Top 180 James Clavell Quotes (2026 Update)
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151. “I even heard that part of a very large government loan to South Vietnam was expended on a nonexistent airfield that’s still impenetrable jungle.”

— James Clavell

152. “People are “the company” and those in charge can and always will hide behind that facade, that “the company must survive,” or “for the good of the company,” and so on, wrecking or promoting for personal reasons, enmities or hatreds.”

— James Clavell

153. “Curious, Toranaga thought, how women can change like chameleons – one moment ugly, the next attractive, sometimes even beautiful, though in reality they’re not.”

— James Clavell

154. “I’d say we’re in the sewer, up to our chins, and the tide’s coming in fast.”

— James Clavell

155. “What about bushido? the ghosts of his ancestors had always asked him. What about bushido? he had always asked them back. They had never answered.”

— James Clavell

156. “After all those horrors at Changi, you don’t detest them?” After a pause Peter Marlowe shook his head. “I don’t detest anyone. Even Grey. It takes all of my mind and energy to appreciate that I’m alive.”

— James Clavell

157. “But if I am to go, I am to go, and there’s the end of it. Karma. She turned her mind off the inevitable to the immediate problem.”

— James Clavell

158. “You must be patient before you criticize.”

— James Clavell

159. “Why not laughter when an enemy’s outsmarted? Why not laughter to empty the tragedy from you when karma interrupts the beautiful death of a true samurai, when karma causes the useless death of a pretty girl? Isn’t it only through laughter that we become one with the gods and thus can endure life and can overcome all the horror and waste and suffering here on earth?”

— James Clavell

160. “Get your wits about you and take the juice out of every day, however bad.”

— James Clavell

161. “Lethal to whom? Not to us English or Hollanders, who will come here peacefully and only as traders. Lethal to Yabu’s enemies and to Toranaga’s enemies, and to our Portuguese and Spanish enemies when they try to conquer Japan. Like they’ve done everywhere else. In every newly discovered territory. First the priests arrive. Then the conquistadores.”

— James Clavell

162. “Of course, some women are more war-like than others and enjoy going into battle with their husbands or fathers.”

— James Clavell

163. “Oh, yes. Every year in this Land of the Gods we have earth tremors. And fires and flood and Great Waves, and the monster storms – the tai-funs. Nature is very strong with us.’ Tears gathered at the corners of her eyes. ‘Perhaps that is why we love life so much, Anjin-san. You see, we have to. Death is part of our air and sea and earth. You should know, Anjin-san, in this Land of Tears, death is our heritage.”

— James Clavell

164. “It’s the brandy, Pilot, that an’ fornication an’ the saintly life I’ve led.”

— James Clavell

165. “Sadness never pleases. Our duty is to please and to be gay.”

— James Clavell

166. “Perhaps we’d better say another. Lord God in Heaven, I could use a pint of brandy.”

— James Clavell

167. “When Brock had caught his breath, he stripped Nagrek and waited until he was conscious. Then he cut away his manhood. And beat him to death.”

— James Clavell

168. “There is no need to fear. We are all in God’s hands.”

— James Clavell

169. “Aye. You’ve surely got the right amount of Devil Struan in your blood to serve that master if you’ve a mind.”

— James Clavell

170. “It hurts and it costs you. It costs you plenty and the attorneys get most, get a good part and they cleverly fan the fire between you for their own goddamn gain.”

— James Clavell

171. “Changi changed everyone, changed values permanently. For instance, it gave you a dullness about death – we saw too much of it to have the same sort of meaning to outsiders, to normal people. We’re a generation of dinosaurs, we the few who survived. I suppose anyone who goes to war, any war, sees life with different eyes if they end up in one piece.”

— James Clavell

172. “Men need to share secrets. That’s why we’re superior to them and they’ll always be in our power.”

— James Clavell

173. “No honor. No cojones. Except to burn innocents in the name of God.”

— James Clavell

174. “Many men can fight, few can plan. A good general must do both. Above all, he must believe that he will win.”

— James Clavell

175. “Put aside your sadness. Life is all sadness.”

— James Clavell

176. “Yesterday, because of Mrs. Struan’s letter to him, he had been confronted with an immortal truth: however loyal you are to a company, however much service you give “the company,” the company can and will spit you out at its whim, without conscience.”

— James Clavell

177. “To be successful in battle, you must fight only the battles you are sure to win.”

— James Clavell

178. “Why should we fight them when their own greed and stupidity’s destroying them. Eh?”

— James Clavell

179. “It had been an endless night, in the pit.”

— James Clavell

180. “How can a man be so brave and so stupid, so gentle and so cruel, so warming and so detestable – all at the same time?”

— James Clavell