The System Quotes

“America—with less than five percent of the population of the world—didn’t warehouse twenty-five percent of the world’s prisoners.”
― Barry Eisler, The System: A Novel of the Deep State

“Politics itself is a mass of lies, evasions, folly, hatred, and schizophrenia. —George Orwell”
― Barry Eisler, The System: A Novel of the Deep State

“He thinks like a junkyard dog guarding his territory.”
― Barry Eisler, The System: A Novel of the Deep State

“There is only one party in the United States, the Property Party, and it has two right wings: Republican and Democrat. —Gore Vidal”
― Barry Eisler, The System: A Novel of the Deep State

“Clear thinking in a bureaucracy was like a flickering candle buffeted by a howling institutional wind.”
― Barry Eisler, The System: A Novel of the Deep State

“Once weapons were manufactured to fight wars. Now wars are manufactured to sell weapons. —Arundhati Roy”
― Barry Eisler, The System: A Novel of the Deep State

“Presidents rarely, if ever, make decisions—particularly in foreign affairs . . . the basic decisions, which confine their choices, have all too often been previously made. —Ted Sorensen”
― Barry Eisler, The System: A Novel of the Deep State

“The only hope was that a similar rot was also at work in China and Russia.”
― Barry Eisler, The System: A Novel of the Deep State

“When facts might lead to a difficult decision, the cultural default was to avoid the decision by denying the facts.”
― Barry Eisler, The System: A Novel of the Deep State

“Of course it’s worthwhile—for the few, who use politics to profit at the expense of the many. For the rich and powerful of this country, politics is a fantastic racket. The question is whether we can change this country’s politics, to provide a decent life for the many rather than further fattening the very few.”
― Barry Eisler, The System: A Novel of the Deep State

“Well, wasn’t it your fellow comedian George Carlin who said, ‘It’s called the American Dream because you have to be asleep to believe it’?”
― Barry Eisler, The System: A Novel of the Deep State

“Sticks and stones may break my bones, Josie had assured her. But words can never harm me. Had there ever been a greater lie told by parents to their children? Probably not.”
― Barry Eisler, The System: A Novel of the Deep State

“If voting changed anything, they wouldn’t allow it. —Unknown”
― Barry Eisler, The System: A Novel of the Deep State

“Just doing what I learned from the spooks in Afghanistan—deny everything, admit nothing, make counteraccusations.”
― Barry Eisler, The System: A Novel of the Deep State

“we’d need fewer second chances if America—with less than five percent of the population of the world—didn’t warehouse twenty-five percent of the world’s prisoners.”
― Barry Eisler, The System: A Novel of the Deep State

“War is a racket. —Marine Corps Major General Smedley D. Butler”
― Barry Eisler, The System: A Novel of the Deep State

“Why Buddhism is True. Cranston wasn’t a Buddhist, but he liked the author, Robert Wright,”
― Barry Eisler, The System: A Novel of the Deep State

“Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an invisible government owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people. —Theodore Roosevelt”
― Barry Eisler, The System: A Novel of the Deep State

“he had just altered spending reductions to investing more effectively. But”
― Barry Eisler, The System: A Novel of the Deep State

“It’s like those ads for erectile dysfunction drugs, the ones with the ‘warning’ labels that say, If your erection persists for more than four hours, contact your physician. That’s not a warning, it’s a sales pitch! Because if they said, Check it, our drug will give you a four-hour hard-on, no one would believe it. But framing it as a ‘warning’? Goes right past people’s defenses.”
― Barry Eisler, The System: A Novel of the Deep State

“Hard is impossible. Impossible is opportunity.” She laughed. “My campaign manager, Yoda.”
― Barry Eisler, The System: A Novel of the Deep State

“Politics is the entertainment division of the military-industrial complex. —Frank Zappa”
― Barry Eisler, The System: A Novel of the Deep State

“Of course, the United States is unique. And just as we have the world’s most advanced economy, military, and technology, we also have its most advanced oligarchy. —Simon Johnson”
― Barry Eisler, The System: A Novel of the Deep State

“Regardless, paradoxically a question can be a good way to get someone to stop talking, if only for a moment.”
― Barry Eisler, The System: A Novel of the Deep State