Quotes from Charles Cumming

As we get older, life becomes very complicated in terms of concessions we have to make.

Worrying about how you'll be remembered is pointless. Better to try to live your life in such a way that people will respect you while you're still alive.

I'm fascinated by the journey that an intelligent and an ambitious woman makes in the professional world in contrast to the journey that a man of similar ambition, of similar intelligence makes. What sort of concessions does a woman have to make? Does she have to work 20 percent harder than a man?

The first thing you should know about people is that you don't know the first thing about them.

He believed in the unarguable notion that if a young person is lucky enough to read the right books at the right time in the company of the right teacher, it will change their life forever.

You know, you should never catch a spy. Discover him and then control him, but never catch him. A spy causes far more trouble when he's caught. Harold Macmillan

A great love affair makes us feel alive, vivid and free. But that feeling comes at a price. We are never truly happy while we are at the mercy of another person.

grave. 'I don't know,' Akim replied,

Honor among thieves, perhaps. Honor among spies, never.

With the best will in the world, Sam, nobody really cares about journalists getting bumped off in Russia. Your average punter doesn't have a clue who Peter the Great is. Does he play for Liverpool? Was he knocked out in the final of Britain's Got Talent?

We have as many personalities as we have friends' Ralph Waldo Emerson

I sometimes think that the Russian character is the end of kindness, you know? The end of everything that is nice and good in this world.

I learned that spying isn't about strengths in human nature – ideological conviction, duty, loyalty to one's country. Spying is about weaknesses – the lust for money, for status, for sex. This is the guilty secret of our secret trade.' Tanya

Sense of an Ending

By making stupid people feel better about their stupidity. By allowing bigots to think they were justified in making anti-Semitic statements, saying that it was OK to hate women, to be aggrieved about people of color, about immigrants.

Believe it or not, it's a question of honesty," he said. "If a person is clear about what they want to achieve, if they set about achieving that goal objectively and with precision, more often than not they will succeed.

A noble, articulate, mixed-race liberal icon takes over the Presidency of the United States. Does he make the world a better place? No, he does not. A narcissistic sociopath with a thin skin and a bad dye job disgraces the Presidency of the United States. Does he make the world a worse place? No, he does not.