I grew up in a completely bookless household. It was my father's boast that he had never read … - John le Carre

Same topic Authors

Quote of the day

We face a conflict between civilisation and culture, which used to be on the same side. Civilisation means rational reflection, material wellbeing, individual autonomy and ironic self-doubt; culture means a form of life that is customary, collective, passionate, spontaneous, unreflective and arational.

John le Carre

I grew up in a completely bookless household. It was my father's boast that he had never read a book from end to end. I don't remember any of his ladies being bookish. So I was entirely dependent on my schoolteachers for my early reading with the exception of The Wind in the Willows, which a stepmother read to me when I was in hospital.

Father, Book, Reading, Bookish, Entirely

Same Author Quotes

A desk is a dangerous place from which to view the world.

Dangerous, Desk, Inspirational, Leadership, Place, Reality

I think the greatest single enemy is the misuse of information, the perversion of truth in the hands of terribly skillful people.

Enemy, Power, Single, Think, Thinking, Truth

My definition of a decent society is one that first of all takes care of its losers, and protects its weak. What I see in my country, progressively over these years, is that the rich have got richer, the poor have got poorer. The rich have become indifferent through a philosophy of greed, and the poorer have become hopeless because they're not properly cared for. That's actually something that is happening in many Western societies. Your own, I am told, is not free from it.

Country, Greed, Philosophy, Protects, Years

Let's all pretend to be someone else, and then perhaps we'll find out who we are.

Perhaps, Pretend, Who We Are

There is a terrible alienation in the ordinary man between what he is being told and what he secretly believes.

Believe, Man, Men, Ordinary, Secretly, Terrible