My dear creature, I have done with all debate. But you know as well as I, patriotism is a word; and one that generally comes to mean either MY COUNTRY, RIGHT OR WRONG, which is infamous, or MY COUNTRY IS ALWAYS RIGHT, which is imbecile. Patrick O'Brian More Quotes by Patrick O'Brian More Quotes From Patrick O'Brian It is a great while since I felt the grind of bone under my saw,' he added, smiling with anticipation. Patrick O'Brian bones saws anticipation For very strangely his officers looked upon Jack Aubrey as a moral figure, in spite of all proofs of the contrary... Patrick O'Brian proof moral figures Authority is a solvent of humanity: look at any husband, any father of a family,and note the absorption of the person by the persona, the individual by the role. Then multiply the family, and the authority, by some hundreds and see the effect upon a sea-captain, to say nothing of an absolute monarch.Surely man in general is born to be oppressed or solitary, if he is to be fully human; unless it so happens that he is immune to the poison. Patrick O'Brian husband men father Jack, you've debauched my sloth. Patrick O'Brian drunk sloth Another language, sir? But I dare say it is much the same thing - a putain, as they say in France? Patrick O'Brian If you really must beat the measure, sir, let me entreat you to do so in time, and not half a beat ahead. Patrick O'Brian Wallis," said Maturin, "I am happy to find you here. How is your penis? Patrick O'Brian Since I grew up, I have never deliberately used any technique at all other than the physical shaping of my tale so that it more or less resembles what has been thought of as a novel for these last two hundred years. Patrick O'Brian more never thought two My wife and I have spent most of our lives in France, and we are both pretty well bilingual, my wife more purely than I, since as a little girl she went to school in French Switzerland. Patrick O'Brian she wife girl school I have never written for an audience. On the other hand I do not write merely to please myself. Patrick O'Brian write never myself audience In a day when, if you insulted a man it might cost you your life, you were probably more civil. Patrick O'Brian day you man life A freewheeling mind can conceive a virtually infinite number of sequences, but just how that mind picks out and stores those that may perhaps be used later to deal with a given tension, a given situation, is far beyond my understanding. Patrick O'Brian tension situation understanding mind I very much dislike being interviewed by the kind of journalist who tries to dig into your private life. Patrick O'Brian your being private-life life I've never set out to seduce my reader. I don't see him at all clearly. Patrick O'Brian out him never see About my books, that's all that I think the public has, in its normal way, to know. My private life is, by definition, private. Patrick O'Brian think know life way I have 60 years of reading to draw upon: naval memoirs, dispatches, the Naval Chronicles, family letters. Patrick O'Brian family reading letters years Take a newspaper account of Waterloo or Trafalgar, with all the small advertisements: it seems much more real than reading about it in a history book. Patrick O'Brian small reading book history Likings arise when one has no earthly reason for liking - the most wildly improbable marriages and uncommon friendship. Patrick O'Brian liking uncommon reason friendship You can't be happy if you're not tolerably happy with yourself. The addition of friends adds immeasurably to life. Patrick O'Brian be-happy yourself you life The first interviews I gave were entirely unpleasant. You have people trying to trip you up with impolite questions that have nothing to do with the books. It's simply vulgar curiosity, and I won't have it. Patrick O'Brian nothing you curiosity people