Tom Brown's School Days

"[H]e who has conquered his own coward spirit has conquered the whole outward world."

"But a character for steadiness once gone is not easily recovered, as Tom found, and for years afterward he went up to the school without it, and the masters hands were against him, and his against them. And he regarded them, as a matter of course, as his natural enemies."

"This didnt suit Flashman. What your real bully likes in tossing is when the boys kick and struggle, or hold on to one side of the blanket and so get pitched bodily onto the floor; its no fun to him when no one is hurt or frightened."

"I have been credibly informed, and am inclined to believe, that the various boards of directors of railway companies, those gigantic jobbers and bribers, while quarrelling about everything else, agreed together some ten years back to buy up the learned profession of medicine, body and soul. To this end they set apart several millions of money, which they continually distribute judiciously among the doctors, stipulating only this one thing, that they shall prescribe change of air to every patient who can pay, or borrow money to pay, a railway fare, and see their prescription carried out. If it be not for this, why is it that none of us can be well at home for a year together? It wasnt so twenty years ago—not a bit of it."

"Two or three years, more or less, and then the steadily advancing, blessed wave will pass over your names as it has passed over ours."

"Every man isnt born to be a martyr."