Quotes from Tom Clancy

if you don't write it down, then it never happened

When you dealt with explosives, you didn't rush and you didn't take chances.

The coat went over his shoulder. It was too hot here for that, and hotter still where he was going. He'd have to wear a coat there. It was expected, one of those curious rules of formal behavior that demanded the maximum discomfort to attain the proper degree of decorum.

No man controlled his fate, a knowledge that came late in life. You just tried to muddle along from one point to another, making as few mistakes as possible.

Ryan was a tough, formidable son of a bitch who met things head-on when he had to. That's his weakness, Wellington told himself. He prefers to meet things head-on. He lacks subtlety. It was a common failing of the honest, and a grievous weakness in a political environment.

if you don't write it down—" "Then it never happened.

It's okay to be scared. I was scared all the time. The important part is to know that you're going to do it.

tomorrow the air will be fresh and clear, and the city will sparkle with a clean blanket of white.

Morality in his country had been replaced by what was politically correct or incorrect.

Dominic took the bait: "If the President breaks the law, then the House of Representatives impeaches him and the Senate convicts him, and he's out on the street

Christianity—and Judaism, and Islam, which were also religions of The Book—required

también. ¿Me oye? Volaron el túnel…

El Apache ya se alejaba, por orden de Ozzy.

From Russia with Love

no man who could rationalize the death of a child could truly be called a man at all

I do not over-intellectualise the production process. I try to keep it simple: Tell the damned story.

Damn, guys, for about three minutes there it was just a little hairy, y'know?

obligations.

That was the problem with Europeans. No optimism, too often they looked for things that would go wrong instead of right.

Wet streets don't cause rain, do they?

There was nothing like an appeal to honor. It was a virtue that all craved, even those who lacked it. Fundamentally, honor was itself a debt, a code of behavior, a promise, something inside yourself that you owed to the others who saw it in you. Everyone in this room wanted all the others to look and see a person worthy of respect and trust, and honor.

Ascension And if I go, while you're still here . . . Know that I live on, vibrating to a different measure, —behind a thin veil you cannot see through. You will not see me, so you must have faith. I wait for the time when we can soar together again, —both aware of each other. Until then, live your life to its fullest. And when you need me, Just whisper my name in your heart, . . . I will be there. © 1987 Colleen Corah Hitchcock

we have a debt of honor to the people on those islands who decided that they wanted to be Americans. If we don't defend that principle, we don't defend anything. And nobody will trust us, and nobody will respect us, not even ourselves. If we turn our back on them, then we are not the people we say we are, and everything we've ever done is a lie.

Submariners lived by a simple motto: There are two kinds of ships, submarines . . . and targets.