I don't know, Cardew replied evenly. And when I don't know, I usually keep quiet. - John le Carré

I used to regard a road sweeper as a person inferior to myself. Now, I rather doubt it. Something is dirty, he makes it clean, and the state of the world is advanced. But I—what have I done? Entrenched a ruling class which is distinguished by neither talent, culture, nor wit; kept alive for one more generation the distinctions of a dead age.

We were both hybrids: I by birth, he by education. We had both taken too many steps away from the country that had borne us to belong anywhere with ease.

...also took for granted that secret services were the only real measure of a nations political health, the only real expression of its subconscious.