76 Inspirational Ian Fleming Quotes (JAMES BOND)

Top 10 Most Famous Ian Fleming Quotes (BEST)

“Bond is not a hero, nor is he depicted as being very likable or admirable. He is a Secret Service Agent. He’s not a bad man, but he is ruthless and self-indulgent. He enjoys the fight- he also enjoys the prizes. In fiction people used to have blood in their veins. Nowadays they have pond water. My books are just out of step. But then so are all the people who read them.”
Ian Fleming

Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is enemy action. — Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is enemy **action**.

Never say 'no' to adventures. Always say 'yes,' otherwise you'll lead a very dull life. — Never say ‘no’ to **adventures**. Always say ‘yes,’ otherwise you’ll lead a very dull **life**.

You only live twice Once when you are born And once when you look death in the face. — You only live twice: Once when you are born And once when you look **death** in the face.

“I was just on the edge of getting married, and I was frenzied at the prospect of this great step in my life after having been a bachelor for so long. And I really wanted to take my mind off of the agony, and so I decided to sit down and write a book.”
Ian Fleming

A horse is dangerous at both ends and uncomfortable in the middle.

Unfortunately most ways of making big money take a long time. By the time one has made the money one is too old to enjoy it. — Unfortunately most ways of making big **money** take a long **time**. By the time one has made the money one is too old to enjoy it.

The gain to the winner is always less than the loss to the loser.

It was the short men that caused all the trouble in the world.

19 Thought-Provoking Ian Fleming Quotes

“Smoking I find the most ridiculous of all the varieties of human behavior and practically the only one that is entirely against nature. Can you imagine a cow or any animal taking a mouthful of smoldering straw then breathing in the smoke and blowing it out through its nostrils?”
Ian Fleming

I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them.

He shrugged his shoulders to shift the pain of failure – the pain that is so much greater than the pleasure of success. — He shrugged his shoulders to shift the pain of **failure** – the pain that is so much greater than the pleasure of **success**.

“Follow your fate, and be satisfied with it, and be glad not to be a second-hand motor salesman, or a yellow-press journalist, pickled in gin and nicotine, or a cripple – or dead.”
Ian Fleming

Once a King, always a King. But once a Knight is enough!

“It was the same with the whole Russian machine. Fear was the impulse. For them it was always safer to advance than retreat. Advance against the enemy and the bullet might miss you. Retreat, evade, betray and the bullet would never miss.”
Ian Fleming

I have discovered that even the mediocre can have adventures and even the fearful can achieve. — I have discovered that even the mediocre can have adventures and even the **fearful** can achieve.

Our prisons are full of people who think they’re Napoleon or God.

“One can’t grasp more than a piece of anyone. Most of the rest can only be protected by themselves and the remainder by hired specialists and doctors and dentists and professional protectors.”
Ian Fleming

Surround yourself with human beings, my dear James. They are easier to fight for than principles.

Hope makes a good breakfast. Eat plenty of it. — **Hope** makes a good **breakfast**. Eat plenty of it.

I always make it a rule never to look back. Otherwise, I’d ask myself how I could write such piffle and live with myself, day after day.

Worry is a dividend paid to disaster before it is due. — **Worry** is a dividend paid to disaster before it is due.

A gentleman’s choice of timepiece says as much about him as does his Saville Row suit. — A **gentleman**’s choice of timepiece says as much about him as does his Saville Row suit.

Never send a man where you can send a bullet.

It’s no good protecting people or even looking after them past a certain point.

At gambling, the deadly sin is to mistake bad play for bad luck. — At **gambling**, the deadly sin is to mistake bad play for bad **luck**.

Loneliness becomes a lover, solitude a darling sin. — Loneliness becomes a lover, **solitude** a darling sin.

5 Wise Ian Fleming Quotes

“There’s a Good Book about goodness and how to be good and so forth, but there’s no Evil Book about how to be evil and how to be bad. The Devil had no prophets to write his Ten Commandments, and no team of authors to write his biography. His case has gone completely by default. We know nothing about him but a lot of fairy stories from our parents and schoolmasters. He has no book from which we can learn the nature of evil in all its forms, with parables about evil people, proverbs about evil people, folklore about evil people. All we have is the living example of people who are least good, or our own intuition.”
Ian Fleming

Diamonds are forever. — **Diamonds** are forever.

You never get real adventures without a bit of risk somewhere. — You never get real adventures without a bit of **risk** somewhere.

You are about to awake when you dream that you are dreaming. — You are about to awake when you **dream** that you are dreaming.

If you fail at the large things it means you have not large ambitions. Concentration, focus – that is all. The aptitudes come, the tools forge themselves. — If you fail at the large things it means you have not large **ambitions**. **Concentration**, **focus** – that is all. The aptitudes come, the tools forge themselves.

7 Ian Fleming Quotes About James Bond

“One of the bibles of my youth was ‘Birds of the West Indies,’ by James Bond, a well-known ornithologist, and when I was casting about for a name for my protagonist I thought, ‘My God, that’s the dullest name I’ve ever heard,’ so I appropriated it. Now the dullest name in the world has become an exciting one.”
Ian Fleming

I don't regard James Bond precisely as a hero, but at least he does get on and do his duty, in an extremely corny way. — I don’t regard James Bond precisely as a hero, but at least he does get on and do his **duty**, in an extremely corny way.

Bond reflected that good Americans were fine people and that most of them seemed to come from Texas.

