40+ Patrick O'Brian Quotes On Friendship, Adventure And Romance

Patrick O'Brian was an English novelist and translator, best known for his Aubrey–Maturin series of novels set in the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars. He wrote a total of 20 novels, as well as two biographies, and translated many works from French to English. His works are known for their historical accuracy and their evocative descriptions of the early 19th century. Following is our collection on famous quotes by Patrick O'Brian on leadership, friendship, love.

Top 10 Patrick O'Brian Quotes

1. Wit is the unexpected copulation of ideas.
2. The Navy speaks in symbols and you may suit what meaning you choose to the words.
3. There is a systematic flocci-nauci-nihili-pilification of all other aspects of existence that angers me.
4. ... it has always seemed to me that books are the supreme decorations of a room
5. We are always the most violent against those whom we have injured.
6. It is a great while since I felt the grind of bone under my saw,' he added, smiling with anticipation.
7. Although wealth may not bring happiness, the immediate prospect of it provides a wonderfully close imitation.
8. I sew his ears on from time to time, sure.
9. We understood one another better before ever I opened my mouth
10. 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 Short Quotes

• Other people's marriages are a perpetual source of amazement.
• That would be locking the horse after the stable door is gone, a very foolish thing to do.
• Compulsion is the death of friendship.
• After all a book can be represented as a conversation with one’s demon.
• The sensation of falling into the past is not unlike that of coming home for the holidays.
• Never mind manoeuvres, always go at them.
• Jack, you've debauched my sloth.
• No man born of woman has ever understood spoken Portuguese.

Patrick O'Brian Famous Quotes And Sayings

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

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

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

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

But the tale or narrative set in the past may have its particular time-free value; and the candid reader will not misunderstand me, will not suppose that I intend any preposterous comparison, when I observe that Homer was farther removed in time from Troy than I am from the Napoleonic wars; yet he spoke to the Greeks for 2,000 years and more. — Patrick O'Brian

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

I know of few men over 50 that seem to me entirely human, virtually none who has long exercised authority. — Patrick O'Brian

For a moment Jack felt the strongest inclination to snatch up his little gilt chair and beat the white-faced man down with it... — Patrick O'Brian

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

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

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

I have often observed that extremely violent noise and activity go with good-fellowship and heightened spirits. — Patrick O'Brian

...looking angrily at the wombat: and a moment later, 'Come now, Stephen, this is coming it pretty high: your brute is eating my hat.' 'So he is, too,' said Dr. Maturin. 'But do not be perturbed, Jack; it will do him no harm, at all. His digestive processes-- — Patrick O'Brian

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

I am in favour of leaving people alone, however imperfect their polity may seem. It appears to me that you must not tell other nations how to set their house in order; nor must you compel them to be happy. — Patrick O'Brian

For me the process works best with no interruptions, no breaks in the steady application, no letters to be answered, very little social life, no holidays; it is therefore a form of happy imprisonment. — Patrick O'Brian

I am opposed to authority, that egg of misery and oppression; I am opposed to it largely for what it does to those who exercise it. — Patrick O'Brian

For my own part,' said Captain Aubrey, 'I have no notion of disliking a man for his beliefs, above all if he was born with them. I find I can get along very well with Jews or even...' The P of Papists was already formed, and the word was obliged to come out as Pindoos. — Patrick O'Brian

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

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

Touch and away, Jack?’ asked Stephen. ‘Touch and away? Do you not recall that I have important business there? Enquiries of the very first interest?’ To do with our enterprise? To do with this voyage?’ Perhaps not quite directly. — Patrick O'Brian

For very strangely his officers looked upon Jack Aubrey as a moral figure, in spite of all proofs of the contrary... — Patrick O'Brian

Life Lessons by Patrick O'Brian

1. Patrick O'Brian's work emphasizes the importance of friendship, loyalty, and courage in the face of adversity.
2. His characters demonstrate the power of determination and the ability to overcome obstacles through perseverance.
3. His stories also show the value of learning from mistakes and adapting to changing circumstances.