One crazy farmer

I thought he was talking through his hat — one crazy farmer being topped for murder and treason didn’t strike me as a reasonable casus belli. Which shows how much I knew.


Flashman and the Angel of the Lord, pp.342-3, Harper Collins, 1995.



Tags: Flashman, Flashman quotes, casus belli.

Full of rage and stupidity

The country was full of discontent and mischief, largely because England hadn’t had a real war in forty years, and only a few of us knew what fighting was like. The rest were full of rage and stupidity, and all because some papists and Turkish niggers* had quarrlled about the nailing of a star to a door in Palestine. Mind you, nothing surprises me.

Flashman at the Charge, p.14, Pan edition, 5th printing, 1979.

*Flashman's use of racial epitahs is a continuing problem for more enlightened, contemporary readers. The inclusion of these passages should not be taken as tacit support of his misanthropic, 19th century view of race relations.

Tags:
Flashman, Flashman quotes,war, stupidity.