Black Ops: The Life of a CIA Shadow Warrior

⚡️ 10 Quotes from the book

“We fought our way back to prosperity, chasing our version of the American dream. The path was rocky, and more than once I strayed from it as a kid. I learned to fight, I learned to hustle. I also learned that loyalty is the greatest gift you can share or receive, while betrayal inflicts the brutal wounds to the heart.”

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“Avoid the fight if you can. But if you have no choice, go in for total destruction and take the fight out of your opponent. Half measures will only get you hurt.”

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“Ray’s next lesson to me: amateurs plan tactics, professionals plan logistics.”

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“To execute any kind of black operation, you must go into it with a team built on trust and mutual respect. If that is not established, or if trust breaks down among the team members, nothing good will follow.”

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“We Americans are generally raised to be law-abiding citizens with an ingrained sense of fair play. The world beyond our borders simply does not function that way.”

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“We sleep safely in our beds, because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm.”

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“I’d learned a long time ago that you can’t cling to the phases of life as they come and go. They are to be experienced as you keep moving forward, setting goals and staying on the path God intended for you.”

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“I’d never planned my career. I’d never looked down the road. I just kept focused on doing the best I could in the job I had, throwing my heart and mind into every assignment.”

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“It was our nation’s leadership that often failed to measure up. When you have pit bulls ready and willing to go after America’s enemies, only to be chained in the yard by career-obsessed managers, you cannot win a war. It only gets prolonged.”

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“In the field, I learned to approach the dark realm and its actors as if we actually were cowboys, but the real ones like Wyatt Earp, who were skull-splitting bad-guy stompers. Justice and order do not come from playing nice.”

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