They will not be pleased. But they know we must catch the monsoon with a well-found ship; and they know they are in the Navy--they have chosen their cake, and must lie on it.' You mean, they cannot have their bed and eat it.' No, no, it is not quite that either. I mean--I wish you would not confuse my mind, Stephen.

Patrick O'Brian

Categorized in : Lying Mean Cake

I do not say that all lawyers are bad, but I do maintain that the general tendency is bad: standing up in a court for whichever side has paid you, affecting warmth and conviction, and doing everything you can to win the case, whatever your private opinion may be, will soon dull any fine sense of honour. The mercenary soldier is not a valued creature, but at least he risks his life, whereas these men merely risk their next fee.

Patrick O'Brian

risk winning men

Although wealth may not bring happiness, the immediate prospect of it provides a wonderfully close imitation.

Patrick O'Brian

imitation wealth may

You are to consider that a certain melancholy and often a certain irascibility accompany advancing age: indeed it might be said that advancing age equals ill-temper. On reaching the middle years a man perceives that he is no longer able to do certain things, that what looks he may have had are deserting him, that he has a ponderous great belly, and that however much he may yet burn he is no longer attractive to women; and he rebels. Fortitude, resignation and philosophy are of more value than any pills, red, white or blue.

Patrick O'Brian

blue men philosophy

... it has always seemed to me that books are the supreme decorations of a room

Patrick O'Brian

decoration book rooms

Sir,’ said Stephen, ‘I read novels with the utmost pertinacity. I look upon them--I look upon good novels--as a very valuable part of literature, conveying more exact and finely-distinguished knowledge of the human heart and mind than almost any other, with greater breadth and depth and fewer constraints.

Patrick O'Brian

depth mind heart

Why there you are, Stephen,' cried Jack. 'You are come home, I find.' That is true,' said Stephen with an affectionate look: he prized statements of this kind in Jack.

Patrick O'Brian

kind home looks

For you must know, gentlemen, that when the mariner is dosed, he likes to know that he has been dosed: with fifteen grains or even less of this valuable substance scenting him and the very air about him there can be no doubt of the matter; and such is the nature of the human mind that he experiences a far greater real benefit than the drug itself would provide, were it deprived of its stench.

Patrick O'Brian

drug real air

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

Patrick O'Brian

fellowship spirit noise

Wit is the unexpected copulation of ideas.

Patrick O'Brian

wit unexpected ideas

We understood one another better before ever I opened my mouth

Patrick O'Brian

understood mouths

The Navy speaks in symbols and you may suit what meaning you choose to the words.

Patrick O'Brian

navy suits may

He sat on as the sun's rays came slowly down through the trees, lower and lower, and when the lowest reached a branch not far above him it caught a dewdrop poised upon a leaf. The drop instantly blazed crimson, and a slight movement of his head made it show all the colours of the spectrum with extraordinary purity, from a red almost too deep to be seen through all the others to the ultimate violet and back again.

Patrick O'Brian

red violet tree

When you're taking a fence on a horse, you don't think much; your body does all the thinking, and you're over or you're not over. It's much the same when you are doing a tricky thing with a pen. There are times when I'm writing very, very fast.

Patrick O'Brian

horse writing thinking

There is a systematic flocci-nauci-nihili-pilification of all other aspects of existence that angers me.

Patrick O'Brian

systematic aspect existence

Why, sir," said he, looking about him, "what splendour I see: gold lace, breeches, cocked hats. Allow me to recommend a sandwich. And would you be contemplating an attack, at all?" "It had crossed my mind, I must admit," said Jack. "Indeed, I may go so far as to say, that I am afraid a conflict is now virtually inevitable. Did you notice we have cleared for action?

Patrick O'Brian

sandwiches gold mind

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

jingoism mean country

Other people's marriages are a perpetual source of amazement.

Patrick O'Brian

amazement source people

Stephen had spared no expense in making himself more unhappy, his own position as a rejected lover clearer.

Patrick O'Brian

rejected lovers unhappy

Compulsion is the death of friendship.

Patrick O'Brian

compulsion

Go and see whether the Doctor is about,’ said Jack, ‘and if he is, ask him to look in, when he has a moment.’ Which he is in the fish-market, turning over some old-fashioned lobsters. No. I tell a lie. That is him, falling down the companion-way and cursing in foreign.

Patrick O'Brian

doctors lying fall