3:35 Flashman on toadying: I toadied as seemed best - not openly, of course, but effectively just the same; there is a way of toadying which is better than fawning, and it consists of acting bluff and hearty and knowing to an inch how far to go.
3:118 Flashman faces Bernier immediately before their duel: ... and in that moment I came as near to turning and running as ever I did in my life. I felt that my bowels would squirt at any moment, and my hands were shuddering beneath my cloak.
3:155 Flashman on man's priorities in life: ... I've lived long enough to discover that there isn't any folly a man won't contemplate if there's money or a woman at stake.
4:14 Flashman summing up the looks of Mistress Morrison (Elspeth's mother): ... one could detect all the fading beauty of a vulture.
4:14-16 Flashman attempting to gain the trust of Mistress Morrison: ... and I gave all my attention to Mistress Morrison. It was grim work, I may tell you, for she was a sour tryant of a woman and looked on me as she looked on all soldiers, Englishmen, and men under fifty years of age - as frivolous, Godless, feckless, and unworthy ... I was still glad to escape at last to my room - dark brown tomb though it was.
5:9-13 Flashman's opinion of curry:
5:23 Flashman on learning foreign languages: ... if you wish to learn a foreign tongue properly, study it in bed with a native girl - I'd have got more out of the classics from an hour's wrestling with a Greek wench than I did in four years from Arnold.
6:22 Sir Willoughby Cotton's reaction to hearing that Flashman was expelled from Rugby because of drunkenness: "No! Well, damme! Who'd have believed they would kick you out for that? They'll be expellin' for rape next."
7:5 Flashman sums up the leadership ability of General Elphinstone: Only he could have permitted the First Afghan War and let it develop to such a ruinous defeat. It was not easy: he started with a good army, a secure position, some excellent officers, a disorganised enemy, and repeated opportunities to save the situation. But Elphy, with a touch of true genius, swept aside these obstacles with unerring precision, and out of order wrought complete chaos. We shall not, with luck, look upon his like again.
9:51 Flashman on schemes: I have observed, in the course of a dishonest life, that when a rouge is outlining a treachous plan, he works harder to convince himself than to move his hearers.
9:57 An old Afghan wive's tale and Flashman's reaction to it: "The wise son," croaked Khan Hamet, opening his mouth for the first time, "mistrusts his mother." Doubtless he knew his own family best.
9:63 Flashman's reaction to Khan Akbar's plot: But to me, sitting looking at those four faces, bland Akbar and his trio of villians, the whole thing stank like a dead camel.
9:70 Flashman tells of the murder of Burnes and the tug-of-war match over a pit of snakes: I told it very plain and offhand, but McNaghten kept exclaiming "Good God!" all the way through, and at the tale of my tug-of-war his glasses fell into his curry.
9:104 Flashman's opinion of Lady Sale: ... a vinegary old dragon with a tongue like a carving knife...
9:174 Flashman's thought on Le Geyt telling Shelton about Flashman's reckless bravery: ... give a dog a good name and he's everyones pet.
9:189 Shelton's summary of the current situation and General Elphinstone's accidental (self-inflicted) wound: "The Afghans murder our people, try to make off with our wives, order us out of the country, and what does our commander do? Shoots himself in the arse - doubtless in an attempt to blow his brains out. He can't have missed by much."
9:210 Flashman on an odd Victorian England custom: It was a common custom at that time, in the more romantic females, to see their soldier husbands and sweethearts as Greek heros, instead of the whore-mongering, drunken clowns most of them were. However, the Greek heros were probably no better, so it was not so far off the mark.
9:226 Captain Mackenzie croaking about the pending march from Kabul: "And we'll be marching through a foot of snow on the worst ground on earth, with the temperature at freezing. Why, man, with an army of Highland ghillies I doubt if it could be done in under a week. If we're lucky we might do it in two - if the Afghans let us alone, and the food and firing hold out, and Elphy doesn't shoot himself in the other buttock."
10:8 Flashman's response to Lady Sale's comment that the wives would make the best troopers of all: "I'd take your ladyship into my troop anytime", says I ... "but the other horses might be jealous," I says to myself quitely, at which the lancers set up a great laugh.
10:143 Flashman's opinion of General Elphinstone: ... now, in my maturer years, I have modified my view. Whereas I would have cheerfully shot him then, now I would hang, draw and quarter him for a bungling, useless, selfish old swine. No fate could be bad enough for him.
11:47 Flashman explains the urge to talk: ... you will understand that I needed an audience. Your real coward always does, and the worse his fear the more he blabs.
11:99 Hudson talking to Flashman after being whipped: Hudson did his best to cheer me up with the kind of drivel about not being done in yet and keeping one's head up which is supposed to raise the spirits in time of trouble - it has never done a damned thing for mine.
11:200 Flashman's (delirious) response to being told that Sergeant Wells was dead: "That's bad luck, by God, is he much hurt?"
11:216 Flashman on martyrdom: Give them a chance to do what they call their duty, let them see a hope for martyrdom - they'll fight their way on to the cross and bawl for the man with the hammer and nails.
12:31 Flashman's version of "an once of image is worth a pound of performance": All I could see was that somehow appearances were on my side - and who needs more than that? Give me the shadow every time, and you can keep the substance - it's a principle I've followed all my life, and it works, if you know how to act on it.
13:70 Bravey Flashman style: This myth called bravey, which is half-panic, half-lunacy (in my case, all panic), pays for all ...