Word of a gentleman

I’ve also known from the age of three that “honour” and “solemn oath” and “word of a gentleman” are mere piss in the wind of greed, ambition, and fear.


Flashman and the Tiger, p.227, Harper Collins, paperback edition 2000.


Tags: Flashman, Flashman quotes, wind.

Doffing his tile

The Yankee secret service evidently left nothing to chance. “Good luck, Comber . . . and,” he added quietly, “if need be, good hunting.” Cool as a trout, rot him, doffing his tile and knuckling his lip-whisker as we drove away.


Flashman and the Angel of the Lord, p.196, Harper Collins, 1995.


Tags: Flashman, Flashman quotes, trout.

Flower of the 11th Hussars

Picture if you will that score of primitives with their painted faces and head-bands and ragged kilts and boots, fairly bristling with lances and hatchets, and in their midst the tall figure of the English gentlemen, flower of the 11th Hussars, with a white stripe across his face, his hair rank to his shoulders, his buckskins stinking to rival the Fleet Ditch, lance in fist and knife on hip—you’d never think he played at Lord’s or chatted with the Queen or been rebuked by Dr Arnold for dirty finger-nails (well, yes, you might) or been congratulated by my Lord Cardigan on his brilliant turnout.

Flashman and the Redskins, pp.181-2, Pan Books edition, 1983.

Tags:Flashman, Flashman quotes, gentleman.

Survive and prosper

      There’s no question that a public school education is an advantage. it may not make you a scholar or a gentleman or a Christian, but it does teach you to survive and prosper—and one other invaluable thing: style.

Flashman and the Redskins, p.148, Pan Books edition, 1983.

Tags:Flashman, Flashman quotes, prosper.

The likely Mr Nugent-Hare

… when he dismounted, it was like a seal sliding off a rock. Gentleman-ranker, thinks I, bog-Irish gentry, village school, seen inside Dublin Castle, no doubt, but no rhino for a commission. a very easy, likely lad, with a lazy smile and a long nose.

Flashman and the Redskins, p.66, Pan Books edition, 1983.

Tags:Flashman, Flashman quotes, seal.

Keep your thumb out of it

      “Depends which ones you’re talking about,” says I. “Now, Spotted Tail was a gentleman. Chico Velasquez, on the other hand, was an evil vicious brute. But you probably never met either of ‘em. Care for a brandy?”
      He went pink. “I thank you, no. By gentlemen, I suppose,” he went on, bristling. “you mean one who has despaired to the point of submission, while brute would no doubt describe any sturdy independent patriot who resisted the injustice of an alien rule, or revolted against broken treaties—“
      “If sturdy independence consists of cutting off women’s fingers and fringing your buckskin with them, then Chico was a patriot, no error,” says I. “Mind you, that was the soft end of his behaviour. Hey waiter, another one, and keep your thumb out of it, d’ye hear?”

Flashman and the Redskins, pp.18-19, Pan Books edition, 1983.

Tags:Flashman, Flashman quotes, brandy.

Lifetime impersonation

...I’ve been a Danish prince, a Texas slave-dealer, an Arab sheik, a Cheyenne Dog Soldier, and a Yankee navy lieutenant in my time, among other things, and none of ’em was as hard to sustain as my lifetime’s impersonation of a British officer and gentleman.

Flashman in the Great Game, p.115, Pan edition, 4th printing, 1979.

Tags:
Flashman, Flashman quotes,British officer, impersonation.

This Sandhurst-and-Shop crowd

I’m told it’s all changing now, and that war’s no longer a gentleman’s game (as though it ever was), and that among the ‘new professionals’ a prisoner’s a prisoner so damned well cage him up. I don’t know: we treated each other decently and weren’t one jot more incompetent than this Sandhurst-and-Shop crowd. Look at that young pup Kitchener – what that fellow needs is a woman or two.

Flashman at the Charge, p.115, Pan edition, 5th printing, 1979.

Tags:
Flashman, Flashman quotes,Herbert Kitchener, Lord Kitchener.

A powder monkey’s a powder monkey

I found myself sharing the view of old General Scarlett, who once told me:
   ‘Splendid chaps the ordnance, but dammem, a powder monkey’s a powder monkey, ain’t he? Let ’em fill the cartridges and bore the guns, but don’t expect me to know a .577 from a mortar! What concern is that of a gentleman – or a soldier, either? Hey? Hey?

Flashman at the Charge, p.16, Pan edition, 5th printing, 1979.

Tags:
Flashman, Flashman quotes,ordnance, powder monkey.

Conclusive proof

     ‘Sir,’ says I, trying to sound furious, with my legs on the point of giving way, ‘I fail to understand you. I am a British officer and, I hope, a gentleman. . .’
     ‘Oh, I don’t doubt it,’ says he, ‘but even that isn't conclusive proof that you’re a rascal…


Flash For Freedom!, p.132, Pan edition, 8th printing, 1980.



Tags:
Flashman, Flashman quotes,British officer, rascal.

I couldn't see

What a playing-field beauty like this was doing on a merchantman I couldn’t see, but I held my tongue and watched him.

Flash For Freedom!, p.49, Pan edition, 8th printing, 1980.

Tags:
Flashman, Flashman quotes.

As the Prussians say

‘…we’ll have you repaired and made all klim-bim as the Prussians say. Devilish places, these jails, aren’t they, no proper facilities for a gentleman at all…’

Royal Flash, p.94, Pan edition, 8th printing, 1978.

Tags:
Flashman, Flashman quotes,Prussian.

Admirably well ordered

They [Germans] say what they think, which isn’t much as a rule, and they are admirably well ordered. Everyone in Germany knows his place and stays in it, and grovels to those above him, which makes it an excellent country for gentlemen and bullies.

Royal Flash, p.70, Pan edition, 8th printing, 1978.

Tags:
Flashman, Flashman quotes.