A committee is an animal with four back legs. - John le Carré

Yet it's not for want of future that I'm here, he thought. It's for want of a present.

George Smiley: [quoting an old letter from Bill Haydon about Jim Prideaux] He has that heavy quiet that commands. He's my other half. Between us we'd make one marvelous man. He asks nothing better than to be in my company or that of my wicked, divine friends, and I'm vastly tickled by the compliment. He's virgin, about eight foot tall, and built by the same firm that did Stonehenge

Arseholes who are expert at making something out of nothing [...] appeared equally capable of making nothing out of something