Patrick O'Brian Quotes

“Other people's marriages are a perpetual source of amazement.”

“Wit is the unexpected copulation of ideas.”

“I sew his ears on from time to time, sure.”

“Stephen had spared no expense in making himself more unhappy, his own position as a rejected lover clearer.”

“I am opposed to authority, that egg of misery and oppression; I am opposed to it largely for what it does to those who exercise it.”

“Jack, you have debauched my sloth.”

“We understood one another better before ever I opened my mouth”

“And pray, what in sea language is meant by a ship?”

“Come," he said, taking her by the hand and leading her to a distant sopha, "come and sit by me, and let us talk of bats.”

“… He is not very sharp in some ways; and in his simple view of the world, paederasts are dangerous only to powder-monkeys and choir boys, or to those epicene creatures that are to be found in Mediterranean brothels. I made circuitous attempt at enlightening him a little, but he looked very knowing and said, 'Don't tell me about rears and vices; I have been in the Navy all my life.'"
"Then surely he must be wanting a little in penetration?”

“My God, oh my God," he said. "Six hundred men.”

“But you know as well as I, patriotism is a word; and one that generally comes to mean either my country, right or wrong, which is infamous, or my country is always right, which is imbecile.”