Pluck the thorns

But life ain’t a bed of roses, and you must just pluck the thorns out of your rump and get on.

Flashman and the Redskins, p.348, Pan Books edition, 1983.

Tags:Flashman, Flashman quotes, life.

bristle up the courage

…a strange recklessness had come over me. I was beyond caring, I suppose, but I remember I stood muttering to myself before a mirror as I brushed my hair: ‘Come on, Flashy, my boy, they haven’t got you yet…. you’re still here ain’t you? Your backside is better enough for you to run again, if need be – bristle up the courage of the cornered rat, put on a bold front, and to hell with them. Bluff my boy – bluff, shift and lie for the sake of your neck and the honour of Old England.

Flash For Freedom!, p.257, Pan edition, 8th printing, 1980.

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Wounded several times

I’ve been wounded several times, all of them damned painful, but you may take word for it that a ball in the bum is the worst.

Flash For Freedom!, p.240, Pan edition, 8th printing, 1980.

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Here lies Harry Flashman

   ‘My God, are you hurt?’ she cried, and for some idiot reason I had a vision of a tombstone bearing the legend: ‘Here lies Harry Flashman, late 11th Hussars, shot in the arse while crossing the Ohio River’.

Flash For Freedom!, p.233, Pan edition, 8th printing, 1980.

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Solemn word

…to this day I have his trick of rubbing one hand across the back of the other (when thinking deeply), and that I entirely lost my own habit of scratching my backside (when puzzled). Royalty – I have Bersonin’s solemn word for it – never claw at their arses to assist thought.

Royal Flash, p.129, Pan edition, 8th printing, 1978.

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From neck to backside

…I felt as though I had been coupling with a roll of barbed wire. I was bruised, scratched, bitten and stabbed from neck to backside.

Royal Flash, pp.22-23, Pan edition, 8th printing, 1978.

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Subtly laid schemes

Scholars, of course, won’t have it so. Policies they say, and the subtly laid schemes of statesmen, are what influences the destinies of nations; the opinions of intellectuals, the writings of philosophers, settle the fate of mankind. Well, they may do their share, but in my experience the course of history is as often settled by someone having a belly-ache, or not sleeping well, or a sailor getting drunk, or some aristocratic harlot waggling her backside.

Royal Flash, p.11, Pan edition, 8th printing, 1978.

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Flashman, Flashman quotes.

Pretty enough beneath the neck

And only then did I realize who the girl was. We are accustomed to think of her as the old queen, but she was just a child then, rather plump, and pretty enough beneath the neck. Her eyes were large and popped a little, and her teeth stuck out too much, but she smiled and murmured in reply – by this time I was bowing my backside off, naturally.

Flashman, p.271, Pan edition, 12th printing, 1979.

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Flashman, Flashman quotes,Queen Victoria.

Full of self-impotance

I could have kicked Pottinger’s fat backside for him; he was so damned full of self-importance, standing there looking like Jesus Christ, with his lovely brown beard and whiskers.

Flashman, p.187, Pan edition, 12th printing, 1979.

Tags:
Flashman, Flashman quotes,Eldred Pottinger.