Lieutenant Hornblower Quotes

Hornblower worked as hard to conceal his human weaknesses as some men worked to conceal ignoble birth. ~ C.S. Forester

Lieutenant Jaxon Knight replied, "No sir. D-L1 is the only jumpgate with a pending arrival and it is due in an hour, and it is just some civilian traffic. I'm not detecting them on the hyperNEP relays, and I really doubt they are an hour early." Captain Devereaux stood up. "Has there been any pirate activity or anything else of note in this sector? Can you get a fix on the fluctuations? How far are they?" Lieutenant Commander Ember Skyrift replied, "It's been quiet, sir, no pirate activity. I can't get a good lock on the flux. The wake is big, at least one large warship. And, sir, it's heading rim-trailward. ~ Charles Nall

Darling, we're going to have a baby again,' she would say to her husband.
I haven't the time,' Lieutenant Scheisskopf would grumble petulantly. 'Don't you know there's a parade going on? ~ Joseph Heller

Oh, trust me, Lieutenant Colchester, I always keep both eyes on a man directly underneath me. Both hands too. ~ Sierra Simone

Yet complicated people were getting wet - not only the shepherds. For instance, the piano-tuner was sopping. So was the vicar's wife. So were the lieutenant and the peevish damsels in his Battlesden car. Gallantry, charity, and art pursued their various missions, perspiring and muddy, while out on the slopes beyond them stood the eternal man and the eternal dog, guarding eternal sheep until the world is vegetarian. ~ E. M. Forster

The most terrible job in warfare is to be a second lieutenant leading a platoon when you are on the battlefield. ~ Dwight D. Eisenhower

Clevinger was a troublemaker and a wise guy. Lieutenant Scheisskopf knew that Clevinger might cause even more trouble if he wasn't watched. Yesterday it was the cadet officers; tomorrow it might be the world. Clevinger had a mind, and Lieutenant Scheisskopf had noticed that people with minds tended to get pretty smart at times. Such men were dangerous, and even the new cadet officers whom Clevinger had helped into office were eager to give damning testimony against him. The case against Clevinger was open and shut. The only thing missing was something to charge him with. ~ Joseph Heller

Bram stared into a pair of wide, dark eyes. Eyes that reflected a surprising glimmer of intelligence. This might be the rare female a man could reason with.
"Now, then," he said. "We can do this the easy way, or we can make things difficult."
With a soft snort, she turned her head. It was as if he'd ceased to exist.
Bram shifted his weight to his good leg, feeling the stab to his pride. He was a lieutenant colonel in the British army, and at over six feet tall, he was said to cut an imposing figure. Typically, a pointed glance from his quarter would quell the slightest hint of disobedience. He was not accustomed to being ignored.
"Listen sharp, now." He gave her ear a rough tweak and sank his voice to a low threat. "If you know what's good for you, you'll do as I say."
Though she spoke not a word, her reply was clear: You can kiss my great wolly arse.
Confounded sheep. ~ Tessa Dare

For years, Blockbuster Video has edited movies. Like The Bad Lieutenant, when he's masturbating while the girls in the car are doing the thing. I rented it from Blockbuster and sped to that scene, and it was gone. I called up Blockbuster, and I'm like, "I got an erection, and the scene's not there." ~ Louis C.K.

Clearing her throat, Peabody turned the cube on record. I owe Dallas, Lieutenant Meaniepants Eve, twenty dollars to be paid out of my hard-earned, under-appreciated detective's salary next payday. Peabody, Detective Churchmouse Delia. ~ J.D. Robb

The lieutenant looks somewhat taken aback that Uncle Enzo is concerning himself
with such a tiny detail It is as if the don were going up and down highways
picking up litter or something. But he nods respectfully, having just learned
something: details matter. ~ Neal Stephenson

During the Second World War, for example, Lieutenant Colonel Henry K. Beecher conducted a classic study of men with serious battlefield injuries. In the Cartesian view, the degree of injury ought to determine the degree of pain, rather like a dial controlling volume. Yet 58 percent of the men - men with compound fractures, gunshot wounds, torn limbs - reported only slight pain or no pain at all. Just 27 percent of the men felt enough pain to request pain medication, although such wounds routinely require narcotics in civilians. Clearly, something that was going on in their minds - Beecher thought they were overjoyed to have escaped alive from the battlefield - counteracted the signals sent by their injuries. Pain was becoming recognized as far more complex than a one-way transmission from injury to "ouch. ~ Atul Gawande

