Brian Crozier Quotations

The ultimate sophistication of subversion is to take over the government, not by unlawful but by lawful means.

I've tried to make a book that's accessible to the ordinary, intelligent reader. Very often books that cover this kind of subject are written by academics, for academics. But I am not an academic.

I've never been to the Soviet Union and the main reason for that is I was warned several times by people from the KGB who had defected to the West that it would be very unsafe for me to go there

A society that does not defend itself is doomed. A system that remains passive in the face of attack deserves to go under. Those unwilling to defend freedom will become unfree. To stand idly by is to commit suicide.

He looked at me in the eyes and said, 'If you'll forgive my accent -- Where I come from, you are Public Enemy No. 1.'

The very first seed was really in the great Polish crisis of 1980-81, because it seems to me they were losing their nerve. Much earlier, they had that problem in Czechoslovakia (and) they didn't hesitate. They just decided to invade. With Poland, they could have invaded, but again it seemed to me that they were not ready to continue to defy world opinion. And to me this was a serious psychological sign of weakness.

In a way, I think it's the most important thing I've done.