Quotes from Tom Clancy

Your Highness, what do you call it when a high-ranking person lies right in your face?" the President asked with a wry smile. "Diplomacy.

A commander's pride got his soldiers dead.

Either people were trustworthy or they were not.

The pinnacle of power in China is the nine-member Politburo Standing Committee, the tiny body that sets policy for the nation's 1.4 billion citizens.

Comrade, you can deceive us. Anyone can?for a time. But not a very long time.

Way to go, Dallas!

Irishmen with guns were like squirrels with nuts, always stashing them, and sometimes forgetting where the hell they'd been stashed.

Like many weak men, he made a great ceremony of personal strength and power.

The arts and soldiering took time to acquire – time and discipline and desire. No, he was up against bullies. And bullies were cowards. These were mercenaries who acted for money. Shot as, on the other hand, took great pride that he performed his DUTIES for love of country and, though he didn't quite think of it in those terms, for love of his fellow soldiers.

Hitting an airliner was like having a shoot-out in a grammar school, just more crowded.

thing, most deadly of all to those who hold it in their earthly hands. For yourself, you must decide. What sort of leader do you wish to be, and with what other leaders

These kinder and gentler people never really cared much for individuals. They were too interested in the big-picture issues of the day, forcing square reality pegs into the round theoretical holes of how the world was supposed

Bad money drives out good.' That means poor performance will take over if good performance isn't recognized.

From the halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli, We will fight our country's battles in the air, on land and sea. First to fight for right and freedom, and to keep our honor clean, We are proud to claim the title of United States Marines. —Marine Corps Hymn

A bureaucrat who said no to everything rarely got in trouble.

How strange that he should feel trapped by plans he himself had set in motion.

Law, without force, is impotent.

Jack assumed they would be heading to the pub there in Century House. It was drab, like the rest of the building, but more important, it was vastly more secure than just venturing out to some alehouse on the street.

The Americans are always investigating one another, it was their national sport.

The first rumors about Zenith came from the Czechoslovakians.

that one must know something of the truth in order to lie convincingly.

Not every story started off big enough to notice.

A Guards regiment, eh, Comrade Colonel? These tit-sucking children could not guard a Turkish whorehouse; much less do anything worthwhile inside of it!" While commenting on how unprepared his troops are. -Alekseyev

Life's a bitch, and then you die.