Frederick Marryat Quotes

Gentle reader, I was born upon the water - not upon the salt and angry ocean, but upon the fresh and rapid-flowing river.

... the sea defrauds many an honest undertaker of his profits.

... secrecy adds a charm to an amour ...

It's just six of one and half-a-dozen of the other.

There's no getting blood out of a turnip.

- to wit, 'the sweat of the brow.

credulity and superstition are close friends

Women are riddles - I only argued upon the common sense of the thing.

If I cannot narrate a life of adventurous and daring exploits, fortunately I have no heavy crimes to confess: and, if I do not rise in the estimation of the reader for acts of gallantry and devotion in my country's cause, at least I may claim the merit of zealous and persevering continuance in my vocation. We are all of us variously gifted from Above, and he who is content to walk, instead of to run, on his allotted path through life, although he may not so rapidly attain the goal, has the advantage of not being out of breath upon his arrival.

Vanity is a confounded donkey, very apt to put his head between his legs, and chuck us over; but pride is a fine horse, that will carry us over the ground, and enable us to distance our fellow-travelers.

But what was most remarkable, Broadway being three miles long, and the booths lining each side of it, in every booth there was a roast pig, large or small, as the centre attraction. Six miles of roast pig! And that in New York City alone; and roast pig in every other city, town, hamlet, and village in the Union. What association can there be between roast pig and independence?

In the course of crime ... the descent is rapid.

In the vast archipelago of the east, where Borneo and Java and Sumatra lie, and the Molucca Islands, and the Philippines, the sea is often fanned only by the land and sea breezes, and is like a smooth bed, on which these islands seem to sleep in bliss,
islands in which the spice and perfume gardens of the world are embowered, and where the bird of paradise has its home, and the golden pheasant, and a hundred others of brilliant plumage, whose flight is among thickets so luxuriant, and scenery so picturesque, that European strangers find there the fairy land of their youthful dreams.

There is no composing draught like the draught through the tube of a pipe.

White lies are ushers to black ones.

I would rather write for the instruction, or even the amusement of the poor than for the amusement of the rich.

My wisdom is for my friends, my folly for myself.

Poor men ... always make love better than those who are rich, because, having less to care about, and not being puffed up with their own consequence, they are not so selfish and think much more of the lady than of themselves.

it is an old saying, that you must not work a willing horse to death.

here I am, after having been a warrior and a prince, cook, steward and everything else, boiling kettle for de young gentlemen.

There is an old saying, that there is honour amongst thieves, and so it often proves.

They say that the British cannot fix anything properly without a dinner, but I'm sure the Americans can fix nothing without a drink. If you meet, you drink; if you part, you drink; if you make acquaintance, you drink; if you close a bargain, you drink; they quarrel in their drink, and they make it up with a drink. They drink, because it is hot; they drink, because it is cold. If successful in elections, they drink and rejoice; if not, they drink and swear; - they begin to drink early in the morning, they leave off late at night; they commence it early in life, and they continue it, until they soon drop into the grave. To use their own expression, the way they drink is "quite a caution." As for water, what the man said, when asked to belong to the Temperance Society, appears to be the general opinion: "it's very good for navigation.

Philosophy is said to console a man under disappointment, although Shakespeare asserts that it is no remedy for a toothache; so Mr Easy turned philosopher, the very best profession a man can take up who is fit for nothing else.

The pen is a poor exchange for the long-barreled gun." "It does more execution, nevertheless,