Top 9 Quotes by Eric Ambler

Never tell a lie when you can bullshit your way through it

Never tell a lie when you can bullshit your way through it

Lying, Bullshit, Way

Eric Ambler (2012). “This Gun for Hire”, p.21, Vintage Crime/Black Lizard

The important thing to know about an assassination or an attempted assassination is not who fired the shot, but who paid for the bullet.

Eric Ambler

Important, Bullets, Shots

A Coffin for Dimitrios (1939).

International business may conduct its operations with scraps of paper, but the ink it uses is human blood.

Eric Ambler

Blood, Ink, Use

Eric Ambler (2001). “A Coffin for Dimitrios”, Vintage

In a dying civilization, political prestige is the reward not of the shrewdest diagnostician, but of the man with the best bedside manner.

Eric Ambler

Men, Civilization, Political

Eric Ambler (2011). “A Coffin for Dimitrios”, p.77, Vintage Crime/Black Lizard

Reality is always so obstructive.

Eric Ambler

Reality

Eric Ambler (2008). “Epitaph for a Spy”, p.77, Vintage Crime/Black Lizard

Good' did not triumph. 'Evil' did not triumph. The two resolved, destroyed each other and created new 'evils', new 'goods' which slew each other in their turn.

Eric Ambler

Two, Evil, Triumph

Eric Ambler (2008). “Epitaph for a Spy”, p.110, Vintage Crime/Black Lizard

For the skeptic there remains only one consolation: if there should be such a thing as superhuman law it is administered with subhuman inefficiency.

Eric Ambler

Science, Law, Internet

Eric Ambler (2001). “A Coffin for Dimitrios”, Vintage

A person who searched rooms, brandished pistols, dangled promises of half a million franc fees for nameless services and then wrote instructions to Polish spies might reasonably be regarded with suspicion. But suspicion of what?

Eric Ambler

Promise, Spy, Half

Eric Ambler (2009). “The mask of Dimitrios”, Penguin Classics

Yet, when these facts are seen side by side with other facts in the case, it is difficult not to become lost in superstitious awe. Their very absurdity seems to prohibit the use of the words 'chance' and 'coincidence.' For the sceptic there remains only one consolation: if there should be such a thing as superhuman Law, it is administered with sub-human inefficiency.

Eric Ambler

Law, Use, Facts

Eric Ambler (1992). “A Coffin for Dimitrios/Judgement on Deltchev/Passage of Arms: Three Complete Novels in One Volume”, Galahad Books