently published one

Walter Isaacson

#6. We are not compelled in naturalism, or even in materialism, to ignore immaterial things; the point is that any immaterial things which are recognized shall be regarded as names, aspects, functions, or concomitant products of those physical things among which action goes on.

George Santayana

#7. Progress is man's indifference to the lessons of history.

Len Deighton

#8. When they ask me to become president of the United States I'm going to say, Except for Washington D.C.

Len Deighton

#9. He had a long thin nose, a moustache like flock wallpaper, sparse, carefully combed hair, and the complexion of a Hovis loaf.

Len Deighton

#10. Writers are frequently asked why they wrote their first book. A more interesting answer might come from asking them why they wrote their second one.

Len Deighton

#11. I store away my experiences and don't feel really happy until I've found a way to write about them.

Len Deighton

#12. Do you ever make silly mistakes? It is one of my very few creative activities.

Len Deighton

#13. Her new powers surging, she went to have a long overdue Come-to-Jesus talk with the goddess. (Tory)

Sherrilyn Kenyon

#14. That he survived, and indeed returned to government, was one of man's occasional triumphs over medicine.

Barbara W. Tuchman

#15. In Mexico an air conditioner is called a politician because it makes a lot of noise but doesn't work very well.

Len Deighton

#16. I think the reason working-class people don't write books is because they are encouraged to believe that only certain people are permitted to write books.

Len Deighton

#17. What Douglas had once seen as the attractive over-confidence of youth, now looked more like unyielding selfishness.

Len Deighton

#18. Capitalism is the exploitation of man by man. Yes? Well socialism is exactly the reverse.

Len Deighton

#19. Anyone can write one book: even politicians do it. Starting a second book reveals an intention to be a professional writer.

Len Deighton

#20. To realize that everything in the universe is connected is to both accept our insignificance and understand our importance in it.

Jeffrey Fry

#21. The factory workers say that it's impossible to do anything right. If you arrive five minutes early you are a saboteur; if you arrive five minutes late you are betraying socialism; if you arrive on time they say, Where did you get the watch?

Len Deighton

#22. That was one of the problems of marrying into wealth; there were no luxuries.

Len Deighton

#23. Here in Prague they say that although the traffic police are communists the drivers are fascists, which would be all right if it were not that the pedestrians are anarchists.

Len Deighton

#24. I think Jay is in import and export business as his cards say, but he finally found that the second most valuable commodity today is information."
"And?"
"The most valuable?"
"People with information," I suggested.

Len Deighton

#25. Why bother attacking their strengths when you can go straight for their weaknesses?

Susan Ee

#26. Whatever path you take, there is a league of bad road.

Len Deighton

#27. When the end is lawful the means are also lawful,

Len Deighton

#28. I will trust and not be afraid.

Wallace D. Wattles

#29. I've lost much of my heart and the spark or fire that once 'created,' or produced, the art of fiction.

Rick Bass

#30. The tragedy of marriage is that while all women marry thinking that their man will change, all men marry believing their wife will never change.

Len Deighton

#31. England's civil war had ended in a consensus as the English discovered that they hated foreigners more than they hated their own countrymen.

Len Deighton