Word of a gentleman

I’ve also known from the age of three that “honour” and “solemn oath” and “word of a gentleman” are mere piss in the wind of greed, ambition, and fear.


Flashman and the Tiger, p.227, Harper Collins, paperback edition 2000.


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Spunk an' gumption

“…ev’ybody — got sumpn to take to market, if they got the spunk an’ gumption to make the most o’ theyselves. You is what you think you is — an’ that’s why Ah’m a lady.”


Flashman and the Angel of the Lord, p.293, Harper Collins, 1995.


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Implacable zeal

…always the same concentration, the same implacable zeal for perfection. No wonder she became mistress of all China — or that the Emperor died of her mattress gymnastics. Ten years? It’s a marvel he lasted ten days.


Flashman and the Dragon, pp.238-39, Fontana Paperback edition, 1986.



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The wages of ambition

      I watched his sedan jogging away across the plain in the wake of his tatterdemalion regiment, and thought, well, there’s another damned fool gone to collect the wages of ambition. I was right — and wrong. He found his bed in the paddy, as I’d foretold, and hardly anyone remembers even his name nowadays, but you may say without him Chinese Gordon might never have had a look-in.

Flashman and the Dragon, p.143, Fontana Paperback edition, 1986.



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More horse soldiering than most

He knew he was a good soldier—and he was you know, when he was in his right mind. I’ve seen more horse soldiering than most, and if my life depended on how a mounted brigade was handled, I’d as soon see George Custer in command as anyone I know. His critics, who never saw him at Gettysburg and Yellow Tavern, base their case on one piece of arrant folly and bad luck, when he let his ambition get the better of him.

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

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Exchanging governments

      1876 being the hundredth anniversary of the glorious moment when the Yankee colonists exchanged a government of incompetent British scoundrels for one of ambitious American sharpers…

Flashman and the Redskins, p.251, Pan Books edition, 1983.

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What indeed

And what is there, I ask you, that a man will not dare, so long as he has a fast horse and a clear road out of town?

Royal Flash, p.241, Pan edition, 8th printing, 1978.

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A much better motto

So I told him I had ambitions, too – to live as I please, love as I please and never grow old. He didn’t think much of that , I fancy; he told me I was frivolous, and would be disappointed. Only the strong, he said, could afford ambitions. So I told him I had a much better motto than that…
“Courage – and shuffle the cards”...

Royal Flash, p.25, Pan edition, 8th printing, 1978.

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Hellish thing

Pride is a hellish thing; without it there isn’t any jealousy or ambition.

Flashman, p.279, Pan edition, 12th printing, 1979.

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