“Good soldiers stay alive by being unsentimental and having a quick eye for the main chance.”

— Michael Shea , book Nifft the Lean

Part 2, “The Pearls of the Vampire Queen,” Chapter 8 (p. 105)
Nifft the Lean (1982)

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 "Good soldiers stay alive by being unsentimental and having a quick eye for the main chance." by Michael Shea?

Michael Shea 40

writer 1946–2014

Ralph Barton Perry (1876–1957) American philosopher

Chap XXXV. (Among the traits Barton Perry lists as being possessed by Americans and inherited from British Puritans.)
The Present Conflict of Ideals: A Study of the Philosophical Background of the World War (1918)

“Our duty, Richard, is to be decorative and stay alive long enough to be promoted. But no one expects us to be useful! Good God! A junior officer being useful? That'll be the day.”

Bernard Cornwell (1944) British writer

Ensign Roderick Venables, p. 20
Sharpe (Novel Series), Sharpe's Fortress (1999)

“No soldier outlives a thousand chances. But every soldier believes in Chance and trusts his luck.”

Erich Maria Remarque (1898–1970) German novelist

“Good soldiers never pass up a chance to eat or sleep. They never know how much they'll be called on to do before the next chance.”

Lois McMaster Bujold Vorkosigan Saga

Vorkosigan Saga, Barrayar (1991)

“Until the Yom Kippur War, in 1973, until then Israel didn't have a chance but to fight for her life. We were attacked five times, outgunned, outnumbered, on a small piece of land, and our main challenge was to remain alive.”

Shimon Peres (1923–2016) Israeli politician, 8th prime minister and 9th president of Israel

Speech at Harvard University (20 October 2004)

“I know what's what, and have always taken care of the main chance.”

Miguel de Cervantes (1547–1616) Spanish novelist, poet, and playwright

Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part I, Book III, Ch. 9.

“My chances of being PM are about as good as the chances of finding Elvis on Mars, or my being reincarnated as an olive.”

Boris Johnson (1964) British politician, historian and journalist

"You ask the questions", The Independent, 17 June 2004, p. 7.
Asked "Admit it: you want to become prime minister, don't you?" by Amanda Findlay of Bolton.
2000s, 2004

“Then - being in two minds - in my father's courtyard, I counted the buttons of my coat: soldier or painter, soldier, painter, soldier, painter.... the last button told me: painter. So it was decided by chance that I would become a painter”

Johannes Warnardus Bilders (1811–1890) painter from the Northern Netherlands

c. 1831
version in original Dutch (citaat van Johannes Warnardus Bilders, in Nederlands): Toen telde ik, op de binnenplaats mijns vaders in tweestrijd, de knoopen van mijn jas: soldaat of schilder, soldaat, schilder, soldaat, schilder.. ..de laatste knoop zei schilder, en zoo besliste het toeval, dat ik schilder zou worden [c. 1831].
J.W. Bilders was fighting as a Dutch volunteer in the Belgium Independents War against The Netherlands. 1830
Source: 1880's, Johannes Warnardus Bilders' (1887/1900), p. 78

“Even in that time of utter darkness, somewhere deep inside me the memory of love and goodness had stayed alive.”

Juliet Marillier book Heart's Blood

Source: Heart's Blood

“Be slow of tongue and quick of eye.”

Miguel de Cervantes (1547–1616) Spanish novelist, poet, and playwright

“Good soldiers stay alive by being unsentimental and having a quick eye for the main chance.”

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Michael Shea 40

Related quotes

Related topics