C.S. Forester Quotes & Sayings

They were setting off on an adventure, and Hornblower was only too conscious that it was his own fault. — C.S. Forester

Happy is the bride the sun shines on. — C.S. Forester

His self-respect was at its lowest ebb. — C.S. Forester

Clairvoyant, Hornblower could foresee that in a year's time, the world would hardy remember the incident. In twenty years, it would be entirely forgotten. Yet those headless corpses up there in Muzillac; those shattered redcoats; those Frenchmen caught in the four-pounder's blast of canister
they were as dead as if it had been a day in which history had been changed. — C.S. Forester

The work is with me when I wake up in the morning; it is with me while I eat my breakfast in bed and run through the newspaper, while I shave and bathe and dress. — C.S. Forester

Though there are very serious disadvantages about being a true believer. Who would want four wives at any time, especially when one pays for the doubtful privilege by abstaining from wine? — C.S. Forester

It was not a conspiratorial wink, nor did Hornblower attempt the hopeless task of trying to pretend he stuffed hot greasy sausages into his pockets every day of his life; the wink simply dared the old gentleman to comment on or even think of the remarkable act. — C.S. Forester

When I die there may be a paragraph or two in the newspapers. My name will linger in the British Museum Reading Room catalogue for a space at the head of a long list of books for which no one will ever ask. — C.S. Forester

Bush put both arms round Hornblower's shoulders and walked with dragging feet. It did not matter that his feet dragged and his legs would not function while he had this support; Hornblower was the best man in the world and Bush could announce it by singing 'For He's a Jolly Good Fellow' while lurching along the alleyway. — C.S. Forester

The fools ran after me and I ran after the whores, foolish though I realized such a proceeding to be. — C.S. Forester

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

I have heard of novels started in the middle, at the end, written in patches to be joined together later, but I have never felt the slightest desire to do this. — C.S. Forester

I formed a resolution to never write a word I did not want to write; to think only of my own tastes and ideals, without a thought of those of editors or publishers. — C.S. Forester

They managed to find time ... to tell me that there was no chance of my being accepted for service and that really I should be surprised to still be alive. — C.S. Forester

modern standards. No one expected that — C.S. Forester

I thank God daily for the good fortune of my birth, for I am certain I would have made a miserable peasant. — C.S. Forester

When a man who is drinking neat gin starts talking about his mother he is past all argument. — C.S. Forester

There is no other way of writing a novel than to begin at the beginning at to continue to the end. — C.S. Forester

A man who writes for a living does not have to go anywhere in particular, and he could rarely afford to if he wanted. — C.S. Forester

Perhaps that suspicion of fraud enhances the flavor. — C.S. Forester

Everything was in stark and dreadful contrast with the trivial crises and counterfeit emotions of Hollywood, and I returned to England deeply moved and emotionally worn out. — C.S. Forester

Harm began to come to Hornblower from that day forth, despite his obedience to orders and diligent study of his duties, and it stemmed from the arrival in the midshipmen's berth of John Simpson as senior warrant officer. — C.S. Forester

I must be like the princess who felt the pea through seven mattresses; each book is a pea. — C.S. Forester

There is still need to think and plan, but on a different scale, and along different lines. — C.S. Forester

Novel writing is far and away the most exhausting work I know. — C.S. Forester

I'd rather be in trouble for having done something than for not having done anything. — C.S. Forester

The material came bubbling up inside like a geyser or an oil gusher. It streamed up of its own accord, down my arm and out of my fountain pen in a torrent of six thousand words a day. — C.S. Forester

The cork was in the bottle. He and the Atropos were trapped. — C.S. Forester

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

Irresponsibility was something which, in the very nature of things, could not co-exist with independence. — C.S. Forester

The stinks of the true believers have to be smelt to be believed. — C.S. Forester

Yet if he had been asked ... if he were happy ... He would have admitted readily enough that he was uncomfortable, that he was cold, and badly fed, and venomous; that his clothes were in rags, and his feet and knees and elbows raw and bleeding through much walking and crawling; that he was in ever-present peril of life, and that he really did not expect to survive the adventure he was about to thrust himself into voluntarily, but all this had nothing to do with happiness: that was something he never stopped to think about. — C.S. Forester

The doctor who applied a stethoscope to my heart was not satisfied. I was told to get my papers with the clerk in the outer hall. I was medically rejected. — C.S. Forester

I did not ask for objections, but for comments, or helpful suggestions. I looked for more loyalty from you, Captain Hornblower.'
That made the whole argument pointless. If Leighton only wanted servile agreement there was no sense in continuing ... — C.S. Forester

A whim, a passing mood, readily induces the novelist to move hearth and home elsewhere. He can always plead work as an excuse to get him out of the clutches of bothersome hosts. — C.S. Forester

The lucky man is he who knows how much to leave to chance. — C.S. Forester

If one plan goes wrong there is need to make another, that is all. And, as for despair - there was no room for despair in Dodd's make-up. The regiment had taught him that he must do his duty or die in the attempt; a simple enough religion fit for his simple mind. As long as there was breath in his body or a thought in his mind he must struggle on; as long as he went on trying there was no need to meditate on success or failure. The only reward for the doing of his duty would be the knowledge that his duty was being done. — C.S. Forester

With two people and luggage on board she draws four inches of water. Two canoe paddles will move her along at a speed reasonable enough in moderate currents. — C.S. Forester