Bad medicine

...the nasty young Norse God had turned into a jowly sausage-faced old buffer whose head seemed to grow straight out of his collar without benefit of neck... I tipped my tile instead, he did likewise, frowning, and a moment later he was clambering aboard and I was legging it in search of a gallon or two of brandy. Quite a turn he'd given me — but then, he always did. Bad medicine, Bismarck; bad man.


Flashman and the Tiger, p.38, Harper Collins, paperback edition 2000.


Tags: Flashman, Flashman quotes, brandy.

Unexpected outcomes

Have you noticed that things are never quite as bad or good as you expect them to be – at least, not in the way that you expect?

Flash For Freedom!, p.250, Pan edition, 8th printing, 1980.

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Flashman, Flashman quotes.

Education and evil-doing

‘Well, now,’ says Lincoln, ‘why not? Some of the greatest villains in history have been educated men. Without that education they might have been honest citizens. a few years at college won’t make a bad man virtuous; it will merely put the polish on his wickedness.’
….’Why at this rate, you will equate learning with evil-doing,’ cries someone. ‘What must your view be of our leading justices and politicians? Are they not virtuous men?’
   ‘Oh, virtuous enough,’ says Lincoln. ‘But what they would be like if they had been educated is another matter.’

Flash For Freedom!, p.127, Pan edition, 8th printing, 1980.

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Flashman, Flashman quotes,Abraham Lincoln.

Half panic, half lunacy

This myth called bravery, which is half panic, half lunacy (in my case, all panic), pays for all; in England you can’t be a hero and bad. There’s practically a law against it.

Flashman, p.276, Pan edition, 12th printing, 1979.

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Flashman, Flashman quotes.