Desolation Island Quotes
"Sophie was alone in the drawing-room with the tea-urn and the coffee-pot when at last Jack and Stephen joined her."
"She disliked them for many reasons, but she was better at disguising her feelings than her husband."
"‘Lord, Sophie,’ said Jack when they were alone once more. ‘What a coil!’"
"‘But you cannot possibly sell your wife - treat women like cattle,’ cried Sophie."
"‘Well,’ said Jack, ‘and now you say "the horrible old Leopard"."
"‘I am sure you were right,’ said Sophie, touching his shoulder to comfort him."
"Do not suppose, however, that I am calling this judge of yours a sharper."
"‘You know where to find me,’ said Stephen, his voice carrying a weight of unspoken challenges."
"‘Sophie’s fish!’ cried Jack. ‘God’s my life, they had gone completely out of my mind.’"
"I cannot conceive how my wits came to desert me so."
"My dear Maturin, you are knocked up: you must forgive me for saying so, but you are quite knocked up."
"She stood up for herself amazingly, an even finer woman than Wogan, straight as an arrow, glaring at us like a wild cat."
"It is the United States that have benefited from these activities, not France."
"Aphra Behn, the lewd woman that wrote plays in the last age?"
"A shepherd must know how to use his tar-box both literally and figuratively; for as Dr Maturin so rightly observes, the disorders of his sheep might partake of two natures at the least."
"You never knew a man, till you had seen him in a wreck."
"For half a guinea and their neck preserved, many of them are willing and eager to inform; but what does it amount to?"
"Let the civilians settle their own dirty business in New Holland, and in the meantime take the irons away: they can only serve as weapons."
"Her husband having been bitchadey pawdle, as she puts it, or sent across the water, she contrived to be bitchadey pawdle herself, in order to join him."
"I am to have a prosperous voyage, and not too long, and all my heart’s desire."
"There is always something in what these women say, however you may wag your head, Stephen."
"There is as much fresh water a few miles to leewards as ever we could wish."
"Principles aside - for I know your views on what is right in a captain - which is the better course?"
"This sense of observing the world from a distance, and of moving, functioning, more through duty than intimate concern."
"The pumps turned somewhat faster, and if the spirit of the crew could be measured by the jet, it had risen by some ten to twelve per cent."
"It will never do to have trembling hands, if we are to operate."
"You cannot make an omelette without breaking eggs."
"Let us drink a whole hogshead of tea together; and then we shall be calm."
"I might say something about pearls before swine."
"I am sure of it, sir. But I could not answer it to my conscience, to touch your tooth this evening."
"A foolish, foolish situation, that must be dealt with by men of sense."
"I have no advantages of person, nor family, nor purse; and it has always been my misfortune to aim far beyond my deserts."
"It depends what you mean by love, of course."
"You cannot imagine my hunger for men. Prime seamen, whaler’s hands, good Lord!"
"I beseech you to leave them alone. With things as they now stand, you would do immeasurable harm by stirring it all."
"I am sick, sick to the heart of these manipulations."
"It is very weak to be swayed by a mere word, Mr Herapath, by a categorical imperative imposed from without by those who do not know the inward nature, the full complexity of the case."
"A dish of tea, a dish of tea… I have been sawing up your countrymen, my dear, and mine too for that matter."
"Cryptogams are plants that produce offspring without any visible, apparent marriage."
"You must come to Baltimore. You would find plenty of girls, and good Catholics too."
"I wish you would go to see a friend of mine, a most interesting, intelligent man: Charles Pole."
"Certainly antimony is a poison, when wrongly exhibited. But we must not be the prisoners of words."
"You will take great care of this telescope, will you not? It is the very best achromatic, with extraordinary light-gathering powers."