Seize the Fire Quotes

“The 19th century had chosen only to remember the happy warrior. The 20th century only the blood come gargling. Both are essential to any understanding of Trafalgar.”
― Adam Nicolson, Seize the Fire: Heroism, Duty, and Nelson's Battle of Trafalgar

“At that level through out the 18th century, another vision of admirable behavior persisted. The mob did not want the smooth conformable man, the slick hypocrite who could so politely maneuver his way into the rewards of high politics and high society. They wanted his very opposite, the clever thief. The man who thrived not by using the well oiled wheels of society but by opposing them and cheating them; by attending to the well-being of his own heroic self.”
― Adam Nicolson, Seize the Fire: Heroism, Duty, and Nelson's Battle of Trafalgar

“The Enquiry in England,’ Blake said, ‘is not whether a man has talents and genius, but whether he is passive and polite and a virtuous ass and obedient to noblemen’s opinions in arts and science.”
― Adam Nicolson, Seize the Fire: Heroism, Duty, and the Battle of Trafalgar

“There will be no peace until the violence is done. Peace is inaccessible without the violence, because violence is righteousness in action.”
― Adam Nicolson, Seize the Fire: Heroism, Duty, and the Battle of Trafalgar