Blind luck

      You’ll have difficulty finding Ferozeshah (or Pheeroo Shah, as we Punjabi purists call it) in the atlas nowadays. It’s a scrubby little hamlet about halfway between Ferozepore and Moodkee, but in its way it’s a greater place than Delhi or Calcutta or Bombay, for it’s where the fate of India was settled — appropriately by treachery, folly, and idiot courage beyond belief. And most of all, by blind luck.



Flashman and the Mountain of Light, p.245, Fontana Paperback edition, 1991.



Tags: Flashman, Flashman quotes, luck.

Decamp, squeal, or betray

      It’s a remarkable thing (and I’ve traded on it all my life) that a single redeeming quality in a black sheep wins greater esteem than all the virtues in honest men—especially if the quality is courage. I’m lucky, because while I don’t have it, I look as though I do, and worthy souls like Carson and Wootton never suspect that I’m running around with my bowels squirting, ready to decamp, squeal, or betray as occasion demands.

Flashman and the Redskins, p.206, Pan Books edition, 1983.

Tags:Flashman, Flashman quotes, courage.

Virtue and downfall

…if they have one virtue—in most folk’s eyes, anyway—it is courage; you never saw a scared Apache yet. It’s been their downfall; unlike other tribes, they never knew when to quit against the pony soldiers; my old pal the Yawner fought on until there was only a tattered remnant of his band left to be herded on to the reservation…

Flashman and the Redskins, p.177, Pan Books edition, 1983.

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Take courage for granted

The Apaches, you see, being matchless warriors, tend to take courage for granted, especially in big, burly fellows who look as much like a Tartar as I do…

Flashman and the Redskins, p.158, Pan Books edition, 1983.

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When the stakes were on the blanket

She didn’t take fright, or weep, or even plague me with further questions; I’ve known cleverer women and plenty like Lakshmibai and the Silk One who were better at rough riding and desperate work, but none gamer than Elspeth when the stakes were on the blanket. She was a soldier’s wife, all right; pity she hadn’t married a soldier.

Flashman's Lady, p.281, Pan edition, 1979.

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Suffering ignobly borne

…what I was thinking was, by God, you don’t deserve it [the Victoria
Cross], you know, you shifty old bastard of a Flashy – not if it’s courage they’re after… but if they hand out medals for luck, and survival through sheer funk, and suffering ignobly borne… well grab ’em with both hands, my boy…

Flashman in the Great Game, p.331, Pan edition, 4th printing, 1979.

The Flashman reputation

As so often in the past, I was the victim of my own glorious and entirely unearned reputation – Flashy, the hero of Jallalabad, the last man out of the Kabul retreat and the first man into the Balaclava battery, the beau sabreur of the Light Cavalry, Queen’s Medal, Thanks of Parliament, darling of the mob, with a liver as yellow as yesterday’s custard.

Flashman in the Great Game, p.36, Pan edition, 4th printing, 1979.

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Flashman, Flashman quotes,reputation, beau sabreur.

Courage not in doubt

‘I do not question your courage, Flashman; it is not in doubt.’
Not with me, either, I thought.

Flashman at the Charge, p.70, Pan edition, 5th printing, 1979.

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Flashman, Flashman quotes,courage, doubt.

bristle up the courage

…a strange recklessness had come over me. I was beyond caring, I suppose, but I remember I stood muttering to myself before a mirror as I brushed my hair: ‘Come on, Flashy, my boy, they haven’t got you yet…. you’re still here ain’t you? Your backside is better enough for you to run again, if need be – bristle up the courage of the cornered rat, put on a bold front, and to hell with them. Bluff my boy – bluff, shift and lie for the sake of your neck and the honour of Old England.

Flash For Freedom!, p.257, Pan edition, 8th printing, 1980.

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Flashman, Flashman quotes,courage, rat.

It isn't courage

God knows it isn’t courage, but I wish I had a guinea for every time I’ve come through some hellish crisis, babbling thankfully to be still alive – and then committed some idiocy which I wouldn’t dare to contemplate in a rational moment.

Royal Flash, p.241, Pan edition, 8th printing, 1978.

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Flashman, Flashman quotes.

All the best virtues

It was pleasant to think that they might put a spoke in bloody Otto’s little wheel, after all – Sapten was just the man for that, if I knew anything. He was steady, and saw quickly to the heart of things, and seemed to be full of all the best virtues, like resolution and courage and what-not, without being over-hampered by scruple.

Royal Flash, p.197, Pan edition, 8th printing, 1978.

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Flashman, Flashman quotes.

A much better motto

So I told him I had ambitions, too – to live as I please, love as I please and never grow old. He didn’t think much of that , I fancy; he told me I was frivolous, and would be disappointed. Only the strong, he said, could afford ambitions. So I told him I had a much better motto than that…
“Courage – and shuffle the cards”...

Royal Flash, p.25, Pan edition, 8th printing, 1978.

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Flashman, Flashman quotes,motto.

A rotter still

Strange, but as the coach won clear and we rattled down the Mall, with the cheers dying behind us, I could hear Arnold’s voice saying. ‘There is good in you, Flashman,’ and I could imagine how he would suppose himself vindicated at this moment, and preach on ‘Courage’ in the chapel, and pretend to rejoice in the redeemed prodigal – but all the time he would know in his hypocrite heart that I was a rotter still.

Flashman, p.275, Pan edition, 12th printing, 1979.

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Flashman, Flashman quotes,Thomas Arnold, rotter.