This suffragette nonsense

Got her head full of this suffragette nonsense — well, I don’t care, women are as fit to vote as men, any day, for my money.



Mr American, p.187, Pan Books, paperback edition 1982.



Tags: Flashman, Flashman quotes, suffragette.

Beard at high port

      Here he ran out of words, and drew himself up, beard at high port, shaking his great head while he clasped my hand, and i meditated on the astonishing ease with which strong men of Victorian vintage could be buffaloed into incoherent embarrassment by the mere mention of feminine frailty. Something to do with public school training, I fancy.


Flashman on the March, p.278, Harper Collins, paperback edition 2005.


Tags: Flashman, Flashman quotes, ease.

Except by the lion

      During this sisterly exchange I’d been ignored except by the lion, which had ambled up to rub his great head against my ribs — until Masteeat clicked her tongue, at which he trotted out obediently. Meanwhile she continued to pet her “pretty antelope”, the murderous virago who’d tried to dethrone her and was being coddled like a prodigal daughter . . . no, I can’t fathom women.


Flashman on the March, p.154, Harper Collins, paperback edition 2005.


Tags: Flashman, Flashman quotes, lion.

Little by little

A land of mystery and terror and cruelty, and the loveliest women in all Africa . . . a smiling golden nymph in her little leather tunic, teasing me as she sat by a woodland stream plaiting her braids . . . a gaudy barbarian queen lounging on cushions surrounded by her tame lions . . . a tawny young beauty remarking to my captors: “If we feed him into the fire, little by little, he will speak . . .”
       Aye, it’s and interesting country, Abyssinia.


Flashman on the March, p.14, Harper Collins, paperback edition 2005.


Tags: Flashman, Flashman quotes, Abyssinia.

Rendered maudlin

She was anxious for me, you see, the besotted little aristo — it's remarkable how even the most worldly of women can be rendered maudlin by Adam's arsenal.


Flashman and the Tiger, p.115, Harper Collins, paperback edition 2000.


Tags: Flashman, Flashman quotes, maudlin.

A sort of larger Glasgow

      So that was my first impression of New York, gained in a few brief hours: splendid women on the go, but nothing else out of the ordinary, for the town itself was a sort of larger Glasgow — there were no sky-scrapers then — and chiefly remarkable for being paved apparently with peanut shells, which were sold by swarms of urchins and crackled underfoot wherever you turned, even in the lobby of the Astor House…

Flashman and the Angel of the Lord, p.153, Harper Collins, 1995.


Tags: Flashman, Flashman quotes, New York.

The women of New York

I refer to the women of New York, who for beauty of face and form, elegance of dress, and general style and deportment, are quite the finest I’ve struck — until they open their mouths, that is, which they do most of the time, but even that incessant nasal braying can’t rob them of their exquisite charm.

Flashman and the Angel of the Lord, p.151, Harper Collins, 1995.


Tags: Flashman, Flashman quotes, New York.

Where's the beef?

…never mind the pasture it comes from, it’s the meat that matters.



Flashman and the Angel of the Lord, p.47, Harper Collins, 1995.



Tags: Flashman, Flashman quotes, meat.

Hardly a parfit gentil knight

I guess I’m like Alick Gardner: I can’t abide wanton cruelty to good-looking women. Not by other folk, anyway.


Flashman and the Mountain of Light, p.132, Fontana Paperback edition, 1991.



Tags: Flashman, Flashman quotes, cruelty.

A little touch

A little touch of Flashy in the night goes a long way with some women…



Flashman and the Dragon, p.88, Fontana Paperback edition, 1986.



Tags: Flashman, Flashman quotes, night.

Savage females of the species

… I say this without conceit, since it ain’t my doing — while civilized women have been more than ordinarily partial to me, my most ardent admirers have been the savage females of the species. Take the captain of Gezo’s Amazons, for example, who’d ogled me so outrageously during the death-house feast; or Sonsee-array the Apache (my fourth wife, in a manner of speaking); or Queen Ranavalona, who’d once confessed shyly that when I died she intended to have part of me pickled in a bottle, and worshipped; or Lady Caroline Lamb — the Dahomey slave, not the other one, who was before my time. Yes, I’ve done well among the barbarian ladies. Elspeth, of course, is Scottish.



