The Honourable Schoolboy

by John Le Carré

A lot of people see doubt as legitimate philosophical posture. They think of themselves in the middle, whereas of course really, they’re nowhere. No battle was ever won by spectators, was it?

‘George would rather have Sam Collins inside the tent pissing out than outside the tent pissing in,’

Talking of others, old men talk about themselves, studying their image in vanished mirrors.

In the beginning was the deed, Smiley liked to say to him, in his failed-priest mood, quoting from one of his German poets. For Jerry, that simple maxim had become a pillar of his uncomplicated philosophy. What a man thinks is his own business. What matters is what he does.