1:18 Flashman's opinion of Paris (along with it's women, of course) and why he sought out Blowitz when he visiting it: ... on my infrequent visits to Paris, which is a greasy sort of sink not much better than Port Moresby, the chief reason I sought him out was because he was my passport to society salons and the company of the female gamebirds with whom the city abounds - and I don't mean your poxed-up opera tarts and can-can girls but the quality traffic of the smart hotels and embassy parties, whose languid ennui conceals more carnal knowledge than you'd find in Babylon. My advice to young chaps is to never mind the Moulin Rouge and Pigalle, but make for some diplomatic melee on the Rue de Lisbonne, catch the eye of a well-fleshed countess and ere the night's out you'll have learned something you won't want to tell your grandchildren.
1:129 Mamselle Caprice's opinion of a man's will to resist her sex appeal: "You see," says she, "to captivate, to seduce, is nothing ... he is only a man." She gave a little shrug that is the Frenchwoman's way of spitting on the pavement.
1:142 Flashman's observation regarding Mamselle Caprice's appearance after she had sex with Count Shualov: He (Count Shuvalov) had also insisted that they smear each with all over with quince jam, to which he was partial, and while much of it had been removed in the ensuing frolic, I noticed that she still had a tendency to attract fluff and other light debris as she raged to and from the kitchen with hot kettles for her bath.
2:11 Flashman's opinion of Major-General Charles Gordon: I'd as soon go to war with the town drunk. The man wasn't safe - sticking forks in people and scattering tracts from railway carriages and accosting perfect strangers to see if they'd met Jesus lately, I ask you!
2:30 Flashman's reaction to Stefan Blowitz's infatuation with Princess Kralta: "Whoa, steady lad, mind the cutlery. Liked her, did you." "My friend, I was enchanted!" He sighed like a ruptured poodle.
2:59 Flashman describes Blowitz's sigh of love: He sighed, long and solemn, like an old horse farting.
3:68 Flashman's discusses trust with Princess Kralta: "... I trust folk as far as I can throw'em, which is your case," I fondled a voluptuous handful, "ain't far, thank God."
4:19 Willem von Starnberg describes English school: "Hellish places, by all accounts, rations a Siberian moujik wouldn't touch, and less civilised behaviour than you'd meet in the Congo, but I'm told there's no education like it - a lifetime's trainin' in knavery packed into six years. No wonder they rule half the world."
5:10 Flashman sums up his image: All of which confirmed my conclusion that they were under the misapprehension which has sustained me for a lifetime - they truly believed my heroic reputation, and thought I was the kind of derring-do idiot who'd answer the call of duty and danger like a good'un, itching to fight the good fight. Bismarck knew better, which was why I'd been threatened with violence and the law, but now blessed if they weren't appealing to my better nature. Remarkable ... but you have to play the ball as it comes off the wicket, so ...
5:40 Flashman's reaction to certain doom: There are chaps, I know, who when doom seems certain grit their teeth and find renewed courage in their extremity. I ain't like that at all, but my native cowardice does take on a sort of reckless frenzy, rather like those fellows who caught the Black Death and thought, oh, well, to hell with everything, we might as well carouse and fornicate to the end, 'cos at least it's more fun than repentance or prayer.
6:2 Why Flashman thought Kralta trusted him: Kralta ... having a romantic and patriotic heart beneath her glacial exterior, and being partial to pork, was convinced I'd seen the light.
7:1 Bluffing - Flashman style: One of the lessons that I'd impress on young chaps is this: if you want to pull a bluff, do it with your might, no half-measures. However unlikely the ploy, if your neck is brazen enough, it's odds on you'll get away with it. ... A moment's gulity hesitation, and I'd have been done for; indignant astonishment at being interfered with saw me through.
7:1 Flasman's observation on how sexual relations effect women: ... it's remarkable how even the most wordly of women can be rendered maudlin by Adam's arsenal.
7:87 Flashman analyzing his attraction to Princess Kralta: Perhaps 'twas the strange circumstances in which we'd met, or the contrast between her icy, damn-you style and the passion with which she performed. that had me drying my chin at my randy recollections ...
8:128 Flashman's Thoughts on Death: ... and my face was buried between her bosoms, and my last conscious thought was not of going to find the Great Perhaps, but rather what infernally bad luck to be pegging out at such a moment.
9:96
Flashman's reaction to find out the Mamselle Caprice was
married: I must have looked like a fish on a slab. "Husband! You -
married? My stars above! Well, blow my boots, and you never let on-"
1:307 Flashman on his wife's plot to socially ruin Gordon-Cumming: ...my
eccentric lady had nursed her vengeance for years before ruining him with a
stratagem so dangerous (never mind its warped lunacy) that my blood still runs
cold to think of it, twenty years on. Social ruin aside, the crazy bitch could
have gone to gaol for criminal conspiracy - not that that would enter her empty
head, or deter her if it had. The only qualm she'd felt was that I learned the
truth of the disgraceful way she engineered Cumming's downfall, I might recoil
from her in virtuous disgust - which only goes to show that after fifty years
she knew no more of my true character than I, apparently, did of hers. 1:314 Flashman's opinion those that know him and tell: ...nothing
is too bad for the man that tells the truth about Flashy. 1:75 Flashman's response to Oscar Wilde's comment about putting him (Flashman)
in a play: "I'll kick you in the tinklers - assuming that you've got
any." The Subtleties of Baccarat
Flashman and the Tiger