No electorate likes that

‘He was a decent fellow — far too decent for politics. He wouldn’t have lasted, you know, after the war. Men like him never do; people decide they’re too clever, and besides, they feel obliged to ’em, and no electorate likes that. No, you’d have got rid of him, if Booth hadn’t.


Mr American, p.392, Pan Books, paperback edition 1982.



Tags: Flashman, Flashman quotes, Abraham Lincoln.

Smash a few windows

      ‘Well, of course I find it funny! Dam’ ridiculous. Votes for women!’ The old gentleman snorted. ‘If you’d any sense you’d campaign to have the vote taken away from men — I’d smash a few windows myself if I thought it would keep clowns like Asquith out of Parliament.’


Mr American, p.186, Pan Books, paperback edition 1982.



Tags: Flashman, Flashman quotes, women's suffrage.

More of Flashy on politicians

“… it takes a peculiar combination of the imbeciles, the toady, and the braggart to run for office in the first place.”


Flashman and the Angel of the Lord, p.350, Harper Collins, 1995.


Tags: Flashman, Flashman quotes, politicians.

Immutable law

“What immutable law,” he went on, “decrees that the obtuser the politician, the higher he will rise?”


Flashman and the Angel of the Lord, p.350, Harper Collins, 1995.


Tags: Flashman, Flashman quotes, politician.

Devoid of principles

      They tell me he was a man quite devoid of principles, whatever they are, but I’d put it another way and say he was a consummate politician.


Flashman and the Angel of the Lord, p.184, Harper Collins, 1995.


Tags: Flashman, Flashman quotes, principles.

Most wars

In most wars, you see, killing is only the means to a political end, but in the Sutlej campaign it was an end in itself.



Flashman and the Mountain of Light, p.342, Fontana Paperback edition, 1991.




Tags: Flashman, Flashman quotes, war.

Complete and unashamed

      There’s a point, you know, where treachery is so complete and unashamed that it becomes statesmanship.



Flashman and the Mountain of Light, p.310, Fontana Paperback edition, 1991.



Tags: Flashman, Flashman quotes, treachery.

The great thing about policy

That’s the great thing about policy, and why the world is such an infernal place: the man who makes the policy don’t have to carry it out, and the man who carries it out ain’t responsible for the policy.

Flashman and the Dragon, p.283, Fontana Paperback edition, 1986.



Tags: Flashman, Flashman quotes, policy.

The mystery that binds

“…no. He’s teaching China. The word will go to the ends of the Empire — how the barbarians came, and smashed the chalice, and went away. And for the first time all China will realise, that they’re not the world’s core, that their Emperor is not God, and that the dream they’ve lived in for thousands of years, is just . . . a dream. Gros was right—it’ll bring down the Manchoos, no error, not today, perhaps not for years, but at last. The mystery that binds China will go up in smoke with the Summer Palace, you see. And just by the way — China will break no more treaties; not in our time.”
      I thought about Yehonala, and wondered if he was right. As it turned out, he was, almost; China was quiet for forty years, until she roused the Boxers against us. And now the Manchoos are gone, and who’ll deny it was the fire that Elgin kindled that made China’s millions think thoughts they’d never thought before?

Flashman and the Dragon, p.279, Fontana Paperback edition, 1986.



Tags: Flashman, Flashman quotes, Elgin.

One of the hazards of Washington

Any gang of politicos is like the eighth circle of Hell, but the American breed is specially awful because they take it seriously and believe it matters; wherever you went, to dinner or an excursion or to pay a call, or even take a stroll, you were deafened with their infernal prosing—I daren’t go to the privy without making sure some seedy heeler wasn’t lying in wait to get me to join a caucus.

Flashman and the Redskins, p.229, Pan Books edition, 1983.

Tags:Flashman, Flashman quotes, politicos.