I took the thin magazine from the pouch in front of me and began to thumb through it. I felt self-conscious, as if I shouldn't be there. My mind began to wander, as I knew it would, back to the boonies. I was on patrol again. Monaco was on point. Peewee and Walowick followed him. Lobel and Brunner were next, then Johnson, the sixty cradled in his arm as if it were a child. We were walking the boonies, past rice paddies, toward yet another hill. I was in the rear, and for some reason I turned back. Behind me, trailing the platoon, were the others. Brew, Jenkins, Sergeant Dongan, Turner, and Lewis, the new guys, and Lieutenant Carroll.
I knew I was mixing my prayers, but it didn't matter. I just wanted God to care for them, to keep them whole. I knew they were thinking about me and Peewee. ~ Walter Dean Myers

Coleridge's description of Iago's actions as "motiveless malignancy" applies in some degree to all the Shakespearian villains. The adjective motiveless means, firstly, that the tangible gains, if any, are clearly not the principal motive, and, secondly, that the motive is not the desire for personal revenge upon another for a personal injury. Iago himself proffers two reasons for wishing to injure Othello and Cassio. He tells Roderigo that, in appointing Cassio to be his lieutenant, Othello has treated him unjustly, in which conversation he talks like the conventional Elizabethan malcontent. In his soliloquies with himself, he refers to his suspicion that both Othello and Cassio have made him a cuckold, and here he talks like the conventional jealous husband who desires revenge. But there are, I believe, insuperable objections to taking these reasons, as some critics have done, at their face value. ~ W. H. Auden

My faithful companion, Zoe Nightshade, has passed into the stars. I must have a new lieutenant. And I intend to choose one. But first, Father Zeus, I must speak to you privately."
Zeus beckoned Artemis forward. He leaned down and listened as she spoke in his ear.
A feeling of panic seized me. "Annabeth," I said under my breath. "Don't."
She frowned at me. "What?"
Look, I need to tell you something," I continued. The words came stumbling out of me. "I couldn't stand it if ... I don't want you to - "
Percy?" she said. "You look like you're going to be sick."
And that's how I felt. I wanted to say more, but my tongue betrayed me. It wouldn't move because of the fear in my stomach ~ Rick Riordan

For inspiration, I would turn again and again to Lieutenant Jason "Jay" Redman, a Navy SEAL who had been shot seven times and had undergone nearly two dozen surgeries. He had placed a hand-drawn sign on the door to his room at Bethesda Naval Hospital. It read: ATTENTION. To all who enter here. If you are coming into this room with sorrow or to feel sorry for my wounds, go elsewhere. The wounds I received I got in a job I love, doing it for people I love, supporting the freedom of a country I deeply love. I am incredibly tough and will make a full recovery. What is full? That is the absolute utmost physically my body has the ability to recover. Then I will push that about 20% further through sheer mental tenacity. This room you are about to enter is a room of fun, optimism, and intense rapid regrowth. If you are not prepared for that, go elsewhere. From: The Management. ~ Robert M. Gates

I play a character called Lieutenant Delcourt who, in the original comics, pops up from time to time to rescue Tintin. I guess if you've grown up watching movies like 'Jaws' and 'Indiana Jones,' it's pretty surreal to find yourself on set with Steven Spielberg directing you. ~ Tony Curran

I hope I didn't upset you overmuch," the lieutenant said, coming up behind Hannah. She jumped and turned so quickly that her boot caught in the rug. She would have fallen had the lieutenant not taken hold of her. "There now. I do apologize. I didn't mean to sneak up on you." He smiled, and she liked the way his eyes seemed to twinkle. "That's quite all right. I was watching the children have fun with your men. They seem so carefree in these moments that it's hard to imagine the war is really going on at the same time. ~ Tracie Peterson

IT is not impossible that among the English readers of this book there may be one who in 1915 and 1916 was in one of those trenches that were woven like a web among the ruins of Monchy-au-Bois. In that case he had opposite him at that time the 73rd Hanoverian Fusiliers, who wear as their distinctive badge a brassard with ' Gibraltar ' inscribed on it in gold, in memory of the defence of that fortress under General Elliot; for this, besides Waterloo, has its place in the regiment's history.

