AtomicQuote

George MacDonald Fraser Quotes

I recognized the handwriting, and my heart gave a skip; when I opened it I got a turn, for it began, 'To my beloved Hector,' and I thought, by God she's cheating on me, and has sent me the wrong lette...

George MacDonald Fraser

I recognized the handwriting, and my heart gave a skip; when I opened it I got a turn, for it began, 'To my beloved Hector,' and I thought, by God she's cheating on me, and has sent me the wrong lette...

Tags: ajax, ancient greece, greek heroes, hero, martiality

It was part of war; men died, more would die, that was past, and what mattered now was the business in hand; those who lived would get on with it. Whatever sorrow was felt, there was no point in talki...

George MacDonald Fraser

It was part of war; men died, more would die, that was past, and what mattered now was the business in hand; those who lived would get on with it. Whatever sorrow was felt, there was no point in talki...

Tags: second world war, stiff upper lip, war

About Author
George MacDonald Fraser (2 April 1925 – 2 January 2008) was a Scottish author and screenwriter. He is best known for a series of works that featured the character Flashman. Over the course of his career he wrote eleven novels and one short-story collection in the Flashman series of novels, as well as non-fiction, short stories, novels and screenplays—including those for the James Bond film Octopussy, The Three Musketeers (along with both its sequels) and an adaptation of his own novel Royal Flash.

I was sufficiently recovered from my nervous condition – or else the booze was beginning to work – to be able to discuss with Rudi the merits of checked or striped trousers, which had been the great d...

George MacDonald Fraser

I was sufficiently recovered from my nervous condition – or else the booze was beginning to work – to be able to discuss with Rudi the merits of checked or striped trousers, which had been the great d...

Tags: fashion, metternich, stripes, trousers

We stood there for a full half hour, like so many scarecrows, while they jeered at us from a distance, and one or two of us were shot down.

George MacDonald Fraser

We stood there for a full half hour, like so many scarecrows, while they jeered at us from a distance, and one or two of us were shot down.

Tags: targets, vulnerability, war

You must convince your chiefs that what you're telling 'em is important, which ain't difficult, since they want to believe you, having chiefs of their own to satisfy; make as much mystery of your meth...

George MacDonald Fraser

You must convince your chiefs that what you're telling 'em is important, which ain't difficult, since they want to believe you, having chiefs of their own to satisfy; make as much mystery of your meth...

Tags: experience, hedonism, human nature, knowledge of self, philosophy, the way the world works, wisdom

But I still state unhesitatingly, that for pure, vacillating stupidity, for superb incompetence to command, for ignorance combined with bad judgment --in short, for the true talent for catastrophe --...

George MacDonald Fraser

But I still state unhesitatingly, that for pure, vacillating stupidity, for superb incompetence to command, for ignorance combined with bad judgment --in short, for the true talent for catastrophe --...

Tags: failure, military, stupidity

The Borderers regarded reiving as legitimate (which is true), but that they held murder to be a crime, and consequently were reluctant to commit it—except in the heat of action or when covered by the...

George MacDonald Fraser

The Borderers regarded reiving as legitimate (which is true), but that they held murder to be a crime, and consequently were reluctant to commit it—except in the heat of action or when covered by the...

I know my Easts and Tom Brown, you see, and they're never happy unless their morality is being tried in the furnace and they can feel they are doing the right Christian thing and never mind the conseq...

George MacDonald Fraser

I know my Easts and Tom Brown, you see, and they're never happy unless their morality is being tried in the furnace and they can feel they are doing the right Christian thing and never mind the conseq...

Tags: george macdonald fraser, self righteousness

If anything in their history demonstrates that the Scots are remarkable, it is that in spite of being physically attached to England, they have survived as a people, with their own culture, laws, inst...

George MacDonald Fraser

If anything in their history demonstrates that the Scots are remarkable, it is that in spite of being physically attached to England, they have survived as a people, with their own culture, laws, inst...

