Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

by John Le Carré

At a certain moment, after all, every man chooses: will he go forward, will he go back? There was nothing dishonourable in not being blown about by every little modern wind. Better to have worth, to entrench, to be an oak of one’s own generation.

‘There are always a dozen reasons for doing nothing,’ Ann liked to say – it was a favourite apologia, indeed, for many of her misdemeanours – ‘there is only one reason for doing something. And that’s because you want to.’