At the time I refer to I was a nineteen-year-old lieutenant in command of a platoon, and my part of the line was easily recognizable from the English side by a row of tall shell-stripped trees that rose from the ruins of Monchy. My left flank was bounded by the sunken road leading to Berles-au-Bois, which was in the hands of the English ; my right was marked by a sap running out from our lines, one that helped us many a time to make our presence felt by means of bombs and rifle-grenades.

I daresay this reader remembers, too, the white tom-cat, lamed in one foot by a stray bullet, who had his headquarters in No-man's-land. He used often to pay me a visit at night in my dugout. This creature, the sole living being that was on visiting terms with both sides, always made on me an impression of extreme mystery. This charm of mystery which lay over all that belonged to the other side, to that danger zone full of unseen figures, is one of the strongest impressions that the wa ~ Ernst Junger

You were never what he wanted you to be. And more than even I hoped. In weak moments, I might credit the lieutenant for some of that. ~ J.D. Robb

Roger that, Lieutenant. We're boots to the ground. You need firepower?"
Walker shook his head at the man's enthusiasm. "No firepower necessary. We're using brains today, Cudahy. I know it may be a novel experience for you four, but it's a good time to start. ~ Christina Skye

Then it hits me ...
And it hits me with the force of a blow. I am maybe fifteen years old. I am a girl. I am also acting lieutenant in the Royal Navy, and, by the Naval Rules and Regulations as regards the chain of command, I am in command of His Majesty's Ship Wolverine. ~ L.A. Meyer

If you get the objectives right, a lieutenant can write the strategy. ~ George C. Marshall

When the hell did things one who comes up with the wacky, impossible plans. I'm supposed to be the general here. Now I'm barely a lieutenant. ~ Richelle Mead

At the Platoon Weapons Division, I got to serve with Major (later Lieutenant General) Milan Naidu. Extremely soft-spoken, Milan was married to Neeharika, who was the daughter of Lieutenant Colonel B Awasthy who had been killed by the Chinese in 1962 at the Lagyala Gompa. Originally from 2 Rajput, Awasthy was moving to Mathura to take over the unit which had finished its NEFA tour of duty in Walong. Unfortunately, that was not to be. Neeharika was an extremely talented singer and was quite the star at most social gatherings. ~ V.K. Singh

The narrower a man's intellectual grasp, the more power he is able to grab in this country. I tell you, Lieutenant, there is only one way to survive here. And that is not to imagine anything. ~ Haruki Murakami

There was no response. Soon afterward, a skiff flying the Spanish flag approached the Charleston. Two Spanish officers came aboard and apologized for not having returned the American "salute" because they had no gunpowder left in their arsenal. It turned out that they had not been resupplied for months and did not know the United States and Spain were at war. The next morning an American lieutenant went ashore. At 10:15 he handed the Spanish commandant a message demanding surrender of the island within thirty minutes. The commandant retired to his quarters. Twenty-nine minutes later he emerged with a reply. "Being without defenses of any kind and without any means for meeting the present situation," he had written, "I am under the sad necessity of being unable to resist such superior forces and regretfully accede to your demands. ~ Stephen Kinzer

Lieutenant al-Kaseasbeh's dedication, courage and service to his country and family represent universal human values that stand in opposition to the cowardice and depravity of ISIL, which has been so broadly rejected around the globe. ~ Barack Obama

You never had sex in a car."

"Yes, I have. You get ideas at least half the time whenever we're in the back of one of your limos."

"Not the same at all. That's a grown-up venue, a limo is. It's sophisticated sex. And here we are, crammed together in the front seat of a police issue, and the lieutenant is both aroused and mildly embarrassed."

"I am not. Either." But her pulse jumped, and her breath hitched when his thumbs brushed over the thin cotton covering her breasts. "This is ridiculous. We're adults, we're married. The steering wheel is jammed into the base of my spine."

"The first two are irrelevant, the last is part of the buzz. Music on, program five. Skyroof open."

She narrowed her eyes at him. "It's not going to work. It's uncomfortable and it's stupid. And I have to work in this vehicle."

"I can make you come in ten seconds."

