The Riddle of the Sands Quotes

“A keen wind from the west struck our faces, and as swiftly as it had come the fog rolled away from us, in one mighty mass, stripping clean and pure the starry dome of heaven...”
― Erskine Childers, The Riddle of the Sands

“- vague, very vague.”
― Erskine Childers, The Riddle of the Sands

“Germany's a thundering great nation . . . I wonder if we shall ever fight her.”
― Erskine Childers, The Riddle of the Sands

“The Dulcibella faced the storm as doggedly as ever, plunging her bowsprit into the sea and flinging green water over her bows. A wave of confidence and affection for her welled through me. I had been used to resent the weight and bulk of her unwieldy anchor and cable, but I saw their use now; varnish, paint, spotless decks, and snowy sails were foppish absurdities of a hateful past.”
― Erskine Childers, The Riddle of the Sands

“As a soldier learns more in a week of war than in years of parades and pipeclay, so, cut off from all distractions, moving from bivouac to precarious bivouac, and depending, to some extent, for my life on my muscles and wits, I rapidly learnt my work and gained a certain dexterity.”
― Erskine Childers, The Riddle of the Sands

“We’ve been safe so long, and grown so rich, that we’ve forgotten what we owe it to. But there’s no excuse for those blockheads of statesmen, as they call themselves, who are paid to see things as they are.”
― Erskine Childers, The Riddle of the Sands

“at the town”
― Erskine Childers, The Riddle of the Sands

“By Jove! we want a man like this Kaiser, who doesn't wait to be kicked, but works like a nigger for his country, and sees ahead.”
― Erskine Childers, The Riddle of the Sands