1
He had been quite unprepared for this particular blow, striking under every conceivable kind of armour, and for some minutes he could hardly bear the pain, but sat there blinking in the sun. 'Christ, ' he said at last. 'Another day.Patrick OBrian
2
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
3
Most men find [peace] entirely unlike what they had expected - like love...Patrick OBrian
4
The author says that when an angry impulse is not immediately expressed, it turns to melancholy.Patrick OBrian
5
The Navy speaks in symbols and you may suit what meaning you choose to the words.Patrick OBrian
6
Patriotism is a word; and one that generally comes to mean either my country, right or wrong, which is infamous, or my country is always right, which is imbecile.Patrick OBrian
7
The newly-minted captain is told to let nothing stop him but to do nothing that would risk his ship or his crew.Patrick OBrian
8
What's wrong with (Captain) Jack Aubrey?""Everything, since he has a command and I have not.Patrick OBrian
9
The newly-minted captain admits the irony between the gold on his shoulders and the lack of gold in his pockets.Patrick OBrian