Palmerston was in the saddle

Which was what you’d have expected any half-competent government to stage-manage in the first place, but Palmerston was in the saddle by then, and he wasn’t really good at politics, you know.

Flashman in the Great Game, p.18, Pan edition, 4th printing, 1979.

Tags:
Flashman, Flashman quotes,Palmerston, politics.

Washington tea parties

     ‘You mean to say the women fight and torture and slay on behalf of their men folk? There can be no other country where this happens.’
     And Lincoln, very droll, inquites of him: ‘Have you attended any political tea parties in Washington lately, sir?’

Flash For Freedom!, p.127, Pan edition, 8th printing, 1980.

Tags:
Flashman, Flashman quotes,Abraham Lincoln.

Bellows to mend

‘Bad luck for your lot in Lords, hey?’ says I, and he lowered his lids at me in that smart-affected way he had. You know says I, ‘The Jewish Bill getting thrown out. Bellows to mend in Whitechapel, what?’


Flash For Freedom!, p.25, Pan edition, 8th printing, 1980.



Tags:
Flashman, Flashman quotes.

Evenly spread bigotry

…he had in tow the cocky little sheeny D’Israeli, whom I never could stomach. He was pathetic really, trying to behave like the Young Idea when he was well into greasy middle age, with his lovelock and fancy vest, like a Punjabi whoremaster….if I’d been able to read the future I might have toadied him a good deal more, I dare say.

Flash For Freedom!, pp.24-25, Pan edition, 8th printing, 1980.

Tags:
Flashman, Flashman quotes.

An evening at Cleeve House

In the meantime, the first evening at Cleeve was quite as much fun as a Methodist service. Of course, all Tory gatherings are the same, and Locke had assembled as choice a collection of know-all prigs as you could look for.

Flash For Freedom!, p.24, Pan edition, 8th printing, 1980.

Tags:
Flashman, Flashman quotes.

Kindred spirits at Westminister

  ‘You’re out of your senses,’ says I. Who would elect me?’
  ‘Anybody,’ snaps he. ‘A pug ape frae the zoological gardens could win a seat in this country, if he was managed right.’
Buttering me up, I could see.
  ‘But I’m not a politician,’ says I. ‘I know nothing about it and care even less.’
  ‘Then ye’re the very man, and ye’ll find plenty o’ kindred spirits at Westminister,’ says he…

Flash For Freedom!, p.20, Pan edition, 8th printing, 1980.

Tags:
Flashman, Flashman quotes.

Flashy on politicians

…they’re a contemptible lot [politicians], and you’ll agree that I had my full share of the qualities of character necessary in political life. I could lie and dissemble with the best, give short change with a hearty clap on the shoulder, slip out from under long before the blow fell, talk, toady, and turn tail as fast as a Yankee fakir selling patent pill. Mark you, I’ve never been given to interfering in other folk’s affairs if I could help it, so I suppose that would have disqualified me.

Flash For Freedom!, p.13, Pan edition, 8th printing, 1980.

Tags:
Flashman, Flashman quotes,politicans.

Flashy's politics

God knows I’m no Tory, and I never set eyes on a Whig yet without feeling the need of a bath..

Flash For Freedom!, p.13, Pan edition, 8th printing, 1980.

Tags:
Flashman, Flashman quotes,politics.

That old fool Gladstone

I believe it was the sight of that old fool Gladstone, standing in the pouring rain holding his special constable’s truncheon as though it were a bunch of lilies, and looking more like an unemployed undertaker’s mute than usual, that made me think seriously about going into politics.

Flash For Freedom!, p.13, Pan edition, 8th printing, 1980.

Tags:
Flashman, Flashman quotes,William Gladstone.

Food, drink, and women

A likely tale, thinks I; his only interest in politics was to get personal power, no matter how, and to gorge himself with food, drink, and women along the way. Nasty brute.

Royal Flash, p.131, Pan edition, 8th printing, 1978.

Tags:
Flashman, Flashman quotes.