Jeffrey Pelt: Mr. Ryan, I'm a politician. Which means I'm a cheat and a liar and when I'm not kissing babies I'm stealing their lollipops.
Vasily Borodin: I would like to have seen Montana.
Admiral Josh Painter: This business will get out of control. It will get out of control and we'll be lucky to live through it.
Jack Ryan: "Ryan, some things in here don't react well to bullets." Yeah, like me. I don't react well to bullets.
Captain Ramius: When he reached the New World, Cortez burned his ships. As a result, his men were well motivated.
Jack Ryan: "The average Rooskie, son, don't take a dump without a plan." Wait a minute. We don't have to figure out how to get the crew off the sub, he's already done that. He would've had to. All we have to do is figure out what he's going to do. So how's he going to get the crew off the sub? They have to want to get off. How do you get a crew to want to get off a submarine? How do you get a crew to want to get off a nuclear sub...[realisation hits].
Jones: When I asked the computer to identify it, what I got was 'magma displacement'. You see, sir, SAPS software was originally written to look for seismic events. And when it gets confused, it kind of 'runs home to mama'.
Mancuso: I'm not following you, Jonesy.
Jones: Sorry, sir. Listen to it at ten times speed. [Plays tape.] Now that's gotta be man made, Captain.
Mancuso: Have I got this straight, Jonesy? A forty million dollar computer tells you you're chasing an earthquake, but you don't believe it? And you come up with this on your own?
Jones: Yes, sir.
Mancuso: Including all the navigational math?
Jones: Sir, I-I've got-
Mancuso: Relax, Jonesy, you sold me!
Jeffrey Pelt: It would be well for your government to consider that having your ships and ours, your aircraft and ours, in such proximity... Is inherently DANGEROUS. Wars have begun that way, Mr. Ambassador.
Jeffrey Pelt: Mr. Ambassador, you have nearly a hundred naval vessels operating in the North Atlantic right now. Your aircraft has dropped enough sonar buoys so that a man could walk from Greenland to Iceland to Scotland without getting his feet wet. Now, shall we dispense with the bull?
Ambassador Lysenko: You make your point as delicately as ever, Mr. Pelt.
Capt. Bart Mancuso: How did you know that his next turn would be to starboard?
Jack Ryan: I didn't. I had a 50/50 chance. I needed a break. Sorry.
Capt. Bart Mancuso: That's all right, Mr Ryan. My Morse is so rusty, I could be sending him dimensions on Playmate of the Month.
Helicopter Pilot: Fuel status says we turn back now.
Jack Ryan: Wait a minute. Fuel status? You have a reserve, don't you?
Helicopter Pilot: Yes, sir. I've got a ten minute reserve. But I'm not allowed to invoke that except in time of war.
Jack Ryan: Listen, mister, if you don't get me on board that goddamn submarine, that just might be what you'll have! You got me? Now, you have ten more minutes' worth of fuel, we stay here ten more minutes.
Marko Ramius: Forty years I've been at sea. A war at sea. A war with no battles, no monuments... Only casualties.
Greer: Now understand, Commander, that torpedo did not self-destruct. You heard it hit the hull. And I... was never here.
Watson: Y'know, I seen me a mermaid once. I even seen me a shark eat an octopus. But I ain't never seen no phantom Russian submarine.
Captain Ramius: You're afraid of our fleet. Well, you should be. Personally, I'd give us one chance in three. More tea anyone?
Answer: The caterpillar drive was inoperable. The reactor leak was staged by the defecting officers, but the sabotage to the caterpillar (by the undercover KGB agent posing as the cook) was real.