C.S. Forester > Quotes

“When a man who is drinking neat gin starts talking about his mother he is past all argument.”
― C.S. Forester, The African Queen

“Clairvoyant, Hornblower could foresee that in a year's time, the world would hardy remember the incident. In twenty years, it would be entirely forgotten. Yet those headless corpses up there in Muzillac; those shattered redcoats; those Frenchmen caught in the four-pounder's blast of canister -- they were as dead as if it had been a day in which history had been changed.”
― C.S. Forester, Mr. Midshipman Hornblower

“I thank God daily for the good fortune of my birth, for I am certain I would have made a miserable peasant.”
― C.S. Forester, Mr. Midshipman Hornblower

“I did not ask for objections, but for comments, or helpful suggestions. I looked for more loyalty from you, Captain Hornblower.'

That made the whole argument pointless. If Leighton only wanted servile agreement there was no sense in continuing...”
― C.S. Forester, Ship of the Line

“Bush put both arms round Hornblower’s shoulders and walked with dragging feet. It did not matter that his feet dragged and his legs would not function while he had this support; Hornblower was the best man in the world and Bush could announce it by singing ‘For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow’ while lurching along the alleyway.”
― C.S. Forester, Lieutenant Hornblower

“...irresponsibility was something which, in the very nature of things, could not co-exist with independence.”
― C.S. Forester, Commodore Hornblower

“Hornblower bowed to Lady This and Lady That, to Lord Somebody and to Sir John Somebody-else. Bold eyes and bare arms, exquisite clothes and blue Garter-ribbons, were all the impressions Hornblower received.”
― C.S. Forester, Flying Colours

“The material came bubbling up inside like a geyser or an oil gusher. It streamed up of its own accord, down my arm and out of my fountain pen in a torrent of six thousand words a day.”
― C.S. Forester

“Happy is the bride the sun shines on.”
― C. S. Forester Hornblower and the Hotspur

“Hornblower worked as hard to conceal his human weaknesses as some men worked to conceal ignoble birth.”
― C.S. Forester, Lieutenant Hornblower

“They were setting off on an adventure, and Hornblower was only too conscious that it was his own fault.”
― C. S. Forester

“Plain cowardice was far rarer than idiocy, just as plain courage was more common than nerve.”
― C.S. Forester, The Good Shepherd

“If one plan goes wrong there is need to make another, that is all. And, as for despair — there was no room for despair in Dodd’s make-up. The regiment had taught him that he must do his duty or die in the attempt; a simple enough religion fit for his simple mind. As long as there was breath in his body or a thought in his mind he must struggle on; as long as he went on trying there was no need to meditate on success or failure. The only reward for the doing of his duty would be the knowledge that his duty was being done.”
― C.S. Forester, Rifleman Dodd

“The cork was in the bottle. He and the Atropos were trapped.”
― C.S. Forester, Hornblower and the Atropos

“It was not a conspiratorial wink, nor did Hornblower attempt the hopeless task of trying to pretend he stuffed hot greasy sausages into his pockets every day of his life; the wink simply dared the old gentleman to comment on or even think of the remarkable act.”
― C. S. Forester Hornblower and the Atropos

“His self-respect was at its lowest ebb.”
― C.S. Forester, Mr. Midshipman Hornblower

“July 4th, 1776,” mused Keene, reading Hornblower’s date of birth to himself.”
― C.S. Forester, Mr. Midshipman Hornblower

“The most important objective was to drive the sub away from the convoy. To destroy the sub was an important objective but not the only one.”
― C.S. Forester, The Good Shepherd

“The British officer who had lectured on antisubmarine warfare at Casco Bay had been fond of quoting an army story of the previous war in which two infantry privates put their clothes through a newly invented machine for delousing them. “Why,” said one, bitterly, after inspecting results, “they’re all alive still.” “Yes,” said the other, “but I expect they’ve had a hell of a fright.”
― C.S. Forester, The Good Shepherd

“Krause knew academically that a human touch was desirable in these relationships even though he himself had never felt the need of it. He would be perfectly content to do and die in reply to a badly worded order from a superior and would feel no resentment at the absence of a polite phrase.”
― C.S. Forester, The Good Shepherd

“Order, counter order, disorder”; at more than one lecture at Annapolis he had heard that quotation, and during twenty years of service he had seen its truth demonstrated scores of times.”
― C.S. Forester, The Good Shepherd

“Though there are very serious disadvantages about being a true believer. Who would want four wives at any time, especially when one pays for the doubtful privilege by abstaining from wine?”
― C.S. Forester, The young Hornblower : comprising Mr. midshipman Hornblower, Lieutenant Hornblower, Hornblower and the Hotspur

“Krause found himself swaying on his feet again. This was quite absurd; he had been awake for less than forty-eight hours, and he had had two or even three hours of good sleep the night before last.”
― C.S. Forester, The Good Shepherd

“he had his duty to do, whether it was a losing phase of the war or a winning one. He could only go on, fight on to the end of his strength.”
― C.S. Forester, The Good Shepherd

“Yet if he had been asked… if he were happy… He would have admitted readily enough that he was uncomfortable, that he was cold, and badly fed, and venomous; that his clothes were in rags, and his feet and knees and elbows raw and bleeding through much walking and crawling; that he was in ever-present peril of life, and that he really did not expect to survive the adventure he was about to thrust himself into voluntarily, but all this had nothing to do with happiness: that was something he never stopped to think about.”
― C.S. Forester

“Through Krause’s mind drifted the unsummoned hope that if he had to die he would die in a like fashion although in a better cause,”
― C.S. Forester, The Good Shepherd

“The shortage of tobacco, of water and of wood was nothing nearly as important, however, as the imminent shortage of grog. He had not dared to cut that daily issue, and there was only rum for ten more days in the ship. Not the finest crew in the world could be relied on if deprived of their ration of rum.”
― C.S. Forester, Beat to Quarters

“Sir!’ said the captain again. ‘I insist that you head towards Bordeaux.’ He showed signs of advancing upon them; one of the crew behind him began to pull the boat-hook clear, and it would be a dangerous weapon. Hornblower pulled one of the pistols from his belt and pointed it at the captain, who, with the muzzle four feet from his breast, fell back before the gesture. Without taking his eyes off him Hornblower took a second pistol with his left hand. ‘Take this, Matthews,’ he said. ‘Aye aye, sir,’ said Matthews, obeying; and then, after a respectful pause, ‘Beggin’ your pardon, sir, but hadn’t you better cock your pistol, sir?”
― C.S. Forester, Mr. Midshipman Hornblower

“His officers saw little of him, and did not love what they saw.”
― C.S. Forester, The young Hornblower : comprising Mr. midshipman Hornblower, Lieutenant Hornblower, Hornblower and the Hotspur

“Harm began to come to Hornblower from that day forth, despite his obedience to orders and diligent study of his duties, and it stemmed from the arrival in the midshipmen’s berth of John Simpson as senior warrant officer.”
― C.S. Forester, Mr. Midshipman Hornblower