“People do connect me with James Bond simply because I happen to like scrambled eggs and short-sleeved shirts and some of the things that James Bond does, but I certainly haven’t got his guts nor his very lively appetites.”
Ian Fleming

And people with obsessions, reflected Bond, were blind to danger.

Bond didn’t defend the practice. He simply maintained that the more effort and ingenuity you put into gambling, the more you took out. — Bond didn’t defend the practice. He simply maintained that the more **effort** and **ingenuity** you put into gambling, the more you took out.

“Bond always mistrusted short men. They grew up from childhood with an inferiority complex. All their lives they would strive to be big – bigger than the others who had teased them as a child. Napoleon had been short, and Hitler. It was the short men that caused all the trouble in the world.”
Ian Fleming

9 Ian Fleming Quotes About Women

“As a result of 50 years of emancipation, feminine qualities were dying out or being transferred to the males. Pansies of both sexes were everywhere, not yet completely homosexual, but confused not knowing what they were. The result was a herd of unhappy sexual misfits, the women wanting to dominate and the men to be nannied.”
Ian Fleming

Older women are best, because they always think they may be doing it for the last time.

“These blithering women who thought they could do a man’s work. Why the hell couldn’t they stay at home and mind their pots and pans and stick to their frocks and gossip and leave men’s work to the men.”
Ian Fleming

Men want a woman whom they can turn on and off like a light switch.

All women love semi-rape. They love to be taken. It was his sweet brutality against my bruised body that made his act of love so piercingly wonderful. — All women **love** semi-rape. They love to be taken. It was his sweet brutality against my bruised body that made his act of love so piercingly wonderful.

Luck in all its moods had to be loved and not feared. Bond saw luck as a woman, to be softly wooed or brutally ravaged, never pandered to or pursued.

The difference between a good golf shot and a bad one is the same as the difference between a beautiful and a plain woman, a matter of millimeters. — The difference between a good golf shot and a bad one is the same as the difference between a **beautiful** and a plain woman, a matter of millimeters.

3 Ian Fleming Quotes About Being a Genius

“All the greatest men are maniacs. They are possessed by a mania which drives them forward towards their goal. The great scientists, the philosophers, the religious leaders – all maniacs. What else but a blind singleness of purpose could have given focus to their genius, would have kept them in the groove of purpose. Mania is as priceless as genius.”
Ian Fleming

If I wait for the genius to come, it just doesn't arrive. — If I wait for the genius to come, it just doesn’t arrive.

The distance between insanity and genius is measured only by success.

4 Ian Fleming Quotes About Writing

“Writing about 2,000 words in three hours every morning, ‘Casino Royale’ dutifully produced itself. I wrote nothing and made no corrections until the book was finished. If I had looked back at what I had written the day before I might have despaired.”
Ian Fleming

Everything I write has a precedent in truth. — Everything I write has a precedent in **truth**.

There is only one recipe for a best seller and it is a very simple one. You have to get the reader to turn over the page.

I am a poet in deeds - not often in words. — I am a **poet** in deeds – not often in words.

2 Ian Fleming Quotes About Relationships

“I think it’s the same with all the relationships between a man and a woman. They can survive anything so long as some kind of basic humanity exists between the two people. When all kindness has gone, when one person obviously and sincerely doesn’t care if the other is alive or dead, then it’s just no good.”
Ian Fleming

Most marriages don't add two people together. They subtract one from the other. — Most marriages don’t add two people together. They subtract one from the other.

2 Ian Fleming Quotes About Indifference

A woman can put up with almost anything; anything but indifference.

When the odds are hopeless, when all seems to be lost, then is the time to be calm, to make a show of authority – at least of indifference. — When the odds are hopeless, when all seems to be lost, then is the time to be **calm**, to make a show of authority – at least of indifference.

3 Ian Fleming Quotes About Love

As for sex, well, I mean sex is a perfectly respectable subject as far as Shakespeare is concerned. I mean, all history is love and violence. — As for sex, well, I mean sex is a perfectly **respectable** subject as far as **Shakespeare** is concerned. I mean, all history is love and violence.

Love of life is born of the awareness of death, of the dread of it.

Some love is fire, some love is rust. But the finest, cleanest love is lust.

12 Ian Fleming Quotes That Will Make You Think

“Today we are fighting Communism. Okay. If I’d been alive fifty years ago, the brand of Conservatism we have today would have been damn near called Communism and we should have been told to go and fight that. History is moving pretty quickly these days and the heroes and villains keep on changing parts.”
Ian Fleming

This country-right-or-wrong business is getting a little out-of-date. History is moving pretty quickly these days and the heroes and villains keep on changing parts. — This country-right-or-wrong **business** is getting a little out-of-date. History is moving pretty quickly these days and the heroes and villains keep on changing parts.

I'm not in the Shakespeare stakes. I have no ambition. — I’m not in the Shakespeare stakes. I have no ambition.

“Englishmen are so odd. They are like a nest of Chinese boxes. It takes a very long time to get to the centre of them. When one gets there the result is unrewarding, but the process is instructive and entertaining.”
Ian Fleming

Everyone has the revolver of resignation in his pocket.

It’s just that I’d rather die of drink than of thirst.

“A dry martini. One. In a deep champagne goblet. Just a moment. Three measures of Gordon’s, one of vodka, half a measure of Kina Lillet. Shake it very well until it’s ice-cold, then add a large thin slice of lemon-peel. Got it?”
Ian Fleming