Backhanded tribute

It's a backhanded tribute to the memory of the late unlamented Rudi Von Starnberg that my first impulse on meeting his offspring was to look for the communication cord and bawl for help. Time was I’d ha’ done both, but when you've reached your sixties you've either learned to bottle your panic, sit tight, and think like blazes . . . or you haven't reached your sixties, mallum?*

* understand?


Flashman and the Tiger, p.77, Harper Collins, paperback edition 2000.


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Rightful place

      If life has taught me anything at all, it’s how to keep my countenance in the presence of stong, authoritative men whose rightful place is in a padded cell.


Flashman and the Mountain of Light, p.203, Fontana Paperback edition, 1991.


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Learned as an officer

…for one thing I’ve learned as an officer is never to give an order unless there’s a good chance of its being obeyed.

Flashman in the Great Game, pp.142-3, Pan edition, 4th printing, 1979.

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Flashman, Flashman quotes, officer, order.

No ordinary packet rats

...my respect for them had increased mightily over our encounter with the British sloop, which had confirmed my earlier impression that these were no ordinary packet rats with the points knocked off their knives, but prime hands. And I've learned that no time is wasted which is spent listening to men who really know their work.

Flash For Freedom!, p.96-7, Pan edition, 8th printing, 1980.

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Flashman, Flashman quotes.