Quotes from Patrick O'Brian

Ah,' said Loder, meaning by this that he regretted the turtle and the geese, that he thought Fox's refusal for his colleagues an abuse of authority, and that he for one dissociated himself from the barbarous incivility: a considerable burden for a single 'ah', but one that it bore easily.

He has written about equality, the perfectibility of human nature, and the essential goodness of mankind for many years -- he judges others by himself, poor soul.

I have often observed that extremely violent noise and activity go with good-fellowship and heightened spirits.

You are a reasonably civil, complaisant creature on dry land,' said Stephen, 'but the moment you are afloat you become pragmatical and absolute, a bashaw - do this, do that, gluppit the prawling strangles, there - no longer a social being at all. It is no doubt the effect of the long-continued habit of command; but it cannot be considered amiable.

One of the miseries of medical life is that on the one hand you know what shocking things can happen to the human body and on the other you know how very little we can really do about most of them.

Tomorrow was another day, at least by the calendar, but the two could hardly be told apart: the heat, the faintly drifting cloud, the ship pitching heavily with no way on her, the flaccid sails, were all the same:

Nothing do I know of the law at all. But I do remember that the Bible likens human justice to a woman's unclean rag—quasi pannus menstruate—and I have little faith in truth as an immediate safeguard, in this world.

But is that not corruption, Jack? You were always very much against corruption when you were young, I mean younger.' 'So I am still: corruption in others is anathema to me. But you would scarcely credit the depths of turpitude I should descend to myself for a thousand a year;

Diana accepted the bait, spat out the hook with contempt, and hurried away to the stables to consult with Thomas

for Captain Aubrey, as for the rest of brute creation, there were only two kinds of birds, the edible and the inedible.

Hollom was going forward along the larboard gangway: Nagel, an able seamen but one of the most sullen, bloody-minded and argumentative of the Defenders, was coming aft on the same narrow passage. They were abreast of one another; and Nagel walked straight on without the slightest acknowledgement other than a look of elaborate unconcern.

He found Jack well into his dinner and sat down beside him. 'Will I confess a grave sin? he asked. 'Do, by all means,' said Jack, looking at him kindly. 'But if you managed to commit a grave sin between the gunroom and here you have a wonderful capacity for evil.

Man is a deeply illogical being, and must be ruled illogically. Whatever that frigid prig Bentham may say, there are innumerable motives that have nothing to do with utility.

Stephen looked sharply round, saw the decanter, smelt to the sloth, and cried, 'Jack, you have debauched my sloth.

Stephen writhed his neck round, directing a grim look at the young man: all his professional life ashore had been haunted by these vile messengers; innumerable concerts, theatres, operas, dinners, promised treats had been wrecked or interrupted by fools, mooncalves, who, to gain some private end, had broken a leg, had fits, or fallen into a catalepsy.

they made nothing of the administration of the drugs other than the fact that the groans in the cabin stopped; but they did catch some words about delighted to attend the opening of the body, in the event of a contrary result that earned Dr Maturin some brooding glances as the two medical men went over the side, for the Otters loved their captain.

But when a man puts on maturity and invulnerability, it seems that he necessarily becomes indifferent to many things that gave him joy.

We must phrase it with great care, pointing out most respectfully that we will be damned if we receive him on board rather than one of the two other gentlemen we have put in for.

I've come down from the mountains, with an ass-full of specimens...

At that time I attached a perhaps undue importance to staying alive, and I became moderately proficient with both the pistol and the small-sword.

Identity?' said Jack, comfortably pouring out more coffee. 'Is not identity something you are born with?' 'The identity I am thinking of is something that hovers between a man and the rest of the world: a mid-point between his view of himself and theirs of him – for each, of course, affects the other continually.

Why, sir, what's all this? Surely you have not forgot you are entertaining the Captain?' 'And how am I supposed to entertain the Captain, for all love?' asked Stephen. 'Am I to grin at him through a horse-collar, propose riddles and conundrums, cut capers?' 'Come, sir,' said Calamy, 'the gunroom is entertaining the Captain to dinner, and you have only ten minutes to change. There is not a moment to be lost.

Killick,' he cried, folding and sealing it. 'That's for the post. Is the Doctor ready?' 'Ready and waiting these fourteen minutes,' said Stephen in a loud, sour voice. 'What a wretched tedious slow hand you are with a pen, upon my soul. Scratch-scratch, gasp-gasp. You might have written the Iliad in half the time, and a commentary upon it, too.

That is not the Dryad. It has three masts.' 'There is no concealing anything from the Doctor,' said Jack, and turning directly to him he went on, 'Give you joy of our prize: we took her in the night.' 'Breakfast is disgracefully late,' said Stephen.