George Smiley: Topicality is always suspect.
Oliver Lacon: The Minister's main concern is this: in his own words, how much porcelain gets broken at the end of the day?
George Smiley: What?
Oliver Lacon: I'm talking about scandal. If we unmask the mole, will the Russians turn around and reveal to the press of the world how they've made fools of us all?
George Smiley: Oh, I don't think so. If you make your enemy look stupid, you lose the justification for taking him on.
Oliver Lacon: Yes, I've *told* him *that*, George.
Percy Alleline: Merlin is the fruit of a long cultivation by certain people in the circus. People who are bound to me as I am to them. People who are not at all entertained by the failure rate about this place. There's been too much blown, too much lost, too much wasted. Too many scandals. I've said so many times, but I might as well have talked to the wind for all the heed he paid me.
Control: "He" means me, George.
Percy Alleline: The ordinary principles of tradecraft and security have gone to the wall in this service. It's all "divide and rule," stimulated from the top.
Control: Me again.
Percy Alleline: We're losing our livelihood. Our self-respect. We've had enough. We've had a bellyful, in fact.
[Alleline exits]
Control: And like everybody who's ever had enough, he wants more!
[repeated line]
George Smiley: There are three of them, and Alleline.
George Smiley: "There are three of them, and Alleline." Control's words. He meant Operation Witchcraft. Merlin's minders or inventors, or programmers, or marionettes... or, what?
Control: And now there's a Witchcraft committee! The Minister's in the chair, Alleline's vice-chairman. Merlin's become an industry, it's THE industry and I'm not employed!
George Smiley: You won't even read Alleline's reports.
Control: I haven't time! Buying their way in with counterfeit money, tell them that. Tell them anything, I need time! There are three of them, and Alleline. Sweat them, George, bully them, any damn thing, give them whatever they eat, I need time!
Jim Prideaux: [explaining why he has a pistol] Well I uh... I used to be a soldier, Jumbo. What you saw just now, that's a souvenir.
[he points to his back]
Jim Prideaux: You know, it's like this. How I got it, they're both secrets, I keep them to myself. Y'understand that, don't you Jumbo?
Roach: Yes, sir.
Jim Prideaux: Knew you would, knew you would.
Percy Alleline: Now, I would like to call your attention to the Foreign Office comment on the most recent Witchcraft product. And I quote, "This document sheds an extraordinary sidelight on Soviet aggressive thinking."
Bill Haydon: [innocently] Does that mean they like it, Percy?
[Prideaux has seen Mendel hanging around his school]
Jim Prideaux: Right, gather around. Come on!
[his students gather around him]
Jim Prideaux: Right, now. Anybody sees him again, let me know? Or any other sinister bodies, understand?
Students: Yes, sir.
Jim Prideaux: Don't want juju men wandering around, pretending they don't know we exist. First glimpse, tell me, right?
Students: Yes, sir.
Jim Prideaux: Y'know Jumbo, I don't hold with odd bods wandering around a school. Last place I was at we had a whole a gang broke in, cleared the place out. House cups, money, boy's watches, nothing's sacred to types like that. We don't want 'em swiping the Alvis! It's irreplaceable! Thanks to socialism.
Jim Prideaux: [talking to Roach] We've got a secret, haven't we? I can trust you, I know I can. We're good at keeping secrets, loners like you and me.
George Smiley: And within six months of Bill Haydon's diagnosis, Control was indeed dead.
Peter Guillam: And what killed him? Operation Witchcraft or Operation Testify?
George Smiley: Neither. Let's not be melodramatic, Control would disapprove. He died of old age... a little early. But Testify destroyed his function in life, which was a form of murder.
Peter Guillam: Why was Control always so hostile to Alleline? Percy wasn't a complete fool.
George Smiley: Percy can flirt, Peter. And Control hadn't reckoned on the power of the Alleline lobby.
Peter Guillam: Who were they?
George Smiley: Golfers. "Golfers and Conservatives." That's what Control said to me.
George Smiley: What are you going to do about it?
Control: Depends on "it". I'll wait for "it" to show itself.
Bill Haydon: Got a rabbit to pull out of your hat, Percy? You've got that Britain-can-make-it look about you. Very intimidating.
[Lacon has arrived late for a conference]
Oliver Lacon: I'm sorry. Traffic. I should've walked.
Bill Haydon: I think you and Percy between you are contriving to keep me off the streets.
Percy Alleline: The reading room will be known for cover purposes as the coference room of the Adriatic Working Party. The AWP room, for short.
[Control snorts]
Control: Thank you.
Percy Alleline: Customers with reading rights will not have passes, since these, like keys, can be too accessible. Instead, they will appear on a special list with their photographs, and they will identify themselves personally to MY janitor.
Control: WHOSE janitor, Percy?
Bill Haydon: Well, he's already got his own personal wizard. The odd commissionaire seems modest enough domestic staff.
George Smiley: Karla really did bring off the perfect fix - for a while. It would be beautiful in another context.

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