Flashman and the Dragon, p.81, Fontana Paperback edition, 1986.


Tags: Flashman, Flashman quotes, barbarian.

First law of economics

Old Professor Flashy’s first law of economics is that the time to beware of a pretty woman is not when you’re flush with cash (well, you know what she’d after, and what’s a bankroll more or less?), but when you’re short of the scratch, and she offers to set you right. Because that ain’t natural, and God knows what she’s up to.

Flashman and the Dragon, p.9, Fontana Paperback edition, 1986.

Tags: Flashman, Flashman quotes, economics.

Sane in solitary confinement

I’ve heard of chaps who kept themselves sane in solitary confinement by singing all the hymns they knew, or proving the propositions of Euclid, or reciting poetry. Each to his taste: I’m no hand at religion, or geometry, and the only respectable poem I can remember is an Ode to Horace which Arnold made me learn as a punishment for farting at prayers. So instead I compiled a mental list of all the women I’d had in my life, from the sweaty kitchen maid in Leicestershire when I was fifteen, up to the half-caste piece I’d been reprimanded for at Cawnpore, and to my astonishment there were four hundred and seventy-eight of them, which seemed rather a lot, especially since I was counting return engagements. It’s astonishing really, when you think how much time it must have taken up.

Flashman in the Great Game, p.309, Pan edition, 4th printing, 1979.

Thou art no fool

      Ilderim glanced at me witheringly, and bit his nail in scorn.
      ‘Bloody Lance,’ says he, ‘ye may be as the bravest rider in the British Army and God knows thou art no fool – but with women thou art a witless infant.’

Flashman in the Great Game, p.173, Pan edition, 4th printing, 1979.

Tags:
Flashman, Flashman quotes, witless.

Terrible women

Terrible women, in their way – the mem-sahibs. But it would have been a different country without ’em – and I’m not sure the Raj would have survived the year ’57, if they hadn’t been there, interfering.

Flashman in the Great Game, p.134, Pan edition, 4th printing, 1979.

Tags:
Flashman, Flashman quotes,mem-sahib, Indian Mutiny.

Queens or commoners

I know these beauties, you see, and it don’t matter whether they’re queens or commoners, when they start to play the cool, mocking grande dame it’s a sure sign that they’re wondering what kind of mount you’ll make.

Flashman in the Great Game, p.85, Pan edition, 4th printing, 1979.

Tags:
Flashman, Flashman quotes.

Full of zeal and athirst for glory

…he was one of your play-up-and-fear-God paladins, full of zeal and athirst for glory, was John, and said his prayers and didn’t drink and thought women were either nuns or mothers.

Flashman in the Great Game, p.61, Pan edition, 4th printing, 1979.

Tags:
Flashman, Flashman quotes,John Nicholson, paladin.

Cryptic sayings

‘Put no faith in women, and as much in the Chinese,’ says Kutebar cryptically.

Flashman at the Charge, p.221, Pan edition, 5th printing, 1979.

Tags:
Flashman, Flashman quotes,women, Chinese.

One word

He was the kind who knew exactly what was what, where everything was, and precisely who was who – especially himself. He was probably a devil with women, admired by his superiors, hated by his rivals, and abjectly feared by his subordinates. One word summed him up: bastard.

Flashman at the Charge, p.10, Pan edition, 5th printing, 1979.

Tags:
Flashman, Flashman quotes,bastard.

A trot-along look

Well, well, thinks I, little Vicky remembers my whiskers after all these years. I recalled how she had mooned tearfully at me when she pinned my medal on, back in ’42 – they’re all alike you know, can’t resist a dashing boy with big shoulders and a trot-along look in his eye.

Flashman at the Charge, p.31, Pan edition, 5th printing, 1979.

Tags:
Flashman, Flashman quotes,Queen Victoria, whiskers.