A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal
Ben Macintyre
Top 10 Best Quotes
“Eccentricity is one of those English traits that look like frailty but mask a concealed strength; individuality disguised as oddity.”
“The fatal conceit of most spies is to believe they are loved, in a relationship between equals, and not merely manipulated.”
“Sam Brewer enjoyed discussing Middle Eastern politics with Philby; Philby enjoyed sleeping with his wife.”
“The word most consistently used to describe Kim Philby was "charm", that intoxicating, beguiling and occasionally lethal English quality.”
“In a brilliant lecture written in 1944, C. S. Lewis described the fatal British obsession with the ‘inner ring’, the belief that somewhere, just beyond reach, is an exclusive group holding real power and influence, which a certain sort of Englishman constantly aspires to find and join.”
“Here, then, was a truly bizarre situation: Philby was telling Moscow the truth, but was disbelieved, and allowed to go on thinking he was believed; he was deceiving the British in order to aid the Soviets, who suspected a deception, and were in turn deceiving him.”
“Secrets are the currency of intelligence work, and among professional spies a little calculated indiscretion raises the exchange rate.”
“wore the same well-tailored clothes, and married women of their own tribe. But all that time, Philby had one secret he never shared: he was covertly working for Moscow, taking everything he was told by Elliott and passing it on to his Soviet spymasters. Elliott has come to Beirut to extract a confession. He has wired up the apartment and set watchers on the doors and street. He wants to know how many have died through Philby’s betrayal of their friendship. He wants to know when he became a fool.”
“increased legibility of his handwriting only serves to reveal the inadequacy of his ability to spell,”
“Philby would later frame his decision as one of ideological purity, consistent with the ‘total commitment to the Soviet Union’ he had made at the age of twenty-one. He did what he did, in his own estimation, out of pure political conviction, the guiding principle of his life. He looked with disdain on others who had seen the horrors of Stalinism and abandoned ship. ‘I stayed the course,’ he wrote, ‘in the confident faith that the principles of the Revolution would outlive the aberration of individuals.”
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Book Keywords:
englishmen, spies, love, flaws, charm
