The Secret Agent
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First U.S. edition, 1907Original title
The Secret Agent: A Simple Tale
First publication
1907
Literature form
Novel
Genre
Literary, crime, espionage
Writing language
English
Author's country
England
Length
Approx. 93,500 words
Notable lines
Mr. Verloc, going out in the morning, left his shop nominally in charge of his brother-in-law.
— First line
Protection is the first necessity of opulence and luxury.
"Like to like. The terrorist and the policeman both come from the same basket."
No man engaged in a work he does not like can preserve many saving illusions about himself. The distaste, the absence of glamour, extend from the occupation to the personality. It is only when our appointed activities seem by a lucky accident to obey the particular earnestness of our temperament that we can taste the comfort of complete self-deception.
"But there are more kinds of fools than one can guard against. You can't expect a detonator to be absolutely fool-proof."
All passion is lost now. The world is mediocre, limp, without force. And madness and despair are a force. And force is a crime in the eyes of the fools, the weak and the silly who rule the roost. You are mediocre. Verloc, whose affair the police has managed to smother so nicely, was mediocre. And the police murdered him. He was mediocre. Everybody is mediocre. Madness and despair! Give me that for a lever, and I'll move the world. Ossipon, you have my cordial scorn. You are incapable of conceiving even what the fat-fed citizen would call a crime. You have no force.
Nobody looked at him. He passed on unsuspected and deadly, like a pest in the street full of men.
— Last line
Critique • Quotes • At the movies
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