Arthur Ransome > Quotes

“BETTER DROWNED THAN DUFFERS IF NOT DUFFERS WONT DROWN”
― Arthur Ransome, Swallows and Amazons

“You write not for children but for yourself. And if by good fortune children enjoy what you enjoy, why then you are a writer of children's books.”
― Arthur Ransome

“Who would wave a flag to be rescued if they had a desert island of their own? That was the thing that spoilt Robinson Crusoe. In the end he came home. There never ought to be an end.”
― Arthur Ransome

“Grab a chance and you won't be sorry for what might have been”
― Arthur Ransome

“The island had come to seem one of those places seen from the train that belong to a life in which we shall never take part.”
― Arthur Ransome, Swallows and Amazons

“Better drowned than duffers, if not duffers won't drown.”
― Arthur Ransome, Swallows and Amazons

“They found, like many explorers before them, that somehow, in their absence, they had got into trouble at home.”
― Arthur Ransome, Swallowdale

“Swallows and Amazons for-ever!”
― Arthur Ransome, Swallows and Amazons

“The desire to build a house is the tired wish of a man content thenceforward with a single anchorage.
The desire to build a boat is the desire of youth, unwilling yet to accept the idea of a final resting place.”
― Arthur Ransome

“Things might have been a lot worse. Don’t you worry about it overmuch. When a thing’s done, it’s done, and if it’s not done right, do it differently next time. Worrying never made a sailor.”
― Arthur Ransome, Swallowdale

“Wild Cat Island”
― Arthur Ransome, Swallows and Amazons

“No one wants to row who has ever sailed.”
― Arthur Ransome

“But the big hills up at the lake helped to make him feel that the houseboat man did not matter. The hills had been there before Captain Flint. They would be there for ever. That, somehow was comforting.”
― Arthur Ransome, Swallows and Amazons

“Things might have been a lot worse. Don’t you worry about it overmuch. When a thing’s done, it’s done, and if it’s not done right, do it differently next time.”
― Arthur Ransome, Swallowdale

“What's hit's history: what's missed's mystery.”
― Arthur Ransome, Great Northern? A Scottish Adventure of Swallows & Amazons

“A pigeon a day keeps the natives away.”
― Arthur Ransome, Pigeon Post

“It was like exploring a place that you have seen in a dream, where everything is just where you expect it and yet everything is a surprise.”
― Arthur Ransome, Swallows and Amazons

“P...U...D...D...I...N...G"
"Pudding," said Roger. "They've kept some for us."
"She hasn't finished the word," said Dick.
Titty was reading steadily on. "H...E...A...D...S...End of word”
― Arthur Ransome, Pigeon Post

“to make the sail set properly you must pull the boom down. That’ll take those cross wrinkles out.” “Is that what those blocks (pulleys) are for hooked to a ring in the kelson close to where the mast is stepped? But they are all muddled up.” “Isn’t there another ring under the boom, close to the mast?” asked Queen Elizabeth. “Got it,” said Captain John. “One block hooks to the ring under the boom, and one to the ring in the bottom of the boat, then it’s as easy as anything to haul the boom down. How’s that?” “The crinkles in the sail go up and down now, and not across,” said Mate Susan. “That’s right,” said Queen Elizabeth. “The wind will flatten them out as soon as we start sailing.”
― Arthur Ransome, Swallows and Amazons

“Only, the beastly Arctic won't freeze,”
― Arthur Ransome, Winter Holiday

“The storm came pretty soon," said John. "They won't have got much further before it caught them. We may find them any minute. They'll have got off the ice the moment the snow began."
"If only they had sense," said Susan. "But they haven't got any, not that sort. People oughtn't to be allowed to be brought up in towns.”
― Arthur Ransome, Winter Holiday

“Titty,”
― Arthur Ransome, Swallows and Amazons: Swallows and Amazons 1

“Well, Joe,” said Mrs. Barrable. “What about that watcher of yours at Acle? He doesn’t seem to have been of much use yesterday.”
The twins laughed.
“Him?” said Joe indignantly. “I been down to Acle last night. Bill’s bike. That Robin never see ‘em go through the bridge. And for why? You know that fourpence I leave him for the telephone. His mam keep him in bed with a stomach-ache. You wouldn’ think a chap could get a stomach-ache for fourpence. But he done it. He go and buy a lot of dud bananas cheap and eat the lot.”
“Disgraceful,” said the Admiral.
“I’ll stomach-ache him when I get him,” said Joe.”
― Arthur Ransome, Coot Club

“help.”
― Arthur Ransome, Swallowdale

“Susan read her letter. ‘Mother says I must give you plenty of lettuces and peas and things, or else you’ll all get scurvy. What is scurvy?”
― Arthur Ransome, Swallows and Amazons

“dinted”
― Arthur Ransome, Coot Club

“THE KNICKERBOCKERBREAKER”
― Arthur Ransome, Swallowdale

“Well we shan't be at school for ever," said Nancy. "We'll be grown up, and then we'll live here all the year round."...
..."I shall be going to sea someday," said John, "and so will Roger. But we'll always come back here on leave."
"I shall bring my monkey," said Roger.
"And the parrot shall always come," said Titty.”
― Arthur Ransome

“Lonely sunlight”
― Arthur Ransome

“it seemed as if the ebb would never stop. Tom,”
― Arthur Ransome, Coot Club