Stephen nodded. 'Tell me, ' he said, in a low voice, some moments later. 'Were I under naval discipline, could that fellow have me whipped?' He nodded towards Mr Marshall. 'The master?' cried Jack, with inexpressible amazement. 'Yes, ' said Stephen looking attentively at him, with his head slightly inclined to the left. 'But he is the master..' said Jack. If Stephen had called the sophies stem her stern, or her truck her keel, he would have understood the situation directly; but that Stephen should confuse the chain of command, the relative status of a captain and a master, of a commissioned officer and a warrant officer, so subverted the natural order, so undermined the sempiternal universe, that for a moment his mind could hardly encompass it. Yet Jack, though no great scholar, no judge of a hexameter, was tolerably quick, and after gasping no more than twice he said, 'My dear sir, I beleive you have been lead astray by the words master and master and commander- illogical terms, I must confess. The first is subordinate to the second. You must allow me to explain our naval ranks some time. But in any case you will never be flogged- no, no; you shall not be flogged, ' he added, gazing with pure affection, and with something like awe, at so magnificent a prodigy, at an ignorance so very far beyond anything that even his wide-ranging mind had yet conceived. Patrick OBrian
About This Quote

The quote by Stephen, "When Nelson Mandela said, "The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall," he was speaking about the power of persistence. More specifically, the power to get up day after day and fight all over again. That's what brings the greatest glory." Jack felt as though his mind had been blown. Standing there was a man who was no less than the legendary Stephen Dedalus.

His mind was so great that he could understand why his brother would be called such a prodigy. Many people would call him a genius because of his ability to look at things differently than anyone else would and this is why he knew that if you wanted to be a great person you would have to be persistent.

Source: Master And Commander

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