She actually smirked at him. "Ten," she said, "nine, eight, seven, six, five . . . oh shit." She'd underestimated his quick hands, his skilled fingers. He had her trousers unhooked, had her wet and throbbing. And over. ~ J.D. Robb

Hornblower bowed to Lady This and Lady That, to Lord Somebody and to Sir John Somebody-else. Bold eyes and bare arms, exquisite clothes and blue Garter-ribbons, were all the impressions Hornblower received. ~ C.S. Forester

Tag Feeney," Eve ordered when she was behind the wheel. "Have him run like crimes in and around London."
"It would be my honor, Mrs. Lieutenant Dallas Roarke." At Eve's burning look, Peabody only grinned. "Sorry. I just had to do it once. I'm over it. ~ J.D. Robb

It's a very, very fascinating story for me, cause it's about a man who's been doing bad; bad things. And he's a father of four children in parochial school, he's a lieutenant of detectives, but he's in conflict with himself and with trying to do what's right. ~ Harvey Keitel

In a thousand years, Lieutenant, nothing you care about will matter. Not even to you - you'll be dead. So will I, and no one alive will care. Maybe - just maybe - someone will remember our names. More likely those names will be engraved on some dusty memorial pin at the bottom of an old box no one ever opens." Or Ekalu's would. There was no reason anyone would make any memorials to me, after my death. "And that thousand years will come, and another and another, to the end of the universe. Think of all the griefs and tragedies, and yes, the triumphs, buried in the past, millions of years of it. Everything for the people who lived them. Nothing now. ~ Ann Leckie

When afterwards he mentioned the names of the Tartars he had got to know on his pilgrimage, like Hallimulabalibay, to which he added a whole string of names he had himself invented, like Valivolavalivey, Malimulamalimey, Lieutenant Lukas could not stop himself from sying: 'I'll kick your backside, you mule. Go on, and be brief and to the point! ~ Jaroslav Hasek

Don't wear those trousers with that shirt. What are you thinking?"
"I'm going to a bust, not a party."
"That's no reason not to look your best. Let's see, what's the well-dressed cop wearing these days to take down a major terrorist organization? You can't go wrong with basic black."
"Is this a joke?" she asked as he selected another shirt.
"Good fashion sense is never a joke." He handed her the shirt, slid a finger down the dent in her chin. "But it's good to see you smile again, Lieutenant. Oh, and wear the black boots, not the brown."
"I don't have any black boots."
He reached in, pulled out a pair of sturdy black leather. "You do now. ~ J.D. Robb

When I had the honor to be a second lieutenant, I ate dry bread, but I never let anyone know that I was poor. ~ Napoleon Bonaparte

Colonel L., in whose eyes I was a first-rate Riot Acter or, worse, an intellectual - in his phrase, "someone who reads books" - the most damning appraisal that could be made of a junior lieutenant. ~ Steven Pressfield

Lieutenant Smith was asked by Mister Zumwald to get him a drink," Wilkes said. "She responded with physical violence. I counseled her on conduct unbecoming of an officer and, when she reacted with foul language, on disrespect to a superior officer, sir, and I'll stand by that position. Sir."

"I agree that her actions were unbecoming, Captain," Steve said, mildly. "She really should have resolved it with less force. Which I told her as well as a strong lecture on respect to a superior officer. On the other hand, Captain, Mister Zumwald physically accosted her, grabbing her arm and, when she protested, called her a bitch. Were you aware of that, Captain?"

"She did say something about it, sir," Wilkes said. "However… "

"I also understand that you spent some time with Mister Zumwald afterwards," Steve said. "Rather late. Did you at any time express to Mister Zumwald that accosting any woman, much less an officer of… what was it? 'The United States Naval services' was unacceptable behavior, Captain?"

"Sir," Wilkes said. "Mister Zumwald is a major Hollywood executive… "

"Was," Steve said.

"Excuse me, sir?" Wilkes said.

"Was a major Hollywood executive," Steve said. "Right now, Ernest Zumwald, Captain, is a fucking refugee off a fucking lifeboat. Period fucking dot. He's given a few days grace, like most refugees, to get his headspace and timing back, then he can decide if he wants to help out or go in with ~ John Ringo

Unnerved, Summerset moved quickly to the communication center. "Roarke, the lieutenant has just come in from outside. She wore no outer gear. She looks very bad."
"Where is she?"
"She's heading up. Roarke, I insulted her and ... she apologized to me. Something must be done. ~ J.D. Robb

That is the way a white man remembers a battle. So many soldiers here, so many there. Such a captain here. Such a lieutenant there. This colonel in one place. That major in another. The horses precisely here, the cannon exactly there. But not an Indian. An Indian remembers where his mother fell bayoneted, or his little brother had his skull smashed, or his big sister cried for mercy and was shot in the mouth. ~ Will Henry

