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You are right, Mr. Bond.
That is just what I am, a maniac.
All the greatest men are maniacs.
They are possessed by a mania that drives them towards their goal.
The great scientists, the philosophers, the religious leaders — all maniacs.

— Ian Fleming

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Mind

More quotes by Ian Fleming

You only live twice:
Once when you are born
And once when you look death in the face.

You Only Live Twice (1964)

I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.

You Only Live Twice (1964)

Never say ‘no’ to adventures. Always say ‘yes’, otherwise you’ll lead a very dull life.

Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang (1964)

Those whom the Gods wish to destroy, they first make bored.

He disagreed with something that ate him.

Live and Let Die (1954)

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The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents.

H. P. Lovecraft The Call of Cthulhu (1926)

Anyone who believes exponential growth can go on forever in a finite world is either a madman or an economist.

Kenneth Boulding to Kenneth Boulding in: United States. Congress. House (1973)

The greater part of humanity is too much harassed and fatigued by the struggle with want, to rally itself for a new and sterner struggle with error.

Friedrich Schiller On the Aesthetic Education of Man (1794)

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.

George Bernard Shaw Maxims for Revolutionists (1903)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Ian Fleming (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.