1. Quotes
  2. Authors
  3. Rafael Sabatini

Rafael Sabatini Quotes

Rafael Sabatini was an Italian/English writer of novels of romance and adventure.

He is best known for his worldwide bestsellers:

The Sea Hawk , a tale of an Elizabethan Englishman among the pirates of the Barbary Coast

Scaramouche , a tale of the French Revolution in which a fugitive hides out in a commedia dell'arte troupe and later becomes a fencing master

Captain Blood , in which the title character is admiral of a fleet of pirate ships.

Bellarion the Fortunate , about a cunning young man who finds himself immersed in the politics of fifteenth-century Italy

In all, Sabatini produced 31 novels, eight short story collections, six non-fiction books, numerous uncollected short stories, and several plays.

✵ 29. April 1875 – 13. February 1950  •  Other names Sabatini
Rafael Sabatini photo

Works

Scaramouche
Rafael Sabatini
Captain Blood
Rafael Sabatini
Scaramouche
Rafael Sabatini
Captain Blood
Rafael Sabatini
Rafael Sabatini: 19 quotes0 likes

Famous Rafael Sabatini Quotes

“But I like my madness. There is a thrill in it unknown to such sanity as yours.”

Rafael Sabatini book Scaramouche

Book 1, Chapter 9
Source: Scaramouche

“Do you expect sincerity in man when hypocrisy is the very keynote of human nature? We are nurtured on it; we are schooled in it, we live by it; and we rarely realize it.”

Rafael Sabatini book Scaramouche

Book 3, Chapter 16
Source: Scaramouche

“To do what you imply would require nothing short of divine intervention. You must change man, not systems.”

Rafael Sabatini book Scaramouche

Source: Scaramouche

“Do you know, André, I sometimes think that you have no heart.'
'Presumably because I sometimes betray intelligence.”

Rafael Sabatini book Scaramouche

Source: Scaramouche

Rafael Sabatini Quotes about the world

“He was born with a gift of laughter and a sense that the world was mad.”

Rafael Sabatini book Scaramouche

This is the opening line of the novel. Sabatini used it as his epitaph.
Variant: He was born with a gift of laughter and a sense that the world was mad. And that was all his patrimony.
Source: Scaramouche (1921), Ch. I: "The Republican"

“Thirstily he set it to his lips, and as its cool refreshment began to soothe his throat, he thanked Heaven that in a world of much evil there was still so good a thing as ale.”

Rafael Sabatini

Source: Fortune's Fool

“A man must sometimes laugh at himself or go mad,’ said he. ‘Few realize it. That is why there are so many madmen in the world.”

Rafael Sabatini book Captain Blood

Source: Captain Blood

Rafael Sabatini Quotes

“When we know all of whatever it may be, we can never do anything but forgive, madame. That is the profoundest religious truth that was ever written. It contains, in fact, a whole religion—the noblest religion any man could have to guide him.”

Rafael Sabatini book Scaramouche

Source: Scaramouche (1921), Ch. XIV: "The Barrier"

“But they were fated to misunderstand each other.”

Rafael Sabatini book Captain Blood

Source: Captain Blood

“Only he who is without anything is without enemies.”

Rafael Sabatini

Source: Captain Blood Returns

“Truth is so often disconcerting.”

Rafael Sabatini book Scaramouche

Source: Scaramouche

“Bestir, ladies! To your chaise, and see that you contrive to look your best. Soon the eyes of Guichen will be upon you, and the condition of your interior to-morrow will depend upon the impression made by your exterior to-day.”

Rafael Sabatini book Scaramouche

Book II. Chapter 2. The Service of Thespis
Scaramouche (1921)

“It was heroic!"
"Heroic, is it? Bedad, it's epic! Ye begin to perceive the breadth and depth of my genius.”

Rafael Sabatini book Captain Blood

Source: Captain Blood (1922), Ch. IX: "The Rebels-Convict"

“They opposed brute force to reason and philosophy, and battalions of foreign mercenaries to ideas. As if ideas were to be impaled on bayonets!”

Rafael Sabatini book Scaramouche

Book III : Chapter 2. Quos Deus Vult Perdere
Scaramouche (1921)

“You have changed a certainty into a possibility, and I hate possibilities — God of God! I have lived on possibilities, and infernally near starved on them.”

Rafael Sabatini book Scaramouche

Book II : Chapter 11. The Fracas at the Theatre Feydau
Scaramouche (1921)

“Mr Pollexfen was at one and the same time right and wrong—a condition much more common than is generally supposed.”

Rafael Sabatini book Captain Blood

Source: Captain Blood (1922), Ch. IV: "Human Merchandise"

“"Sir!" she checked him. "I think you are talking treason."
"I hope I am not obscure," said he.”

Rafael Sabatini book Captain Blood

Source: Captain Blood (1922), Ch. V: "Arabella Bishop"

Similar authors

Luciano De Crescenzo photo
Luciano De Crescenzo1
Italian writer None
Alessandro Baricco photo
Alessandro Baricco9
Italian writer None
Italo Calvino photo
Italo Calvino44
Italian journalist and writer of short stories and novels None
Gianni Agnelli photo
Gianni Agnelli5
Italian businessman None
Alberto Moravia photo
Alberto Moravia8
Italian writer and journalist None
Pier Paolo Pasolini photo
Pier Paolo Pasolini3
Italian film director, poet, writer and intellectual None
Rita Levi-Montalcini photo
Rita Levi-Montalcini15
Italian neurologist None
Oriana Fallaci photo
Oriana Fallaci19
Italian writer None
Carlo Rubbia photo
Carlo Rubbia1
Italian particle physicist None
Luigi Pirandello photo
Luigi Pirandello7
Italian dramatist, novelist, short story writer, and poet, … None