Daniel Silva Quotes

I'm not comfortable around guns.

IT SEEMS DIFFICULT TO IMAGINE, but there was once a time when human beings did not feel the need to share their every waking moment with hundreds of millions, even billions, of complete and utter strangers. If one went to a shopping mall to purchase an article of clothing, one did not post minute-by-minute details on a social networking site; and if one made a fool of oneself at a party, one did not leave a photographic record of the sorry episode in a digital scrapbook that would survive for all eternity. But now, in the era of lost inhibition, it seemed no detail of life was too mundane or humiliating to share. In the online age, it was more important to live out loud than to live with dignity. Internet followers were more treasured than flesh-and-blood friends, for they held the illusive promise of celebrity, even immortality. Were Descartes alive today, he might have written: I tweet, therefore I am.

Fault, impeccably mannered, and had no real

Like many Vatican pronouncements, the official version of events would bear little resemblance to the truth.

Vicary had decided he wanted to contribute. He wanted to do something instead of watching the world through his well-guarded window.

Patriotism. During his lifetime of study he had concluded it was the most destructive force on the planet.

I'm a mild-mannered person.

In the online age, it was more important to live out loud than to live with dignity.

The further we are from the last disaster, the closer we are to the next.

The Germans are fond of saying that only Austria could convince the world that Beethoven was an Austrian and Hitler was a German.

I can be whoever you want me to be: CIA, FBI, DIA, an agency so fucking secret you've never heard of it before. -Gabriel Allon

her neck so I could smell roses instead of the smoke from the fires." She opened her eyes and looked

With his pewter-colored locks and sturdy jaw, Graham Seymour was the archetypal British civil servant, a man who'd been born, bred, and educated to lead. He was handsome, but not too; he was tall, but not remarkably so. He made others feel inferior, especially Americans.

Jews don't camp ... The last time the Jews went camping, they spent forty years wandering in the desert.

He looked older, harder, perhaps wiser. The Middle East was like that. It turned hope to despair, idealists into Machiavellians.

But that's the beauty of American cable news, darling. It doesn't have to be credible. It just has to be entertaining.

Crepuscular rays of light illuminated the interior of the Basilica, Moretti, faithful

They sat in an awkward, embarrassed silence for a moment, the way Englishmen are apt to do after sharing private thoughts.

Erudite and entertaining, Max Anderson is the perfect tour guide to the world of art. The Quality Instinct is both educational and enlightening from start to finish, the thinking person's guide to museums. This is a must-read for anyone who wants to truly understand what makes a masterpiece.

Mistral. Take the wheel for a while. I'll go down to the galley

The Arab Spring had turned into the Arab Calamity. Radical Islam now controlled a swath of territory that stretched from Afghanistan to Nigeria, an accomplishment that even Bin Laden would have never dreamed possible.

I absolutely fell in love with Moscow. It's one of those places where you can't help but trip over history at every turn. It's a city of enormous contradictions. Within a few yards of Lenin's Tomb is some of the most expensive shopping in the world.

Elegant stairs to Orlov's office. The room was an exact replica

To Pakistan? Or Afghanistan? Or Wherever-the-fuck-istan?

That's true," said Gabriel. "The American president writes love letters to the ayatollah. And us . . ." He gave an indifferent shrug of his shoulders but said nothing more.

Do unto others before they have a chance to do unto you.

Russia is classic fascism.

He felt suddenly like Winston Smith in Room 101 of the Ministry of Love.

The money, as promised, was in the trunk of the general's official

If there was indeed a recording of the conversation that followed, it did not exist for long. Carter would never speak of it, except to say that it was among the most difficult of his long career. The only other witness was Ed Fielding. The security man could not hear Carter's words, but he could see the terrible toll they were taking. He saw a hand gripping the telephone with such force that the knuckles were white. And he saw the eyes. The unusually bright green eyes now burning with a terrifying rage. As Fielding slipped quietly from the room, he realized he had never seen such rage before. He did not know what his friend Adrian Carter was saying to the legendary Israeli assassin. But he was certain of one thing. Blood was going to flow. And men were going to die.

The invasion of Iraq turned the region into a cauldron. And when the new American president decided the time had come to withdraw, the cauldron boiled over. And then there was this folly we called the Arab Spring. Mubarak must go! Gaddafi must go! Assad must go!" He shook his head slowly. "It was madness, absolute madness. And now we are left with this. ISIS controls a swath of territory the size of the United Kingdom, right on the doorstep of Europe. Even Bin Laden would have never dared to dream of such a thing. And what does the American president tell us? ISIS is not Islamic. ISIS is the jayvee team.

When you're dealing with Switzerland, Mr. Allon, it's best to keep one thing in mind. Switzerland is not a real country. It's a business, and it's run like a business. It's a business that is constantly in a defensive posture. It's been that way for seven hundred years.

If you live to seek revenge, dig a grave for two. ANCIENT JEWISH PROVERB

The best way to win at a game of chance is to remove chance from the equation.

weak-chinned balding man in his late forties wearing a department-store suit and a mackintosh coat. He was the sort of man that young women instinctively avoided

On Yom Kippur, it is not enough for one to feel sorry for the foul deeds one has done. To achieve forgiveness, one must go to the injured parties and make amends.

life of a professional spy as one of constant travel and mind-numbing boredom broken by interludes of sheer terror.

So what are you planning to do with the rest of your life?
Develop a drinking problem. More Scotch, please.

He felt as though the bones of his ribcage were snapping beneath the weight of the stone that God had laid over his heart.

I grew up reading the classic novels of Cold War espionage, and I studied Russian history and Soviet foreign policy.

The Europeans thought they could take in millions of immigrants from the poorest regions of the Muslim world and turn them into good little social democrats in a single generation. And look at the results. For the most part the Muslims of Europe are ghettoized and seething with anger.

Don't look back. You are never completely alone.

No one intervened - hardly surprising, thought Rosner, for intervention would have been intolerant - and no one thought to comfort him as he lay dying.