Wordy descriptions of the journey, which you can get from Parkman or Gregg if you want them – or from volume

George MacDonald Fraser

Wordy descriptions of the journey, which you can get from Parkman or Gregg if you want them – or from volume

Now, look you here, Sekundar, says I, but he came up straight like a little bantam and cut me off.Sir Alexander. if you please, says he icily, as though I’d never seen him with his breeches down, chas...

George MacDonald Fraser

Now, look you here, Sekundar, says I, but he came up straight like a little bantam and cut me off.Sir Alexander. if you please, says he icily, as though I’d never seen him with his breeches down, chas...

Tags: mannners

The 1563 agreement between England and Scotland speaks of lawfull Trodd with Horn and Hound, with Hue and Cry and all other accustomed manner of fresh pursuit; according to Scott, this obliged the pur...

George MacDonald Fraser

The 1563 agreement between England and Scotland speaks of lawfull Trodd with Horn and Hound, with Hue and Cry and all other accustomed manner of fresh pursuit; according to Scott, this obliged the pur...

You see, and the folly of sitting smug in judgment years after, stuffed with piety and ignorance and book-learned bias. Humanity is beastly and stupid, aye, and helpless, and there’s an end to it.

George MacDonald Fraser

You see, and the folly of sitting smug in judgment years after, stuffed with piety and ignorance and book-learned bias. Humanity is beastly and stupid, aye, and helpless, and there’s an end to it.

Looking back over sixty-odd years, life is like a piece of string with knots in it, the knots being those moments that live in the mind forever, and the intervals being hazy, half-recalled

George MacDonald Fraser

Looking back over sixty-odd years, life is like a piece of string with knots in it, the knots being those moments that live in the mind forever, and the intervals being hazy, half-recalled

And my good lord, for your honors better satisfaction, that it was not so barbarouslie nor butcherlie don as you thinck it to be, it should seeme your honor hath bene wrongfullie enformed, in sayinge...

George MacDonald Fraser

And my good lord, for your honors better satisfaction, that it was not so barbarouslie nor butcherlie don as you thinck it to be, it should seeme your honor hath bene wrongfullie enformed, in sayinge...

I've been a Danish prince, a Texas slave-dealer, an Arab sheik, a Cheyenne Dog Soldier, and a Yankee navy lieutenant in my time, among other things, and none of 'em was as hard to sustain as my lifeti...

George MacDonald Fraser

I've been a Danish prince, a Texas slave-dealer, an Arab sheik, a Cheyenne Dog Soldier, and a Yankee navy lieutenant in my time, among other things, and none of 'em was as hard to sustain as my lifeti...

Tags: gentleman, identitites, impersonation

He was a man of his hands, and most were, he might decide to wait and plan for the day when he could raid the robbers in his turn, and get his revenge illegally with interest. Or he could decide on pu...

George MacDonald Fraser

He was a man of his hands, and most were, he might decide to wait and plan for the day when he could raid the robbers in his turn, and get his revenge illegally with interest. Or he could decide on pu...

Most of us do not think of ourselves as criminals, but possibly there are things in our daily lives which we regard as our inheritance which will move future generations to critical disgust.

George MacDonald Fraser

Most of us do not think of ourselves as criminals, but possibly there are things in our daily lives which we regard as our inheritance which will move future generations to critical disgust.

One thing the war ensured; whatever treaties might be made and truces agreed at the top, however often a state of official peace existed, there was never again to be quiet along the frontier while Eng...

George MacDonald Fraser

One thing the war ensured; whatever treaties might be made and truces agreed at the top, however often a state of official peace existed, there was never again to be quiet along the frontier while Eng...

In her, ignorance and stupidity formed a perfect shield against the world: this, I suppose, is innocence. It

George MacDonald Fraser

In her, ignorance and stupidity formed a perfect shield against the world: this, I suppose, is innocence. It