107 Spies Quotes
Following is our list of spies quotations and slogans full of insightful wisdom and perspective about government spying.
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Famous Spies Quotes
Spies cannot be usefully employed without a certain intuitive sagacity. — Sun Tzu
Be subtle! be subtle! and use your spies for every kind of business. — Sun Tzu
A spy, like a writer, lives outside the mainstream population. He steals his experience through bribes and reconstructs it. — John Le Carre
Espionage, for the most part, involves finding a person who knows something or has something that you can induce them secretly to give to you. That almost always involves a betrayal of trust. — Aldrich Ames
An espionage organization is a collector: it collects raw information. That gets processed by a machinery that is supposed to resolve its reliability, and to present a finished product. — Aldrich Ames
They [spies] cannot be properly managed without benevolence and straightforwardness. — Sun Tzu
There is no place where espionage is not possible. — Sun Tzu
Conspirators in pajamas who exchange deep kisses for passwords. — Pablo Neruda
It's the oldest question of all, George. Who can spy on the spies? — John Le Carre
The human spy, in terms of the American espionage effort, had never been terribly pertinent. — Aldrich Ames
I would have loved to have met some former spies, but they don't readily advertise themselves unless they're not living in Moscow, and even then. I'm sure I've met some without realizing it. — Jeremy Northam
I'm sort of fascinated by the whole espionage crime thing. — Aaron Eckhart
Everybody calls everybody a spy, secretly, in Russia, and everybody is under surveillance. You never feel safe. — Agnes Smedley
We have some material on spying by a major government on the tech industry. Industrial espionage. — Julian Assange
Secret operations are essential in war; upon them the army relies to make its every move. — Sun Tzu
Short Spies Quotes
- Its objective? To develop a liquid-hydrogen-powered spy plane. — Annie Jacobsen
- I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You — Ally Carter
- When sorrows come, they come not single spies, but in battalions. — William Shakespeare
- Tell me Cameron Ann Morgan, what do you want to be when you grow up?... Alive — Ally Carter
- The NSA has built an infrastructure that allows it to intercept almost everything. — Edward Snowden
- Friends don’t spy; true friendship is about privacy, too. — Stephen King
- The defects of a preacher are soon spied. — Martin Luther
- I had been looking for leaders, but I realized that leadership is about being the first to act. — Edward Snowden
- Every man is surrounded by a neighborhood of voluntary spies. — Jane Austen
- Without strong encryption, you will be spied on systematically by lots of people. — Whitfield Diffie
Spy Quotes
While I cannot take the time to name all the men in the State Department who have been named as members of the Communist Party and members of a spy ring, I have here in my hand a list of 205. — Joseph McCarthy
No one should ever be locked away simply because they share the same race, ethnicity, or religion as a spy or terrorist. If that principle was not learned from the internment of Japanese Americans, then these are very dangerous times for our democracy. — Fred Korematsu
Instead of friends, I see in Washington only mortal enemies. Instead of loving the old flag of the stars and stripes, I see in it only the symbol of murder, plunder, oppression, and shame. — Rose O'Neal Greenhow
Communism is as Jewish as the Mafia is Italian. It's a fact that almost all of the convicted spies for communism have been atheist Jews like the Rosenbergs. And international communism was invented by the Jew Karl Marx and has since been led mostly by Jews - like Trotsky. — George Lincoln Rockwell
The chief internal enemies of any state are not spies nor saboteurs nor the paid agents of foreign governments. They are, on the contrary, those myriads of public officials who betray the trust imposed upon them by the people. — Dalton Trumbo
With stealth technology, the U.S. could spy on its Cold War adversaries without running the risk of getting caught. — Annie Jacobsen
The U.S. obviously has all the evidence they need to prosecute bankers. They just need to search their own spy database and then there you go - 1,000 bankers in jail, a trillion dollars in fines. — Kim Dotcom
My understanding is that espionage means giving secret or classified information to the enemy. Since Snowden shared information with the American people, his indictment for espionage could reveal (or confirm) that the US Government views you and me as the enemy. — Ron Paul
The spy boom has been a beautiful windfall for architects, construction companies, IT specialists, and above all defense contractors, enriching thousands of private companies and dozens of local economies hugging the Capital Beltway. — Rachel Maddow
