You’re not ninety-two

‘But then, you’re not ninety-two,’ he added with satisfaction. ‘and probably never will be, because you won’t look after yourselves as I have done. Mens sana in corpore sano* as they used to tell us at Rugby, and if you believe that you’ll believe anything.’

*A healthy mind in a healthy body (Speedicut)


Mr American, pp.385-6, Pan Books, paperback edition 1982.


Tags: Flashman, Flashman quotes, believe.

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.

A quiet word

…God knows what he said to them, privatim et seriatim*, over the next two days, but it dam’ near caused a mutiny.

*Apparently, medieval Latin, privately and one after another [Speedicut].

Flashman and the Angel of the Lord, p.255, Harper Collins, 1995.


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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.

The monster Flashman

Flashmanum monstrum informe igens et horrendum…

 *The monster Flashman, shapeless, huge and horrible (adapted from Virgil’s description of Polyphemus).


Flashman and the Angel of the Lord, p.70, Harper Collins, 1995.


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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.


Tags: Flashman, Flashman quotes, God.

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.