David Ignatius > Quotes

“It is never too late to apply good sense as a corrective to stupidity.”
― David Ignatius, Bloodmoney

“Retrospective analysis is not a useful guide to current problems.”
― David Ignatius, Bloodmoney

“Never settle for the lesser ambition. The job, the title, the conventional loyalties and rewards. Stay focused on the larger ambition, which is making a difference in the world.”
― David Ignatius, The Quantum Spy

“Three Rules for When You Are Under Fire: 1) Always have a plan for what to do if something bad happens.”
― David Ignatius, The Director

“Misdirection. False signals. Spreading confusion. This is the Tao of deception.”
― David Ignatius, The Quantum Spy

“If you are one in a million in China, you’re one of 1,300 people.”
― David Ignatius, The Quantum Spy

“Always be the first to move; don’t wait until the”
― David Ignatius, The Director

“Three rules for when you are under fire:
1) Always have a plan for what to do if something bad happens.
2) Always be the first to move; don't wait until the situation is clear, because by then it may be too late.
3) Keep moving until you find cover or your out of the fire zone.”
― David Ignatius, The Director

“We are the sum of our choices and decisions, chances and accidents. Our personal history is built up in layers that contain our history as surely as sediments of rock contain the history of our planet.”
― David Ignatius, A Firing Offense

“Finding a needle in a haystack was not as hard as it sounded, if you had a thread tied to the needle.”
― David Ignatius, Bloodmoney

“Interrogate them,” said Ferris. “Send them to Gitmo. Send them to Hani. Whatever.” “Well, sure, interrogation,” said Hoffman. “That helps. But that’s not the real pop. Even if the guy we capture doesn’t say shit, the bad guys have to assume he has blabbed. So they’ll have to change their cell-phone numbers, and their Internet”
― David Ignatius, Body of Lies

“Showing emotion was bad. Unless it was fake, then it was okay.”
― David Ignatius, The Quantum Spy

“There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true.”
― David Ignatius, The Paladin

“Real power around the world does not reside with governments any longer, but with private interests. Real power is secret power.”
― David Ignatius, A Firing Offense

“Awal zaan resto jahan. First yourself, then the universe.”
― David Ignatius, Bloodmoney

“All warfare is based on deception. Hence, when able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must seem inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; when far away, we must make him believe we are near.”
― David Ignatius, Bloodmoney

“Serdukov looked at the coast, assaulted by waves, rocks becoming sand.”
― David Ignatius, The Director

“He liked to collect rocks. That day, he had gathered one from near the path down Longevity Hill toward the water. It was a fine-grained piece of granite that he found under a mulberry tree. He took it from his pocket now and, as was his practice, he inscribed the time and place he had found it, in tiny characters, on the rock. He would add it to his collection, hundreds of stones neatly aligned on his shelves at home, so that he could remember”
― David Ignatius, The Quantum Spy

“The truth is that this is a rotten business. You do terrible things and usually you don’t think about it. And then one day, you just get sick of it. You decide you just don’t want to eat another bite of the shit sandwich.”
― David Ignatius, Agents of Innocence

“General Wu was about to say something and then thought better of it. Li walked him down the stairs to his car. As the door opened, Li leaned over and whispered in the general’s ear: “I tolerate much from my brother. We are a family. Please don’t ever do that again.”
― David Ignatius, The Quantum Spy

“It was about how empires try to save themselves in their declining years.” “How timely,” said Stone. “And how did the Ottomans try to save themselves, if I may ask?” “By keeping their subjects at each other’s throats. The Ottomans were masters at sowing dissension. It was one of the few things they were good at, actually.”
― David Ignatius, Siro

“The easiest thing to do with a defector was to say no: Nobody in the agency ever got blamed for being too careful.”
― David Ignatius

“I’m not authorizing anything that would require my authorization,” said Hoffman. “Got that?” Rogers said yes. “If that’s understood, then you have my authorization”
― David Ignatius, Agents of Innocence

“To the west, upriver, was the compact epicenter of national government: Congress, the civilian agencies, the White House, the monuments and museums, all arranged symmetrically as if the federal establishment were a formal garden. The president was weak, it was universally believed; the Congress was enfeebled by partisan divisions; it was as if the balance wheel had broken and the real work of the government had stopped, but the garden remained immaculate.”
― David Ignatius, The Director

“admonition: “Fear your enemy once, fear your friend a thousand times.”
― David Ignatius, Agents of Innocence

“This part of the body is not easy to stretch. It gets exercise when it does nothing. When it is stretched, it becomes tight.”
― David Ignatius, The Director

“She always imagined his spy life as a version of James Bond, with nice suits and martinis. If she saw him now, she would tell him to go change. Gretchen liked everything about Ferris except his real life.”
― David Ignatius, Body of Lies

“Facing a difficult adversary, it is sometimes best to play upon his arrogance. Lure him forward; draw him in. The right pressure on just the right spot and he will collapse from within.”
― David Ignatius, Body of Lies

“situation is clear, because by then it may be too late. 3) Keep moving until you find cover or you’re out of the fire zone.”
― David Ignatius, The Director

“Reading the stories was like trying to make out an object through the refracted light of a heavy snowstorm. He could see the snowflakes, immediate and particular, and he could discern the more distant objects that were coated in white: trees, roofs, roads, buildings. But he couldn’t actually see any particular object for itself, only the covered outlines.”
― David Ignatius, The Director