The Rebel Pirate Quotes

“I don’t care who the devil he is. He can go hang. She’s a pickle pocket. A pock picket. Pox on it, you know what I mean.” “Pickpockets”
― Donna Thorland, The Rebel Pirate

“If you have found a woman who can stir both body and spirit, sir, do not give her up lightly. Do not. The alternatives can be damnably complicated. [Joseph Warren]”
― Donna Thorland, The Rebel Pirate

“Women are shockingly unforgiving of one another, but Mercy will come around. She is not passionate herself, you see, so she does not understand how I can love her but still consort with the governess. If you have found a woman who can stir both spirit and body, sir, do not give her up lightly. Do not. The alternatives can be damnably complicated.”
― Donna Thorland, The Rebel Pirate

“What was he like? Red Abed?” She was remarkable. Loyal and brave and beautiful as a ship under sail. We ran through moonlit gardens and defied an angry mob. “I spent an afternoon with him,” Sparhawk said. “He was old and frail, but he had forgotten more about the sea than I shall ever know.” And I will mourn his daughter all my days.”
― Donna Thorland, The Rebel Pirate

“a flower that will always grow toward the sun.” “And what does that make me?” she asked sourly. “Heart of oak, my girl,” he said, redeeming himself entirely. “Heart of oak.”
― Donna Thorland, The Rebel Pirate

“Sailors tended to collect things on their travels. His bosun kept a small box stuffed with plant seeds from foreign ports, a whole future garden in potentia; his carpenter kept a bag of heathen votives and shrunken heads. Curiosities, both natural and artificial, were difficult for wandering seamen to resist. One of the hands on Sparhawk’s first snow had found a giant clamshell on Fiji and brought it aboard. When his shipmates quizzed him on what he planned to do with it, he said he hadn’t the slightest idea—but he knew that he should regret leaving it behind.”
― Donna Thorland, The Rebel Pirate

“He was a canny old rascal. “I’m no pirate,” James said. “I have been in the navy since I was eleven.” “The way my daughter tells it, you hailed our late and not particularly lamented skipper, and threatened him with a broadside. When Molineaux did not heave to, you dismasted the Sally and boarded her. And it was the Wasp that sailed away with the gold. If you don’t think that’s piracy, my boy, I suggest you make a closer study of the word.”
― Donna Thorland, The Rebel Pirate

“Sparhawk’s reputation must have preceded him. The Massachusetts coast, as he was often reminded, was shaped like an ear. It heard everything.”
― Donna Thorland, The Rebel Pirate

“She promised you'd get to shore in one piece.' Cheap said, 'and I won't make a liar out of her. But if you know what's good for you, you'll forget about that girl. Ask anyone on the coast. Or the Lord God himself. They'll tell you. Lucas Cheap sailed with the Brethren. He makes good ever on his threats.”
― Donna Thorland, The Rebel Pirate

“Sparhawk had fallen into a nest of pirates.”
― Donna Thorland, The Rebel Pirate

“Cleaving to the authority...will not protect your family...Those who lie down meekly in a civil war are always the first to be trampled.”
― Donna Thorland, The Rebel Pirate