“If prayer flew as quickly as gossip, all the saints in heaven could not keep up with it.”

“Except for a roll of Harding's eyes, everyone ignored me, which is the way I liked it when I had to hang around with senior officers. They had a way of thinking up ideas that got you killed and them promoted.”

“There it was, a sign above a shop that said 221B BAKER STREET. My mouth hung open. I looked around at the ordinary street and the white-painted buildings, looking clean in the morning rain. Where were the fog, the streetlights, the gray atmosphere? The horses pulling carriages, bringing troubled clients to Watson and Holmes? I had to admit I had been impressed with Big Ben and all, but for a kid who had devoured the adventures of Sherlock Holmes, this was really something. I was on Baker Street, driving by the rooms of Holmes and Watson! I sort of wished it were all in black and white and gray, like in the movies.”

“Everything changed, and eleven months later, here I was in the middle of the night with a gungho major, playing secret agent, hoping some Frenchie didn't put a bullet in my skull before I gave the Germans and Italians their chance.”

“All war represents a failure of diplomacy.”

“Ein WortEin Wort, ein Satz -: aus Chiffren steigenerkanntes Leben, jäher Sinn,die Sonne steht, die Sphären schweigen,und alles ballt sich zu ihm hin.Ein Wort - ein Glanz, ein Flug, ein Feuer,ein Flammenwurf, ein Sternenstrich -und wieder Dunkel, ungeheuer,im leeren Raum um Welt und Ich.”

“Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it whether it exists or not, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedy.”