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We know about this deliberate policy admittedly as effective as it is suicidal—of endless provocation, waiting for something, for somebody to break. But please, Major Sherman, please do not try to provoke too many people in Amsterdam. We have too many canals.

— Alistair MacLean Puppet on a Chain (1969)

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More quotes by Alistair MacLean

To all things an end, to every night its dawn; even to the longest night when dawn never comes, there comes at last the dawn.

HMS Ulysses (1955)

Every man is what environment and heredity make him.

HMS Ulysses (1955)

“It is no small thing, Major, to be lost in a blizzard in the night skies over war-torn Europe.”

Where Eagles Dare (1967)

"The intolerance of ignorance, not wanting to know – that is the last real frontier on earth."

The Last Frontier (1959)

Being at the wrong end of a Schmeisser machine pistol does not make for an easy cordiality in relationships.

Where Eagles Dare (1967)

All Alistair MacLean quotes →

Attribution

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