Espionage Quotes

“I think it is very important for the American people to understand that the job of the Central Intelligence Agency is to steal secrets.”

“The information I had given had been of great value to our cause.”

“The espionage business, as opposed to the intelligence business, is about betraying people, and I don't think I'm any different from my predecessors.”

“My name is not Harry, but in this business it's hard to remember whether I’m chasing my prey or it's chasing me.”

“A secret is only a secret if it remains one. The moment it is shared, it is a liability.”

“A lot of people think spies are all-knowing and all-powerful. They are not.”

“The decision to spy for Russia was the biggest mistake of my life.”

“I have been put in a uniquely difficult position and I have been given a chance to wipe the slate clean, which I have taken.”

“The human spy, in terms of the American effort, is not remotely the soul of the business.”

“I have a secret for you. I am a Comintern agent.”

“The spy, in order to be successful, must have a fanatical faith.”

“In the game I was playing, one could not be an amateur.”

“Survival... is an infinite capacity for suspicion.”

“Our orchestra was red.”

“In our business... the one thing that will kill you quicker than a bullet is a dream.”

“So I made contact with a representative of the Soviet Union, a country that had shed oceans of blood in the common cause.”

“My own view is that this is a silly, trivial, and irrelevant topic.”

“Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time it's enemy action.”

“Intelligence is the art of predicting what the other man will do when he's trying to predict what you will do.”

“Yes, my continental European friends, we have spied on you.”