Damned crowded place

My little anthropologist would say it was all the white man’s fault for intruding; no doubt, but by that logic Ur of the Chaldees would be a damned crowded place by now.

Flashman and the Redskins, p.171, Pan Books edition, 1983.

Tags:Flashman, Flashman quotes, Ur.

Reservation or the grave

      The Indian’s tragedy was that being a spoiled and arrogant savage who wouldn’t lie down, and a brave and expert fighter who happened to be quite useless at war, he could only be suppressed with a brutality that often matched his own. It was the reservation or the grave, there was no other way.

Flashman and the Redskins, p.171, Pan Books edition, 1983.

Tags:Flashman, Flashman quotes, tragedy.

Not the best position

      You begin to understand, perhaps, the impossibility of red man and white man ever understanding each other—not that it would have made a damned bit of difference if they had, or altered the Yankees’ Indian policy, except perhaps in the direction of wiping up such intractable bastards even faster that they did. They knew they were going to have to dispossess the redskins, but being good Christian humbugs they kept trying to bully and cajole them into accepting the theft gracefully—which ain’t quite the best position from which to make treaties with unreliable savages who are accustomed to rob rather than be robbed, and who don’t understand what government and authority mean, anyway.

Flashman and the Redskins, p.170, Pan Books edition, 1983.

Tags:Flashman, Flashman quotes, dispossess.

Drains and bottled beer

      You see, it’s the great illusion of our civilization that when the poor heathen saw our steamships and elections and drains and bottled beer, he’d realise what a benighted ass he’d been and come into the fold. But he don’t. Oh, he’ll take what he fancies, and can use (cheap booze and rifles), but not on that account will he think we’re better. He knows different.

Flashman and the Redskins, p.170, Pan Books edition, 1983.

Tags:Flashman, Flashman quotes, civilization.

A different mystery on the bestial floor

This twisted morality is almost impossible for white folk to understand; they look for excuses, and say the poor savage don’t know right from wrong. Jack Cremony had the best answer to that: if you think an Apache can’t tell right from wrong—wrong him and see what happens.

Flashman and the Redskins, p.169, Pan Books edition, 1983.

Tags:Flashman, Flashman quotes, wrong.

A fine psychologist

He was a fine psychologist—you’ll note he had weighed me for a fugitive and a scoundrel on short acquaintance—an astute politician, and a bloody, cruel, treacherous barbarian who’d have been a disgrace to the Stone Age. If that seems contradictory—well, Indians are contrary critters, and Apaches more than most.

Flashman and the Redskins, p.169, Pan Books edition, 1983.

Tags:Flashman, Flashman quotes, contradictory.

An Apache ponders

Why should the Americanos try to force their law on us? . . . It is because their spirit tells them to spread their law to all people, and they believe their spirit is better than ours.

Flashman and the Redskins, p.167, Pan Books edition, 1983.

Tags:Flashman, Flashman quotes, law.

Mixing their drinks

...Mangas held an enormous jollification on corn-beer and pine-bark spirit and a fearsome cactus tipple called mescal; they don't mind mixing their drinks, those fellows, and got beastly foxed.

Flashman and the Redskins, p.164, Pan Books edition, 1983.

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A difficult appointment

He’d evidently been appointed my bear-leader…

Flashman and the Redskins, p.162, Pan Books edition, 1983.

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Inclined to be amiable

…the Yawner himself was more friendly now that he’d saved my life—have you noticed, the man who does a good turn is often more inclined to be amiable than the chap who received it?

Flashman and the Redskins, p.162, Pan Books edition, 1983.

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A monocle isn't likely to impress

     Possibly because I’ve spent so much time as the unwilling guest of various barbarians around the world, I’ve learned to mistrust romances in which the white hero wins the awestruck regard of the silly savages by sporting a monocle or predicting a convenient eclipse, whereafter they worship him as a god, or make him blood brother, and in no time he’s teaching ‘em close order drill and crop rotation, and generally running the whole show. In my experience, they know all about eclipses, and a monocle isn’t likely to impress an aborigine who wears a bone through his nose.

Flashman and the Redskins, p.161, Pan Books edition, 1983.

Tags:Flashman, Flashman quotes, monocle.

Take courage for granted

The Apaches, you see, being matchless warriors, tend to take courage for granted, especially in big, burly fellows who look as much like a Tartar as I do…

Flashman and the Redskins, p.158, Pan Books edition, 1983.

Tags:Flashman, Flashman quotes, courage.

Built like a champion middleweight

      Now, you know what I think of mortal combat. I’ve run from more than I can count, and never lived to regret it, and this lean ten stone of quivering fighting fury, obviously as nimble as a weasel and built like a champion middleweight, was the last man I wanted to try conclusions with—well, I’d been ill.

Flashman and the Redskins, p.157, Pan Books edition, 1983.

Tags:Flashman, Flashman quotes, combat.

Survive and prosper

      There’s no question that a public school education is an advantage. it may not make you a scholar or a gentleman or a Christian, but it does teach you to survive and prosper—and one other invaluable thing: style.

Flashman and the Redskins, p.148, Pan Books edition, 1983.

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Not a knife

…I hacked at his face; a Bowie is not a knife, by the way, but a two-foot pointed cleaver, and if I’d got home it would have been brains for supper…

Flashman and the Redskins, p.145, Pan Books edition, 1983.

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A certain look

He grimaced like a sow in labour…

Flashman and the Redskins, p.123, Pan Books edition, 1983.

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Translating Flashman

…the Indians were preparing to give it toco…

Flashman and the Redskins, p.110, Pan Books edition, 1983.

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Tremendous trim

…a few fire-arrows had come over and been promptly stifled by the invalids, who were in tremendous trim, bawling orders to each other and striding about like Nelson on the quarterdeck.

Flashman and the Redskins, p.105, Pan Books edition, 1983.

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Faces like Roman senators

They were the first Cheyenne I’d ever seen close to, and if the Brulé Sioux had been alarming, these would have put the fear of God up Wellington. On average, they were the biggest Indians I ever saw, as big as I am—great massive-shouldered brutes with long braided hair and faces like Roman senators, and even in their distress, proud as grandees.

Flashman and the Redskins, p.83, Pan Books edition, 1983.

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The likely Mr Nugent-Hare

… when he dismounted, it was like a seal sliding off a rock. Gentleman-ranker, thinks I, bog-Irish gentry, village school, seen inside Dublin Castle, no doubt, but no rhino for a commission. a very easy, likely lad, with a lazy smile and a long nose.

Flashman and the Redskins, p.66, Pan Books edition, 1983.

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Stone idol

…and she was beautiful… with a figurehead like St Cecilia and a body that would have brought a stone idol howling off its pedestal.

Flashman and the Redskins, pp.78-79, Pan Books edition, 1983.

Tags:Flashman, Flashman quotes, idol.