To be governed ... is to be watched, inspected, directed, indoctrinated, numbered, estimated, regulated, commanded, controlled, law-driven, preached at, spied upon, censured, checked, valued, enrolled - by creatures who have neither the right, nor the wisdom, nor the virtue to do so. — Pierre-Joseph Proudhon
Government Spying Quotes
Government should have drones. Industries, companies can have drones. Everyone else doesn't need drones. It's just going to create mischief. They are going to be crashing the planes, they're going to be spying on neighbors. People don't need drones. — Gary B Smith
I don't want to live in a world where there's no privacy, and therefore no room for intellectual exploration and creativity. — Edward Snowden
Any analyst at any time can target anyone. Any selector, anywhere I, sitting at my desk, certainly had the authorities to wiretap anyone, from you or your accountant, to a federal judge, to even the President — Edward Snowden
Allowing the U.S. government to intimidate its people with threats of retaliation for revealing wrongdoing is contrary to the public interest. — Edward Snowden
I wish I could say I was shocked at the reports the NSA is secretly spying on the private phone calls of millions of Verizon customers. However, this is a predictable result of a government that continues to erode our liberties while promising some glimmering hope of security. — Ron Paul
You can't come up against the world's most powerful intelligence agencies and not accept the risk. — Edward Snowden
I believe that at this point in history, the greatest danger to our freedom and way of life comes from the reasonable fear of omniscient State powers kept in check by nothing more than policy documents. — Edward Snowden
I will be satisfied if the federation of secret law, unequal pardon and irresistible executive powers that rule the world that I love are revealed even for an instant. — Edward Snowden
If I wanted to see your emails or your wife's phone, all I have to do is use intercepts. I can get your emails, passwords, phone records, credit cards. — Edward Snowden
It is an ambassador's duty to stand up for his nation's foreign policy in any era and under any government whatsoever. Ambassadors are, in the full meaning of the term, titled spies. — Napoleon Bonaparte
United We Spy Quotes
What is a Gallagher Girl? She's a genius, a scientist, a heroine, a spy... a Gallagher Girl is whatever she wants to be. — Ally Carter
I never knew there were this many stars." "I can't see them," he told me. "I just see you." "That's one of your cheesier lines," I told him. "It's the altitude," he told me. "I don't have enough oxygen in my brain." "I see. — Ally Carter
You should have had the decency to die when you needed to." “Sorry,” I admitted. “I’ve been going through a bit of a rebellious streak. I swear it’s almost over. — Ally Carter
So I stepped away, reminding myself that when you're a spy, sometimes all you can do is go on. One foot in front of the other, wherever the narrow path might lead. — Ally Carter
Pain seared through me again-a hot, burning stab in my gut-and yet my body found strength I didn't know I had, correcting as I fell. — Ally Carter
"No," Preston snapped. But he didn't protest long because, if I'm going to be honest - which is kind of the point of these reports - I was already unzipping his pants. — Ally Carter
I don’t understand hate. I’ve seen its power. I’ve known its wrath. I’ve even felt it coursing through my veins, pushing me on. But I don’t know where it comes from or why it lasts, how it can take hold in some people and grow. — Ally Carter
Espionage Quotes
Rockefeller and his associates did not build the Standard Oil Co. in the board rooms of Wall Street banks. They fought their way to control by rebate and drawback, bribe and blackmail, espionage and price cutting, by ruthless efficiency of organization. — Ida Tarbell
Let's say a Soviet exchange student back in the '70s would go back and tell the KGB about people and places and things that he'd seen and done and been involved with. This is not really espionage; there's no betrayal of trust. — Aldrich Ames
I have encountered in this world riff-raff and good people. I lose. I win. I defend myself when I am attacked. I take when someone has taken from me. But I beg you to believe me; I have never done an act of espionage against France. Never. Never. — Mata Hari
Who would have thought that in the 1950s, Burbank was a hotbed of international espionage? — Annie Jacobsen
I want people to see the truth... regardless of who they are... because without information, you cannot make informed decisions as a public. — Chelsea Manning
The executions of agents, partisans, saboteurs, suspicious people, indulging in espionage and sabotage, and those who were of a detrimental effect to the German Army, were, in my opinion, completely in accordance with the Hague Convention. — Paul Blobel
If I could rub a genie and anything could happen? Truthfully, my other love, and this is a complete 180, but I'd love to do a spy or an espionage pic, like a James Bond movie. — Chris Diamantopoulos
All warfare is based on deception. There is no place where espionage is not used. Offer the enemy bait to lure him. — Sun Tzu
