Quotes from Rafael Sabatini

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.

Truth is so often disconcerting.

There remained the sea, which is free to all, and particularly alluring to those who feel themselves at war with humanity.

Open the history of the past at whatsoever page you will and there you shall find coincidence at work bringing about events that the merest chance might have averted. Indeed, coincidence may be defined as the tool used by Fate to shape the destinies of men and nations.

Only he who is without anything is without enemies.

It is not human to be wise,' said Blood. 'It is much more human to err, though perhaps exceptional to err on the side of mercy.

The idea of equality is a by-product of the sentiment of envy. Since it must always prove beyond human ower to raise the inferior mass to a superior stratum, apostles of equality must ever be inferiors seeking to reduce their betters to their level. It follows that a nation that once admits this doctrine of equality will be dragged by it to the level, moral, intelletual and political, of its most worthless class.

I am afraid, monsieur, you will have to kill me first, and I have a prejudice against being killed before nine o'clock.

When all is said, a man's final judgment of his fellows must be based upon his knowledge of himself

Mind being the seat of the soul, and literature being the expression of the mind, literature, it follows, is the soul of an age, the surviving and immortal part of it.

If the windmill should prove too formidable, said he, from the threshold, I may see what can be done with the wind.

there is no worse hell than that provided by the regrets for wasted opportunities.

Most of this world's misery is the fruit not as priests tell us of wickedness, but of stupidity.... And we know that of all stupidities he considered anger the most deplorable.

We are all, he says, the sport of destiny. Ah, but not quite. Destiny is an intelligent force, moving with purpose.

With you it is always the law, never equity.

But he looks no more than thirty. He's very handsome-- so much you will admit; nor will you deny that he is very wealthy and very powerful; the greatest nobleman in Brittany. He will make me a great lady.' 'God made you that, Aline.

What a man dares to do, he should dare to confess- unless he is a coward.