Quotes from Tom Clancy

The KGB still killed people, the KGB would not execute its last prisoner until the final days of its existence in 1991, but by the eighties a termination required paperwork and signatures and a post-action review.

Mr. President. Douglas MacArthur said every military disaster can be explained in two words: 'Too late.

the motto of the whole intelligence community: 'We bet your life.

You can act like a policeman or a soldier, but not both.

Civilians listened to officers, which said a lot about the intelligence of civilians.

War is the ultimate criminal act, an armed robbery writ large. And it's always about greed. It's always a nation that wants something another nation has. And you defeat that nation by recognizing what it wants and denying it to them.

The remarkable thing was that everyone accepted the entire process, seemingly as normal as physical laws of nature, despite the fact that it was really as ethereal as a rainbow. The money did not physically exist. Even "real" money was only specially made paper printed with black ink on the front and green on the back. What backed the money was not gold or something of intrinsic value, but rather the collective belief that money had value because it had to have such value.

One of the compensations for wearing a uniform and earning less money than an equally talented man can make in the real world is the off chance of being killed.

Panic is something that good operations officers plan for.

The only people Ryan needed to impress were those who knew him; he cared little for the rest.

People in the intelligence community are not made to believe in coincidences.

Russia will invade Ukraine, probably within the next few weeks. They will annex the Crimea. From there, if they meet no resistance from the West, they will take more of the country

You just had to apply judgment to your action, and such judgment came with experience—but experience often came from bad decisions.

The most important lesson that came out of Vietnam for me was that Marines take care of Marines.

Courage was not something one picked out of the air. It was something like a bank account. You could withdraw only so much before it was necessary to stop, to take the time to make new deposits.

At this table, a loud voice was just a man venting his stress. A quiet one was far more dangerous.

Politicians are more concerned with "issues" than "principles," but talked as though the two nouns had the same meaning.

Privacy and loneliness were the traditional luxuries accorded to a skipper.

All history is really nothing more than the application of ideology to the past.

after you stop believing in santa claus, the whole world just goes downhill

Poor people have poor options. Chavez found the Army almost by accident, and had found it a true open of security and opportunity and fellowship and respect.

every sailor needs someone to return to, that every woman needs someone to wait for.

THE AMERICAN REPUBLIC WILL ENDURE UNTIL THE DAY CONGRESS DISCOVERS THAT IT CAN BRIBE THE PUBLIC WITH THE PUBLIC'S MONEY—ALEXIS DE TOCQUEVILLE.

Clancy comments that the subtleties of national character can impact the world stage by making espionage more difficult. Americans were quirky by nature, making the sorts of eccentric moves that had to be followed up on as potential espionage cues. Russians, on the other hand, were too orderly by nature to make such distractions appear natural.