It is essential to seek out enemy agents who have come to conduct espionage against you and to bribe them to serve you. Give them instructions and care for them. Thus doubled agents are recruited and used. — Sun Tzu
When you grow suspicious of a person and begin a system of espionage upon him, your punishment will be that you will find your suspicions true. — Elbert Hubbard
People Writing About Spies
| Name | Quotes | Likes |
|---|---|---|
 Sun Tzu |
454 | 6304 |
 Aldrich Ames |
38 | 994 |
 John Le Carre |
155 | 560 |
 Ally Carter |
340 | 1036 |
 Edward Snowden |
437 | 887 |
 Pablo Neruda |
277 | 10134 |
More Spies Quotes
Privacy is an age of universal email collection and spying, with millions of CCTV cameras and warrantless spying pervasive; privacy has become virtually nonexistent and, therefore, extremely scarce and desirable. Bitcoin can be a completely anonymous transaction that maintains the user's privacy beyond the reach of any authority. — Max Keiser
The truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth. Little men are dissolved in it. If there is any gold, truth makes it shine more brightly. . . .Truth, even in the mouth of an informer, a spy, a briber, can become bigger than anybody who tries to destroy it. Truth survives. — Adela Rogers St. Johns
The great advantage of being a writer is that you can spy on people. You're there, listening to every word, but part of you is observing. Everything is useful to a writer, you see - every scrap, even the longest and most boring of luncheon parties. — Graham Greene
We're seniors." "I know," I said "So aren't you... curious?" "About what?" "About life. Out there. Life!" she said again. "Tell me, Cameron Ann Morgan, what do you want to be when you grow up?" We'd reached another door, and I stopped and looked up at the camera that monitored the entrance, just as I whispered, "Alive. — Ally Carter
The last three presidents slaughtered hundreds of thousands if not millions of innocent people. They illegally spied on all US citizens. They bankrupted the greatest nation in the history of the world. None of this led to impeachment. But this phone call is the real scandal. — Dave Smith
This was one of those perfect New England days in late summer where the spirit of autumn takes a first stealing flight, like a spy, through the ripening country-side, and, with feigned sympathy for those who droop with August heat, puts her cool cloak of bracing air about leaf and flower and human shoulders. — Sarah Orne Jewett
I hate newspapermen. They come into camp and pick up their camp rumors and print them as facts. I regard them as spies, which, in truth, they are. — William Tecumseh Sherman
I really don’t think people understand just how bad this Covid Passport actually is. Look into it, it’s not just checking that people got the vaccine. It is setting up a national caste system and a spying apparatus unlike anything in our history. This is it. The big one. Fight it. — Dave Smith
I find a difference in British spy fiction and American spy fiction. In the American version, it's more militaristic, partly because the CIA has more of the military makeup. Whereas MI6 is more of a cerebral, intelligence-based, relationship-based service, i.e., all they do is recruit people to get information out of them. — Charles Cumming
There will continue to be competition for supremacy in outer space. The satellites are not just there to beam back our TV pictures, or to predict the weather: they also spy on other countries, to see who is moving where and with what. — Tim Marshall
I leave to others the sublime delights of riding in the storm, better pleased with sound sleep & a warmer berth below it encircled, with the society of neighbors, friends & fellow laborers of the earth rather than with spies & sycophants ... I have no ambition to govern men. It is a painful and thankless office. — Thomas Jefferson
The church is: a conspiracy of love for a dying world, a spy mission into enemy occupied territory ruled by the powers of evil; a prophet from God with the greatest news the world has ever heard, the most life changing and most revolutionary institution that has existed on earth. — Peter Kreeft
Of the tyrant, spies and informers are the principal instruments. War is his favorite occupation, for the sake of engrossing the attention of the people, and making himself necessary to them as their leader. — Aristotle
I stared up at the sky and raised my middle finger, just in case God was watching. I don't like being spied on. — Annabel Pitcher
I have no plans to write an autobiography, I will leave that to others. I'm sure they will turn me into a homosexual or a Nazi spy or something else. — Cary Grant
Tyrants preserve themselves by sowing fear and mistrust among the citizens by means of spies, by distracting them with foreign wars, by eliminating men of spirit who might lead a revolution, by humbling the people, and making them incapable of decisive action. — Aristotle
In Conclusion
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