“I had rather have a plain, russet-coated Captain, that knows what he fights for, and loves what he knows, than that you call a Gentleman and is nothing else.”

—  Oliver Cromwell

Letter to Sir William Spring (September 1643)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "I had rather have a plain, russet-coated Captain, that knows what he fights for, and loves what he knows, than that you…" by Oliver Cromwell?
Oliver Cromwell photo
Oliver Cromwell 49
English military and political leader 1599–1658

Related quotes

Ludwig Wittgenstein photo

“But if you say: "How am I to know what he means, when I see nothing but the signs he gives?" then I say: "How is he to know what he means, when he has nothing but the signs either?"”

Ludwig Wittgenstein book Philosophical Investigations

§ 504
Philosophical Investigations (1953)

Sylvia Day photo

“I'd rather argue with you, angel, than laugh with anyone else."

Jesus. It took me a minute to be able to swallow the last bite in my mouth.

"You know… I love you madly."

He smiled. "Yes, I know.”

Sylvia Day (1973) American writer

Source: Reflected in You

Imre Kertész photo

“If a person resolves to fight, he ought to know what he is fighting for. Otherwise it makes no sense.”

Imre Kertész (1929–2016) Hungarian writer

Source: Detective Story (2008), p. 69.
Context: If a person resolves to fight, he ought to know what he is fighting for. Otherwise it makes no sense. A person usually fights against a power in order to gain power himself. Or else because the power in question is threatening his life.

Harry Reid photo

“I said … unprepared, unscripted, that, "I know how to fight and I know how to dance, and I'd much rather dance than fight." ... What I didn't tell everybody was I was always a better fighter than dancer.”

Harry Reid (1939) American politician

Source: "Reid Says He's A Fighter Who'd Rather Dance", All Things Considered, NPR (18 May 2010) https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126905578

Baba Hari Dass photo

“A person knows what he knows. An animal knows, but doesn't know what he knows. In Yoga, "I" consciousness is called asmita klesha. It is classified as an affliction and a hindrance to attaining higher consciousness.”

Baba Hari Dass (1923–2018) master yogi, author, builder, commentator of Indian spiritual tradition

Source: Fire without Fuel - The Aphorisms of Baba Hari Dass (1986), Ch.III: Mind - Its Functions and Its Fantasies

Ernest Hemingway photo

“In going where you have to go, and doing what you have to do, and seeing what you have to see, you dull and blunt the instrument you write with. But I would rather have it bent and dulled and know I had to put it on the grindstone again and hammer it into shape and put a whetstone to it, and know that I had something to write about, than to have it bright and shining and nothing to say, or smooth and well oiled in the closet, but unused.”

Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) American author and journalist

Preface to The First Forty-Nine Stories (1944)

“Do you know what I am going to tell you, he said with his wry mouth, a pint of plain is your only man.”

Flann O'Brien (1911–1966) Irish writer

Source: "At Swim-Two-Birds" (1939), P. 22.

Samuel R. Delany photo

“You know, Mouse, I envy the captain. He’s got a mission. And his obsession precludes all that wondering about what other people think of him.”

Samuel R. Delany book Nova

Source: Nova (1968), Chapter 6 (p. 158)

“A warrior acts as if he knows what he is doing, when in effect he knows nothing.”

Carlos Castaneda book The Wheel of Time

Source: The Wheel of Time: Shamans of Ancient Mexico, Their Thoughts About Life, Death and the Universe], (1998), Quotations from "Journey to Ixtlan" (Chapter 8)

Philip K. Dick photo

“Each of us assumes everyone else knows what HE is doing. They all assume we know what WE are doing. We don't … Nothing is going on and nobody knows what it is. Nobody is concealing anything except the fact that he does not understand anything anymore and wishes he could go home.”

Philip K. Dick (1928–1982) American author

In Pursuit of Valis: Selections from the Exegesis (1991)

Related topics