Espionage Quotes - Page 2

• The habits and language of clandestinity can intoxicate even its own practitioners.

  William Colby

  Language, Habit

  Honorable Men (1978).

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• The way the United States intelligence community operates is it doesn't limit itself to the protection of the homeland. It doesn't limit itself to countering terrorist threats, countering nuclear proliferation. It's also used for economic espionage, for political spying to gain some knowledge of what other countries are doing.

  Edward Snowden

  Country, Community, Political

  Source: www.pbs.org

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• It takes a very strong head to keep secrets for years and not go slightly mad. It isn't wise to be advised by anyone slightly mad.

  C.P. Snow

  Wise, Strong, Years

  C. P. Snow (2013). “Science and Government”, p.62, Harvard University Press

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• I'm sort of fascinated by the whole espionage crime thing.

  Aaron Eckhart

  Crime, Whole, Fascinated

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• Truth is suppressed, not to protect the country from enemy agents but to protect the Government of the day against the people.

  Roy Hattersley

  Country, Government, People

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• Rockefeller and his associates did not build the Standard Oil Co. in the board rooms of Wall Street banks. They fought their way to control by rebate and drawback, bribe and blackmail, espionage and price cutting, by ruthless efficiency of organization.

  Ida Tarbell

  Wall, Cutting, Organization

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• When you're dealing with espionage and covert affairs, sometimes the secret is more exciting than the knowledge.

  Jeffrey Donovan

  Secret, Sometimes, Affair

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• I want people to see the truth... regardless of who they are...
  because without information, you cannot make informed decisions as a
  public.

  Chelsea Manning

  Truth, People, Decision

  "Manning-Lamo Chat Logs Revealed". www.wired.com. July 13, 2011.

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• In terms of my conversations with [Vladimir] Putin, these are conversations that took place before the election. As I indicated, there has been very clear proof that they have engaged in cyber attacks. This isn't new. It's not unique to Russia. There are a number of states where we've seen low-level cyber attacks and industrial espionage and, you know, other behavior that we think should be out of bounds.

  Barack Obama

  Unique, Thinking, Numbers

  Source: time.com

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• All the governments just want to have more power when it comes to economic espionage, diplomatic manipulation and political influence.

  Edward Snowden

  Political, Manipulation, Influence

  Source: www.spiegel.de

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• Spy' is such a short ugly word. I prefer 'espionage.' Those extra three syllables really say something.

  Howard Tayler

  Spy, Three, Ugly

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• I have encountered in this world riff-raff and good people. I lose. I win. I defend myself when I am attacked. I take when someone has taken from me. But I beg you to believe me; I have never done an act of espionage against France. Never. Never.

  Mata Hari

  Believe, Taken, Winning

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• Thrilling, illuminating, heart-pounding. Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy reads like a crackling espionage novel and resonates as only the most compelling history can. Abbott brings to vivid life four extraordinary and audacious women, and runs glorious roughshod over all our traditional notions of the role of women in the Civil War.

  Megan Abbott

  Running, Liars, War

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• Asking journalists to denounce leaks because of their deleterious effects on the functioning of government is as hopeless as asking an airline to denounce jet fuel because of its impact on the environment.

  Benjamin Wittes

  Impact, Government, Asking

  "Why We Publish Leaks," Washington Post, 13 February 1998. The question is not whether the Post should "denounce" leaks-truly a red herring- but whether it will use leaks that put U.S. personnel in danger.

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• With what moral authority can they speak of human rights - the rulers of a nation in which the millionaire and beggar coexist; the Indian is exterminated; the black man is discriminated against; the woman is prostituted; and the great masses of Chicanos, Puerto Ricans, and Latin Americans are scorned, exploited, and humiliated? How can they do this - the bosses of an empire where the mafia, gambling, and child prostitution are imposed; where the CIA organizes plans of global subversion and espionage, and the Pentagon creates neutron bombs capable of preserving material assets and wiping out human beings.

  Fidel Castro

  Latin, War, Men

  Fidel Castro's speech on the 25th anniversary of the Moncada Barracks attack, July 26, 1978.

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• I cannot think that espionage can be recommended as a technique for building an impressive civilization. It's a lout's game.

  Rebecca West

  Thinking, Civilization, Games

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• What do you think spies are: priests, saints and martyrs? They're a squalid procession of vain fools, traitors too, yes; pansies, sadists and drunkards, people who play cowboys and Indians to brighten their rotten lives.

  John le Carre

  Thinking, Cowboy, Play

  The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1963). Sounds like some writers.

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• It is ironic that Samuel Berger learned of this espionage in exactly the same month that Al Gore was attending his now famous fund-raiser with Buddhist nuns in Southern California.

  Lamar Alexander

  Buddhist, California, Southern

  "Republicans hammer Gore over U.S. policy toward China" by Wolf Blitzer, www.cnn.com. March 10, 1999.

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• Secrecy is as essential to intelligence as vestments and incense to a Mass or darkness to a spiritualist séance and must at all times be maintained, quite irrespective of whether or not it serves any purpose.

  Malcolm Muggeridge

  Darkness, Essentials, Purpose

  Chronicles of Wasted Time: The Infernal Grove (1973).

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• Espionage is never a laughing matter. And in fact, this is not a political issue. I don't want to get this confused with the back and forth we might have about economic issues or anything else. This is a matter of national security now. And I find it very frightening that Donald Trump is encouraging any foreign power to breach a campaign and try to influence the outcome of the election.

  Robby Mook

  Confused, Laughing, Political

  Source: www.realclearpolitics.com

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• The majority of terrorist attacks that have been disrupted in the United States have been disrupted due to things like the Time Square bomber, who was caught by a hotdog vendor, not a mass surveillance program, not a cyber-espionage campaign.

  Edward Snowden

  Squares, Majority, United States

  Source: www.pbs.org

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• On Foreign Secretary Robin Cook: If a man cannot keep a measly affair secret, what is he doing in charge of the Intelligence Service?

  Frederick Forsyth

  Men, Intelligence Services, Secret

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• Magic is used in espionage, all the time, for clandestine things. I've got a whole library from a gentleman who was hired by the CIA to create magic technology for the use of anti-terrorism.

  David Copperfield

  Technology, Gentleman, Magic

  "David Copperfield Talks NOW YOU SEE ME on Blu-ray/DVD, His Collaboration on the Film, Drawing Inspiration from Cinema, and Being a Good Showman". Interview with Christina Raddish, collider.com. September 8, 2013.

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• There was an intervention of the foreign states in the Russian Far East, Archangel of the West border of Russia. The foreign troops were participating in the attempts to stamp out the revolution. It's not just propaganda, because there are mounds of documents in the archives relating to these events and to the foreign espionage cases.

  Vladimir Semichastny

  Russia, Kgb, Events

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• The Communist threat from without must not blind us to the Communist threat from within. The latter is reaching into the very heart of America through its espionage agents and a cunning, defiant, and lawless communist party, which is fanatically dedicated to the Marxist cause of world enslavement and destruction of the foundations of our republic.

  J. Edgar Hoover

  Party, Heart, America

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