Leo Marks > Quotes

“The life that I have
Is all that I have
And the life that I have
Is yours.
The love that I have
Of the life that I have
Is yours and yours and yours.
A sleep I shall have
A rest I shall have
Yet death will be but a pause.
For the peace of my years
In the long green grass
Will be yours and yours and yours.”
― Leo Marks

“He began the interview by asking what my hobbies were.
"Incunabula and intercourse, sir."
It slipped out and wasn't even accurate; I'd had little experience of one and couldn't afford the other.”
― Leo Marks, Between Silk and Cyanide: A Codemaker's War, 1941-1945

“I needed the company of another failure to make my own bearable.”
― Leo Marks, Between Silk and Cyanide: A Codemaker's War, 1941-1945

“There is a special loneliness in unshared music, even if it was 'The White Cliffs of Dover'.”
― Leo Marks, Between Silk and Cyanide: A Codemaker's War, 1941-1945

“The need to justify and its sister frailty, the need to boast, were lethal weaknesses in SOE.”
― Leo Marks, Between Silk and Cyanide: A Codemaker's War, 1941-1945

“Since youre here, Courtauld said wearily, youd better explain why these lollipops or whatever they're called have to be on silk. If I'd had a lollipop I knew precisely where Id stick it.”
― Leo Marks

“The bloody-minded resilience with which they responded to disasters, especially those of their own making, their determination to liberate their territories no matter what, had been my first glimpse of what would one day be known as the Spirit of Resistance.”
― Leo Marks, Between Silk and Cyanide: A Codemaker's War, 1941-1945

“There were only three things which SOE's agents could anticipate with confidence. That their parachutes would open, that their L-tablets would kill them, and that their messages from London would be accurately encoded.”
― Leo Marks, Between Silk and Cyanide: A Codemaker's War, 1941-1945