He'd still be employable today

Mangles, at the Board of Control in London, had described it as ‘tranquil beneath the Company’s benevolent rule’, but he was a pompous ass with a talent for talking complete bosh on subjects on which he was an authority.

Flashman in the Great Game, p.65, Pan edition, 4th printing, 1979.

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Flashman, Flashman quotes,pompous, talent.

Ideal partners

‘But that’s the point!’ He clapped his hands. ‘We are the ideal partners – neither of us trusts the other an inch, but we need each other. It’s the only guarantee in any business. You’re as big a rascal as I am; we would sell each other tomorrow, but there isn’t the need.
   Our financiers know all of this, of course, but I’ve often thought that our diplomats and politicians could have gone to school to Professor Starnberg.

Royal Flash, p.220, Pan edition, 8th printing, 1978.

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Flashman, Flashman quotes.