Unimpeachable source

. . . and the source was unimpeachable — I’ve lived with her seventy years, after all, and know that while she may suppress a little veri and suggest a touch of falsi on occasion, Elspeth ain’t a liar.


Flashman and the Tiger, p.254, Harper Collins, paperback edition 2000.


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Silence and shrewdness

…silence frequently passes for shrewdness, and that while suppressio veri is a damned good servant, suggestio falsi is a perilous master, Selah.

Flashman and the Dragon, p.262, Fontana Paperback edition, 1986.



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Whet your prevarications

There’s nothing more discouraging than lying to a poker face, when what you need is gasps and whistles and cries of “I’ll be damned!” and “What happened then?” to whet your prevarications.

Flashman and the Dragon, pp.36-37, Fontana Paperback edition, 1986.

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The Flashman character profile

…I was so relieved that I was almost happy as I listened to him denouncing me for a wastrel, a fornicator, a cheat, a liar, a brute, and all the rest of it – I couldn’t fault a word of it, anyway.

Flash For Freedom!, p.40, Pan edition, 8th printing, 1980.

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Flashman, Flashman quotes,William Elphinstone, Elphy Bey.

Pleasure in catastrophe

There is great pleasure in catastrophe that doesn’t touch you, and anyone who says there isn’t is a liar. Haven’t you seen it in the face of a bearer of bad news, and heard it in the unctuous phrases at the church gate after a funeral?

Flashman, pp.206 - 07, Pan edition, 12th printing, 1979.

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Flashman, Flashman quotes,catastrophe, pleasure.