Before the light fades

You can always tell when something is coming to an end. You know, by the way events are shaping, that it can’t last much longer, but you think there are still a few days or weeks to go . . . and that’s the moment when it finishes with a sudden bang that you didn’t expect. Come to think of it, that’s probably true of life, or so it strikes me at the age of ninety — but I don’t expect it to happen before tea. Yet one of these days the muffins will grow cold and the tea-cakes congeal as they summon the lads from belowstairs to cart the old cadaver up to the best bedroom. And if I’ve a moment before the light fades, I’ll be able to cry, “Sold, Starnberg and Ignatieff and Iron Eyes and Gul Shah and Charity Spring and all the rest of you bastards who tried to do for old Flashy, ’cos he’s going out on his own, and be damned to you!”


Flashman on the March, p.257, Harper Collins, paperback edition 2005.


Tags: Flashman, Flashman quotes, end.

Dreams of Spring

“Aha, but we'll have him presently, rari nantes in gurgite vasto,* and be damned to him!”

* Swimming dispersedly in the vasty deep. - Virgil


Flashman and the Tiger, p.114, Harper Collins, paperback edition 2000.


Tags: Flashman, Flashman quotes, Latin.

By thunder

“…mark him well, ladies and harlots, for Juvenal never spoke a truer word, omne in praecipiti vitium stetit,* by thunder!”


*Every kind of vice has reached its summit.


Flashman and the Angel of the Lord, p.60, Harper Collins, 1995.


Tags: Flashman, Flashman quotes, vice.

Dooced appropriate

…for once I’d recognized his quotation — it had been framed on the wall of the hospital at Rugby, where I’d sobered up on that distant day when Arnold kicked me out . . . “Olim miminisse juvabit”,* and dooced appropriate, too, Seneca, if memory serves.


*It will be pleasant to remember former troubles — Virgil (not Seneca).


Flashman and the Angel of the Lord, p.63, Harper Collins, 1995.


Tags: Flashman, Flashman quotes, troubles.

As Ovid would say

Sit down, man, before you fall — vitiant artus agra contagia mentis,* as Ovid would say if he could see you.

*When the mind is ill at ease, the body is somewhat effected.


Flashman and the Angel of the Lord, p.60, Harper Collins, 1995.


Tags: Flashman, Flashman quotes, Ovid.

Just a voice

“Vox et praeterea nihil!”*


*[You are] a voice and nothing more.


Flashman and the Angel of the Lord, p.60, Harper Collins, 1995.

 
Tags: Flashman, Flashman quotes, voice.

Your vacant gape

“We may agree with Horace, I think — Raro antecedentem scelestrum deseruit pede poena claudo. I see from your vacant gape that you’re no better acquainted with his works than you were on the College, damn you ignorance! So I’ll tell you it means that Justice, though moving slowly, seldom fails to overhaul the fleeing villain.”


Flashman and the Angel of the Lord, p.59, Harper Collins, 1995.


Tags: Flashman, Flashman quotes, justice.

An angry man

“Aye, homo extra est corpus suum cum irascitur,* you remember . . . ”


*An angry man is beside himself.


Flashman and the Angel of the Lord, p.57, Harper Collins, 1995.


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Far Easters

“Cigar? Or cheroot? You Far Easters like ’em black, I believe . . . go on, man — utrum horum mavis accipe,*…”


*Take whichever you prefer.


Flashman and the Angel of the Lord, p.57, Harper Collins, 1995.




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Orders from the top

...quem te Deus esse jussit.*


*What God commanded you to be.


Flashman and the Angel of the Lord, p.56, Harper Collins, 1995.


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A rat like him

“Now, make your oath — and take care . . . aye, quid de quoque viro, et sui dicas, saepe cavetto,* mind — even with a rat like him!

*Take special care what you say of any man, and to whom it is said — Horace.


Flashman and the Angel of the Lord, p.55, Harper Collins, 1995.


Tags: Flashman, Flashman quotes, oath.

Out of Africa

…I could barely gasp one of Spring’s Latin tags: “Ex Africa semper aliquid novi,* by gum!”


*Out of Africa there is always something new


Flashman and the Angel of the Lord, p.52, Harper Collins, 1995.


Tags: Flashman, Flashman quotes, Latin.

Many friends

“Yes, my bucko, I’m warm — and I draw enough water in this colony, as you’ll find if you cross me. Felicitas habet multos amicos,* you know!”


*Happiness has many friends.


Flashman and the Angel of the Lord, pp.41-2, Harper Collins, 1995.



Tags: Flashman, Flashman quotes, water.

Your glorious pedestal

“Aye,” says he sourly, looking me up and down, “I wish I’d a guinea for every poor bastard whose bones must have gone into making your glorious pedestal. Gaudetque viam fecisse ruina,* I’ll lay!”

*He rejoices to have made his way by ruin – Lucan.

Flashman and the Angel of the Lord, p.41, Harper Collins, 1995.


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Lecherous offal

“Aye, fronti nulla fides* might ha’ been coined for you, you lecherous offal!”


*There is no faith to be placed in the countenance



Flashman and the Angel of the Lord, p.40, Harper Collins, 1995.



Tags: Flashman, Flashman quotes, faith.

He's not dead, he's resting

“Think you’re safe, don’t you, because mortuo leoni et lepores insultant,* is that it?”



*The lion being dead, even hares can insult him





Flashman and the Angel of the Lord, p.40, Harper Collins, 1995.


Tags: Flashman, Flashman quotes, lion.

Academic jealousy

…he was still larding his conversation with Latin tags — he’d been a mighty scholar, you see, before they rode him out of Oxford on a rail, for garroting the Vice-chancellor or running guns into Wadham, likely, tho’ he always claimed it was academic jealousy.



Flashman and the Angel of the Lord, p.39, Harper Collins, 1995.



Tags: Flashman, Flashman quotes, guns.

Thunderbird Two pilot?

“Fuit Illium,* if you know your Virgil, which you never did, blast you!”


*Troy has been (i.e., the reason for dispute no longer exists).



Flashman and the Angel of the Lord, p.39, Harper Collins, 1995.


Tags: Flashman, Flashman quotes, Virgil.

Tagging Flashy

“Well, nulla pallescere culpa,* my decorated hero, for it doesn’t matter a dam, d’ye see?


*Not to turn pale on an imputation of guilt – Horace




Flashman and the Angel of the Lord, p.39, Harper Collins, 1995.


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Teasing gorillas

      I wouldn’t feel sorry for Omomhundro at any time, least of all with two of his bullies pinioning me and blowing baccy juice in my face but I confess to a momentary pang just then, as though he’d passed the port to the right. For giving orders to J.C. Spring is simply one of the things that are never done; you’d be better teasing a mating gorilla.

Flashman and the Redskins, p.29, Pan Books edition, 1983.

Tags:Flashman, Flashman quotes, gorilla.