At one stage in the heated intramural debate, ex-ACS president and longtime director Alton Ochsner took the floor and regaled his eminent colleagues with a tale intended to disarm those still unpersuaded by the proof against smoking. There was a certain Russian count, Ochsner told them, who, suspecting his attractive young wife of infidelity, advised her that he was leaving their home for an extended trip, but in fact posted himself at a nearby residence to spy on her. The very first night after his leave-taking, the count watched by moonlight as a sleigh pulled up to his house, a handsome lieutenant from the Czar's Guard bounded out, the count's wife greeted the hussar at the door and led him inside, and in a moment the couple was seen through an upstairs bedroom window in candlelit silhouette as they wildly embraced; after another moment the candle was blown out. "Proof! Proof!" said the anguished count, smiting himself on the brow. "If I only had the proof! ~ Richard Kluger

Running a bit behind today," he told them. "Sent off for tox as you'd flagged that. Shouldn't take long."
She glanced down at the body. Morris hadn't yet made his Y cut. "What can you tell me just from the visual?"
"Lieutenant, this woman is dead."
"Peabody, note that down. We've got a dead woman. ~ J.D. Robb

Just as foreplay is the key to good sex, preparation is essential to achieving victory in battle. Right, lieutenant? ~ Natalia Marx

Our senior officers knew the war was going badly. Yet they bowed to groupthink pressure and kept up pretenses ... Many of my generation, the career captains, majors, and lieutenant colonels seasoned in that war, vowed that when our turn came to call the shots, we would not quietly acquiesce in halfhearted warfare for half-baked reasons that the American people could not understand. ~ Colin Powell

I felt my face going blank, my eyes going empty. For just an instant I let Marks see the gaping hole where my conscience was supposed to be. I didn't really mean to, but I couldn't seem to help it. Maybe I was more shaken up from the room and its survivors than I thought. It's the only excuse I can give.
Marks' face went from fading laughter to something like concern. He gave me cop eyes, but underneath that was an uncertainty that was almost fear.
"Smile, Lieutenant. It's a good day. No one died."
I watched the thought spill through his face. He understood exactly what I meant. You should never even hint to the police that you're willing to kill, but I was tired, and I still had to go back into the room. Fuck it.
Edward spoke in his own voice, low and empty, "And you wonder why I compete with you? ~ Laurell K. Hamilton

With The Good Lieutenant, Whitney Terrell has unwound the myths of one of our most encrusted literary forms - the war novel - and remade it to be humane and honest, glowingly new and true. Terrell knows his facts on the ground, but this is emphatically, triumphantly a work of imagination and literary ingenuity. It opens in conflagration - everything having gone wrong for Lieutenant Emma Fowler in one explosive instant - and from there the mystery of how we got to this disastrous moment unfolds backwards, Memento-like, as we watch Emma become more innocent, her life more full of hope and possibility, with each day less of war that she has experienced. This is brilliant, bold, heartbreaking storytelling for material that demands nothing less. ~ Adam Johnson

And the girl,' Lanser continued, 'the girl, Lieutenant, you may rape her, or protect her, or marry her
that is of no importance so long as you shoot her when it is ordered. ~ John Steinbeck

Lieutenant Trotta wasn't experienced enough to know that uncouth peasant boys with noble hearts exist in real life and that a lot of truths about the living world are recorded in bad books; they are just badly written. ~ Joseph Roth

I want a riot laser," Eve snapped at Peabody. "Full body armor." She yanked a six-inch combat knife from its leather sheath and watched with glee, as its wicked serrated edge caught the sunlight through her little window.
Peabody's eyes popped. "Sir?"
"I'm going down to maintenance, and I'm going locked and loaded. I'm taking those piss-brain sons of bitches out, one by one. Then I'm going to haul what's left of the bodies into my vehicle and set it on fire."
"Jesus, Dallas, I thought we had a red flag."
"I've got a red flag. I've got one." Her eyes wheeled to Peabody. "I've got under fifty miles on my ride since those lying, cheating, sniveling shitheads said it was road ready. Road ready? Do you want me to tell you about road ready?"
"I would like that very much, Lieutenant. If you'd sheathe that knife first. ~ J.D. Robb