Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

by John Le Carré

for Bill had a feeling he could not describe that Jim lived so precariously on the world’s surface that he might at any time fall off into a void; for he feared that Jim was like himself, without a natural gravity to hold him on.

‘And like everyone who’s had enough,’ said Control as Alleline noisily left the room, ‘he wants more.’

‘Each of us has only a quantum of compassion. That if we lavish our concern on every stray cat, we never get to the centre of things.

Few men can resist expressing their appetites when they are making a fantasy about themselves.’

I rather like Karla’s description of committees don’t you? Is it Chinese? A committee is an animal with four back legs.

he wondered whether there was any love between human beings that did not rest upon some sort of self-delusion;