People he loves

     ‘Although he is quite a dreadful person, really. He is absolutely selfish and dishonest and quite shameless. He has a shocking reputation — and deserves it. Just a few years ago he had to leave Sandringham in disgrace. ‘ She had apparently forgotten that Mr Franklin had been there. ‘How Aunt Elspeth has endured him . . . do you know that next year they will have been married for seventy-five years? It seems incredible . . . she is ninety years old, and a darling. So is he, I suppose — and yet sometimes I feel that I hate him more than anyone I’ve ever known; you would not beleve how mean and deceitful he can be — even with people he loves.’


Mr American, p.433, Pan Books, paperback edition 1982.


Tags: Flashman, Flashman quotes, hate.

Favours and enemies

…gratitude’s a funny thing; do a favour, and often as not you’ve made an enemy, or at best a grudging friend. Folk hate to feel obliged.

Flashman and the Dragon, p.257, Fontana Paperback edition, 1986.


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Victorian conscience

…Victorian conscience is beyond me, thank G-d. I know if anyone who’d done me a bad turn later turned out to be the Archangel Gabriel, I’d still hate the b-----d; but then I’m a scoundrel, you see, with no proper feelings.

Flashman's Lady, p.16, Pan edition, 1979.

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All men fear

It is no sin to be fearful, any more than it is a sin to be one-legged or red-haired. All men fear – even Yakub and Kutebar and all of them. To conquer fear, some need love, and some hate, and some greed, and some even – hasheesh.

Flashman at the Charge, pp.283-4, Pan edition, 5th printing, 1979.

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Flashman, Flashman quotes,fear, sin.

Two countries

…I’d learned enough in my brief unhappy experience of the United States to know that it was two countries even then, and they hated each other like poison.

Flash For Freedom!, p.223, Pan edition, 8th printing, 1980.

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Flashman, Flashman quotes.