Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Quotes

So complex is the human spirit that it can itself scarce discern the deep springs which impel it to action. ~ The White Company by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle So they lived, these men, in their own lusty, cheery fashion--rude and rough, but honest, kindly and true. Let us thank God if we have outgrown their vices. Let us pray to God that we may ever hold their virtues. ~ The White Company by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Without, the sun shines bright and the birds are singing amid the ivy on the drooping beeches. Their choice is made, and they turn away hand-in-hand, with their backs to the darkness and their faces to the light. ~ The White Company by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle "Now order the ranks, and fling wide the banners, for our souls are God's and our bodies the king's, and our swords for Saint George and for England!" ~ The White Company by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Ill armed and half starved, they were still desperate men, to whom danger had lost all fears: for what was death that they should shun it to cling to such a life as theirs? ~ The White Company by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle When such men, who are beyond hope and fear, begin in their dim minds to see the source their woes, it may be an evil time for those who have wronged them. The weak man becomes strong when he has nothing, for then only can he feel the wild, mad thrill of despair. ~ The White Company by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle The landlady looked at him in a motherly way and shook her head. "You have had no great truck with the world," she said, "or you would have learned that it is the small men and not the great who hold their noses in the air." ~ The White Company by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle "Holy men? Holy cabbages! Holy bean-pods! What do they do but live and suck in sustenance and grow fat? If that be holiness, I could show you hogs in this forest who are fit to head the calendar. Think you it was for such a life that this good arm was fixed upon my shoulder, or that head placed upon your neck? There is work in the world, man, and it is not by hiding behind stone walls that we shall do it." ~ The White Company by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle "You see, dear heart," said he, "that they will not leave the old dog in his kennel when the game is afoot." ~ The White Company by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle It was joyful to hear the merry whistle of blackbirds as they darted from one clump of greenery to the other. Now and again a peaty amber colored stream rippled across their way, with ferny over-grown banks, where the blue kingfisher flitted busily from side to side, or the gray and pensive heron, swollen with trout and dignity, stood ankle-deep among the sedges. Chattering jays and loud wood-pigeons flapped thickly overhead, while ever and anon the measured tapping of Nature's carpenter, the great green woodpecker, sounded from each wayside grove. ~ The White Company by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle