Honorverse favorite one-liners

timmopussycat" [quote="KNick wrote:

munroburton wrote:That's what I thought too - as of SoF's end, Commander Kaplan, Lt. Commander Tallman, Lieutenants Fonzarelli and O'Reilly are senior to Abigail. She is the fifth ranking officer and depending whether the XO has a backup bridge to be manning, third or fourth on the Bridge during GQ.

Which brings up the question of restricted and unrestricted line officers. In some navies an engineering officer such as Fonzarelli would not be eligible to take command of the ship until he was the last officer left. (This is the restricted line version.) In others, he would assume command as soon as he was the senior officer (unrestricted line version). I do not recall ever seeing a discussion of which version applies to the RMN. Does anyone else?

And the bastard had the good sense to ask for a regular Navy CO for his collection of Navy and SS units, she admitted to herself unhappily.

But still . . .
"The fact that Harrington is still alive may actually be even more damaging than the escape itself," Turner pointed out, and, again, McQueen nodded.

Jean-Marie Le Bris, a French sea captain, who conducted aerial experiments in Brittany from 1856 to 1868, was a man not given to understatement. Le Bris did practically nothing to advance aviation, but the mixture of fact and fantasy regarding his experiments have become firmly fixed in the history of aeronautics. Le Bris gained knowledge during his voyages around Cape Horn and the Cape of Good Hope. He watched the graceful flight of large albatrosses and to him this was an insight into the secret of flying. He captured and killed a bird to study the shape and structure of its wings by holding it aloft in the wind. Obviously the air blowing over the wings of the bird caused it to rise slightly due to its shape. Captain Le Bris exclaimed:

I took the wing of the albatross and exposed it to the breeze, and lo in spite of me it drew forward into the wind; notwithstanding my resistance, it tended to rise. Thus I had discovered the secret of the bird! I comprehended the whole mystery of flight.

The memory of Andrew LaFollet’s protectiveness—of all the years he’d served her and of how he’d died when she wasn’t even there—could still ambush her with no warning at all. But it was getting better, she told herself firmly. It was getting better.

And it's entirely possible, if the situation turns nasty enough for them, for the Manties to send her back out, arm or no arm."

"Harrington is not some sort of boogeyman," Saint-Just said in frosty tones.

"Which is why she is a boogeyman." Pierre sighed.

cthia wrote:"If you're going to be a bad boy, the big bad boogeyman is going to get you. So be good."

I just know many Havenite parents used the Salamander to control rambunctious kids. I just know it. And it worked. Hell, even the adults were afraid of her - the navy ones too!

Mesa is at least technically independent and also perhaps the galaxy's most shining example of just how nasty pure unbridled capitalism can be when coupled to total amorality.

"I hope your cameras caught that." The words came out slurred and thick, but understandable. "It should be an important exhibit at your trial after the war."

timmopussycat wrote:

cthia wrote:"Want a little help in that alley, skipper?" OBS

Theisman to his first officer.

Great admirals don't make wars great, bad admirals make great admirals' wars great.
-cthia

Actually that's the FO speaking to his commander.