Arthur Ransome citations

“Only, the beastly Arctic won't freeze”

“Softly, at first, as if it hardly meant it, the snow began to fall.”

“Grab a chance and you won't be sorry for a might-have-been.”

“They found, like many explorers before them, that somehow, in their absence, they had got into trouble at home.”

“When a thing's done, it's done, and if it's not done right, do it differently next time.”

“A pigeon a day keeps the natives away”

“Houses, are but badly built boats so firmly aground that you cannot think of moving them. They are definitely inferior things, belonging to the vegetable not the animal world, rooted and stationary, incapable of gay transition. I admit, doubtfully, as exceptions, snail-shells and caravans. The desire to build a house is the tired wish of a man content thenceforward with a single anchorage. The desire to build a boat is the desire of youth, unwilling yet to accept the idea of a final resting-place.”

“A lot of things were lucky," said Daddy, and suddenly, while they were walking along, brought his hand down on John's shoulder and gave it a bit of a squeeze. "You'll be a seaman yet, my son." And John, for one dreadful moment, felt that something was going wrong with his eyes. A sort of wetness, and hotness… Partly salt… Pleased though he was, he found himself biting his lower lip pretty hard, and looking the other way.”

“She's got a rum job, but she knows how to do it, and to have a job and know how to do it is one of the best things in this life. And if only she stops hankering after Cambridge…”

“BETTER DROWNED THAN DUFFERS IF NOT DUFFERS WONT DROWN.”