Gordon Corera > Quotes

“the absence of evidence is not evidence of absence’.”
― Gordon Corera, The Art of Betrayal: The Secret History of MI6: Life and Death in the British Secret Service

“Perhaps the only thing worse than having a mole is the fear of having a mole.”
― Gordon Corera, The Art of Betrayal: The Secret History of MI6: Life and Death in the British Secret Service

“Scratch beneath the thin veneer of glamour and much of the routine work of MI6 was a form of glorified train-spotting – with a little plane- and boat-spotting thrown in.”
― Gordon Corera, The Art of Betrayal: The Secret History of MI6: Life and Death in the British Secret Service

“Imagine being blindfolded and then taken hundreds of miles from home -- perhaps even to another country across the sea. And then suddenly having the blindfold removed and, despite not having the slightest idea where you are, racing home at top speed. Even if home is six hundred miles away. That is not normal. Just like the superpowers of comicbook heroes, the homing instinct of pigeons is something that scientists cannot explain. They have tried over the years, with theories about magnetic fields and the sun, but no one has satisfactorily managed it.

It is a strangely comfy superpower though. The pigeon is not on a mission to save the world. It just wants to go home. From the age of six weeks, pigeons can be taught to "home" to the loft from which they make their first flight because they understand that is where they will find food, water and company. Pigeons can be picky in their journey -- they do not like to fly at night or to cross water, often flying along the coast to find the shortest point at which to cross a body like the English Channel. but they are ultimately single-minded in simply wanting to get back to where they belong. Amid the horrors of wartime, this longing has a particular resonance.”
― Gordon Corera, Secret Pigeon Service: Operation Columba, Resistance and the Struggle to Liberate Europe

“Acts of government are not choices between good and bad. They are between two evils – the lesser of two evils. Someone is always going to get hurt by a decision of government . . . absolute morality, absolute ethics just does not exist in affairs of the state.’99”
― Gordon Corera, MI6: Life and Death in the British Secret Service

“Secret knowledge offers the needy a sense of superiority and power over ordinary folk.”
― Gordon Corera, The Art of Betrayal: The Secret History of MI6: Life and Death in the British Secret Service

“For the sons and daughters of the privileged elite, Communism offered both an intellectual critique of the current malaise and an emotional rebellion against their parents’ complacency.”
― Gordon Corera, The Art of Betrayal: The Secret History of MI6: Life and Death in the British Secret Service