Calder Walton

“When a state has weathered many great perils and subsequently attains to supremacy and uncontested sovereignty, it is evident that under the influence of long established prosperity, life becomes more extravagant and the citizens more fierce in their rivalry regarding office and other objects than they ought to be… they think they have a grievance against certain people who have shown themselves grasping… they are puffed up by the flattery of others who aspire to office…. When this happens, the state will change its name to the finest sounding of all, freedom and democracy, but will change its nature to the worst thing of all, mob rule. —Polybius, Histories, VI”
― Calder Walton, Spies: The Epic Intelligence War Between East and West

“To borrow Otto von Bismarck’s famous phrase, all great powers are traveling on the “stream of Time,” which they can neither control nor direct, but which they can navigate with skill and experience. Espionage is an acute example of the interaction between the flow of history and experience—human actors can help steer the stream of Time, when it is acted upon.”
― Calder Walton, Spies: The Epic Intelligence War Between East and West