Quotes from book
Casino Royale

Casino Royale
Ian Fleming

Casino Royale is the first novel by the British author Ian Fleming. Published in 1953, it is the first James Bond book, and it paved the way for a further eleven novels and two short story collections by Fleming, followed by numerous continuation Bond novels by other authors.

Ian Fleming photo

“A dry martini,' he said. '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 book Casino Royale

Source: Casino Royale (1953), Ch. 7 : Rouge et Noir
Context: Bond insisted ordering Leiter's Haig-and-Haig "on the rocks" and then he looked carefully at the barman. "A Dry Martini", he said. "One. In a deep champagne goblet." "Oui, monsieur." "Just a moment. Three measures of Gordons, 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?" "Certainly, monsieur." The barman seemed pleased with the idea.

Ian Fleming photo

“People are islands,' she said. 'They don't really touch. However close they are, they're really quite separate. Even if they've been married for fifty years.”

Ian Fleming book Casino Royale

Source: Casino Royale

Ian Fleming photo

“History is moving pretty quickly these days, and the heroes and villains keep on changing parts.”

Ian Fleming book Casino Royale

Variant: History is moving pretty quickly these days and the heroes and villains keep on changing parts.
Source: Casino Royale

Ian Fleming photo

“Everyone has the revolver of resignation in his pocket.”

Ian Fleming book Casino Royale

Source: Casino Royale

Ian Fleming photo

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

Ian Fleming book Casino Royale

Source: Casino Royale (1953), Ch. 20 : The Nature Of Evil
Context: "Surround yourself with human beings, my dear James. They are easier to fight for than principles."
He laughed. "But don't let me down and become human yourself. We would lose a wonderful machine."

Ian Fleming photo

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

Ian Fleming book Casino Royale

Source: Casino Royale

Ian Fleming photo

“Mine’s Bond – James Bond.”

Ian Fleming book Casino Royale

Source: Casino Royale

Ian Fleming photo

“This country-right-or-wrong business is getting a little out-of-date. 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 book Casino Royale

Source: Casino Royale (1953), Ch. 20 : The Nature Of Evil

Ian Fleming photo

“I take a ridiculous pleasure in what I eat and drink. It come partly from being a bachelor, but mostly from a habit of taking a lot of trouble over details. It's very pernickety and oldmaidish really, but then when I'm working I generally have to eat my meals alone and it makes them more interesting when one takes trouble.”

Ian Fleming book Casino Royale

Source: Casino Royale (1953), Ch. 8 : Pink Lights And Champagne

Ian Fleming photo

“I’m wondering whose side I ought to be on. I’m getting very sorry for the Devil and his disciples such as the good Le Chiffre. The Devil has a rotten time and I always like to be on the side of the underdog. We don’t give the poor chap a chance. There’s a Good Book about goodness and how to be good and so forth, but there’s no Evil Book about evil and how to be bad. The Devil has 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, folk-lore about evil people. All we have is the living example of the people who are least good, or our own intuition.
‘So,’ continued Bond, warming to his argument, ‘Le Chiffre was serving a wonderful purpose, a really vital purpose, perhaps the best and highest purpose of all. By his evil existence, which foolishly I have helped to destroy, he was creating a norm of badness by which, and by which alone, an opposite norm of goodness could exist. We were privileged, in our short knowledge of him, to see and estimate his wickedness and we emerge from the acquaintanceship better and more virtuous men.”

Ian Fleming book Casino Royale

Source: Casino Royale (1953), Ch. 20 : The Nature Of Evil

Ian Fleming photo

“Against the background of this luminous and sparkling stage Bond stood in the sunshine and felt his mission to be incongruous and remote and his dark profession an affront to his fellow actors.”

Ian Fleming book Casino Royale

Source: Casino Royale (1953), Ch. 5 : The Girl From Headquarters

Ian Fleming photo

“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 book Casino Royale

Source: Casino Royale (1953), Ch. 27 : The Bleeding Heart

Ian Fleming photo

“The scent and smoke and sweat of a casino are nauseating at three in the morning.”

Ian Fleming book Casino Royale

Opening line, Ch. 1 : The Secret Agent
Casino Royale (1953)
Context: The scent and smoke and sweat of a casino are nauseating at three in the morning. Then the soul erosion produced by high gambling — a compost of greed and fear and nervous tension — becomes unbearable and the senses awake and revolt from it.

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