Quotes About Espionage

The White House is the leakiest place I've ever been in. (On special measures to ensure secrecy of plans to bomb Libya)

The issue with spies is not that there is something brilliant about them. It is that there is something wrong with us.

007 n. the fictional British secret agent James Bond, or someone based on, inspired by, or reminiscent of him.

Chevalier d'Éon de Beaumont, had previously served France as both a male soldier in the Seven Years' War and a female secret agent who infiltrated the Russian monarchy, successfully befriending and convincing a Russian czarina not to become an ally of France's enemy Great Britain. No one was entirely sure of his/her gender, and he/she kept them guessing.

He wondered if her spy had stumbled upon his last night. When did he start thinking like his mother?

You think you know someone your whole life, and he turns out to be a German-gypsy interdimensional dark elf spy who can cloud men's minds. Go figure.

Unless one is willing to believe that the Putin regime acted out of purely altruistic motives in exfiltrating this American intelligence worker to Moscow, the only plausible explanation for its actions in Hong Kong was that it recognized Snowden's potential as an espionage source.

Before searching, seeking, judging, and testing others' loyalty, be loyal, and examine yourself first; consequently, the need for such espionage practice becomes unnecessary.

Before searching, seeking, judging, and testing the others' loyalty, be loyal, and examine yourself first; consequently, the need for such espionage-practice becomes unnecessary.

When you grow suspicious of a person and begin a system of espionage upon him, your punishment will be that you will find your suspicions true.

Antonio J. Méndez

Antonio J. Méndez

Allan Dulles said it best: "Any intelligence service worth its salt can make the other fellow's currency." In other words, every nation needs to have its own airtight security measures, while at the same time be actively working in secret to reverse engineer those of the enemy faster than they can invent them.

Nada más que en la mayonesa se gastaron catorce huevos, e incluso se encomendó a Pablo Neftalí la delicada misión de espiar a la gallina castellana y tararear «Venceremos», cuando ésta depusiera su huevo diario para quebrarlo ante ese manjar amarillo que estaba resultando espeso gracias a que

we got a hint of how the Espionage Act would be used as a club against people with anti-war beliefs

I start 'The Code Book' with the story of Mary Queen of Scots and the Babington Plot, which was foiled when Mary's enciphered messages fell into the hands of Elizabeth I's codebreakers.

Something like 'The Matrix' would be ideal, something where it's super agents and wire work and special effects - not necessarily running from bombs and shooting people. Something more sleek, like an assassin.

I don't think Mr. Snowden woke up one day and had the wherewithal to do this all by himself. I think he was helped by others.

Spy novels are traditionally about lone wolves, but how many people actually live like that?

I think that episode in the third season was great. I'm really glad that we did that. He got to sleep with Sydney and kill Evil Francie and go on a mission and pretend he's a rock star.

I excelled in finding and acquiring secret information that I obtained in brush passes, dead drops, or in meetings in dusty alleys of third world capitals.

I would love to do espionage like 'The Thomas Crown Affair,' that kind of thing. And I've always had a fascination with madams. It's interesting to me what that institution is like, how those women are.

Of all those in the army close to the commander none is more intimate than the secret agent; of all rewards none more liberal than those given to secret agents; of all matters none is more confidential than those relating to secret operations.

Rufe nodded. "Oh, sure, that's CIA style. Throw up a smoke screen—bumfoozle the opposition.