Quotes from Robert Ludlum

Hope is the only thing stronger than fear. A little hope is effective. A lot of hope is dangerous. A spark is just fine as long as its contained.

I see things and I hear things I do not understand. I'm a skilled, resourceful... vegetable!

The easiest thing in the world is to convince yourself that you're right. As one grows old, it is easier still.

Credo quia absurdum – I believe because it is absurd.

You're on your own now. You are not helpless. You will find your way.

A man's weaknesses may intrude on his faith but they do not diminish it.

Learn always but never appear to be learning.

How gratifying to be there when arrogance collapses. How much more so to be the instrument. (Alfred Gillette)

There'll come a moment when you think you can make it, and you'll try.

It was important to keep moving. Certain struggles continued. Others had to be brought to a close. The wisdom was in deciding which.

Perhaps conscience did not always produce cowards. Sometimes it made a man feel better about himself.

The most precious jewels are not made of stone, but of flesh.

You know, Mr. Webb, you have two commands you use with irritating frequency. 'Move' and 'Let's go.

Opportunities will present themselves. Recognize them, act on them.

Men and women walked casually about as they did on the main floor, every now and then stopping one another, exchanging pleasantries or scraps of relevantly irrelevant information. Gossip.

The easiest thing in the world is to convince yourself that you are right. As one grows older, this is easier still.

He wasn't smart enough to see it, said Jason Bourne. He couldn't think geometrically.

If your IQ was one point lower, you'd be a plant,' was Steve's only comment.

Before taking her into the library, my wife told me she was an old friend in a marriage crisis. A fatuous lie; at her age there are no crises left in marriage, only acceptance and extraction. (General Villiers)

Hate and love are essentially the same in that the person who loves is as easily manipulated as a person who hates

Hope, perhaps the most dangerous of all emotions and perhaps the most necessary.

And then the earth, the world, the planet, the galaxy, and the entire solar system went crazy.

The silence lasted precisely five seconds, during which time eyes roamed other eyes, several throats were cleared, and no one moved in his chair. It was as if a decision were being reached without discussion: evasion was to be avoided. Congressman Efrem Walters, out of the hills of Tennessee by way of the Yale Law Review, was not to be dismissed with facile circumlocution that dealt with the esoterica of clandestine manipulations. Bullshit was out.

I get annoyed when a self-indulgent writer just shows off what he knows but doesn't really tell a story. To me storytelling is first a craft. Then if you're lucky, it becomes an art form. But first, it's got to be a craft.. You've got to have a beginning, middle and end. And I have sort of applied the theatrical principles to writing. Throw the story in the air and see what's going to happen.