A Sikh with his bayonet fixed

. . . and then the Sikhs were charging them with the bayonet against Ab spears and swords, smashing into their ranks like a steel fist, outnumbered but forcing the robed tribesman back, and standing by Theodore on Fala I had to clamp my jaws tight to stop myself yelling, for I remembered their fathers and uncles at Sobraon, you see, and within I was crying: “Khasla-ji! Sat-sree-akal!” There’s no hand-to-hand fighter in the world better than a Sikh with his bayonet fixed . . .


Flashman on the March, p.239, Harper Collins, paperback edition 2005.


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Fall out, Flashy

The army of Abyssinia was at rest, thousands of men loafing and talking and brewing their billies like anu other soldiers, save that these were black, and instead of shirt-sleeves and dangling galluses there were white shamas and tight leggings, and as well as the piled firearms there were stands of spears and racks of sickle bladed swords. They looked well, as the Gallas had done, and perhaps as soon as tomorrow they would go out to face the finest army in the world under one of the great captains. And how many come well to bed-time? And how many King’s Own and Dukes and Baluch, for that matter? Fall out, Flashy, thinks I, this ain’t your party; lie low, keep quiet, and above all, stay alive.


Flashman on the March, pp.198-99, Harper Collins, paperback edition 2005.


Tags: Flashman, Flashman quotes, soldiers.

Nowhere to hide

      I’d never have done for the Navy. You may fool soldiers by holding aloof and looking martial, but Jack would have seen through me before we’d crossed the bar. That’s the hellish thing about life aboard ship — there’s nowhere to hide either your carcase or your nature.


Flashman on the March, p.17, Harper Collins, paperback edition 2005.


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Worth an extra division

      I ain’t one of your by jingoes, and I won’t swear that the British soldier is braver than any other — or even, as Charley Gordon said, that he’s brave for a little while longer. But I will swear that there’s no soldier on earth who believes so strongly in the courage of the men alongside him — and that’s worth an extra division any day. Provided you’re not standing alongside me, that is.


Flashman and the Mountain of Light, p.255, Fontana Paperback edition, 1991.



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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.



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The effect of plunder

“It’s a marvelous thing, the effect of plunder on soldiers, I suppose they feel real power for once in their wretched lives — not the power to kill, they all know about that, it’s just brute force against a body — but the greater power to destroy a creation of the mind, something they know they could never make."


Flashman and the Dragon, p.267, Fontana Paperback edition, 1986.


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Ill-suited to peacetime

I reflected, watching him that night, how the best soldiers in war are so often ill-suited to peacetime service…

Flashman and the Redskins, p.255, Pan Books edition, 1983.

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Cold eyes and pale faces

‘Can you not see that that is not our way – that none of our ways are your ways? you talk of your reforms, and the benefits of British law and the Sirkar’s rule – and never think that what seems ideal to you may not suit others; that we have our own customs, which you may think strange and foolish, and perhaps they are – but they are ours – our own! You come, in your strength, and your certaintu, with your cold eyes and pale faces, like … like machines marching out of your northern ice and you will have everything in order, tramping in step like your soldiers, whether those you conquer and civilize – as you call it – whether they will do or no. Do you not see that it is better to leave people be – to let them alone?’

Flashman in the Great Game, p.95, Pan edition, 4th printing, 1979.

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Flashman, Flashman quotes,Rani Lakshmibai.

Flashman observes

You can’t make soldiers out of slaves.

Flashman at the Charge, p.147, Pan edition, 5th printing, 1979.

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Grim work

It was grim work, I may tell you, for she was a sour tyrant of a woman and looked on me as she looked on all soldiers, Englishmen and men under fifty years of age - as frivolous, Godless, feckless and unworthy.




Flashman, p. 54, Pan edition, 12th printing, 1979.

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Flashman, Englishmen, godless, unworthy, soldiers