R.M. Ballantyne > Quotes

“To part is the lot of all mankind. The world is a scene of constant leave-taking, and the hands that grasp in cordial greeting today, are doomed ere long to unite for the the last time, when the quivering lips pronounce the word - 'Farewell”
― R. M. Ballantyne

“Boys [should be] inured from childhood to trifling risks and slight dangers of every possible description, such as tumbling into ponds and off of trees, etc., in order to strengthen their nervous system... They ought to practice leaping off heights into deep water. They ought never to hesitate to cross a stream over a narrow unsafe plank for fear of a ducking. They ought never to decline to climb up a tree, to pull fruit merely because there is a possibility of their falling off and breaking their necks. I firmly believe that boys were intended to encounter all kinds of risks, in order to prepare them to meet and grapple with risks and dangers incident to man’s career with cool, cautious self-possession...”
― R. M. Ballantyne

“...in all my writings I have always tried — how far successfully I know not — to advance the cause of Truth and Right and to induce my readers to put their trust in the love of God our Saviour, for this life as well as the life to come.”
― R.M. Ballantyne, Personal Reminiscences In Book Making: and Some Short Stories

“and I have always found, though I am unable to account for it, that daylight banishes many of the fears that are apt to assail us in the dark.”
― R.M. Ballantyne, The Coral Island

“Cat," said Peterkin, turning his head a little on one side, "I love you.”
― R M Ballantyne, The Coral Island: A Tale of the Pacific Ocean

“I began my tale in the hope that I might produce something to interest the young (perchance, also, the old) in a most momentous case—the total abolition of the African slave-trade. I close it with the prayer that God may make it a tooth in the file which shall eventually cut the chain of slavery, and set the black man free.”
― R.M. Ballantyne, Black Ivory: A Tale of Adventure Among the Slavers of East Africa

“When a bad shot points a bad gun at you, your best plan is to stand still and take your chance. In such a case the chance is not a bad one. - Jack”
― R.M. Ballantyne, The Gorilla Hunters

“Fear is not cowardice. Acting in a wrong and contemptible
manner because of our fear is cowardice.”
― R.M. Ballantyne, The Dog Crusoe: A Tale of the Western Plains

“Men do not know how much they are capable of doing till they try”
― R. M. Ballantyne

“All truth is worth knowing and labouring after. No one can tell to what useful results the discovery of even the smallest portion of truth may lead.”
― R.M. Ballantyne, The Ocean and its Wonders

“It is of no use mincing the matter; Dr John Marsh, after being regarded by his friends at home as hopelessly unimpressible—in short, an absolute woman-hater—had found his fate on a desolate isle of the Southern seas, he had fallen—nay, let us be just—had jumped over head and ears in love with Pauline Rigonda! Dr Marsh was no sentimental die-away noodle who, half-ashamed, half-proud of his condition, displays it to the semi-contemptuous world. No; after disbelieving for many years in the power of woman to subdue him, he suddenly and manfully gave in—sprang up high into the air, spiritually, and so to speak, turning a sharp somersault, went headlong down deep into the flood, without the slightest intention of ever again returning to the surface.”
― R.M. Ballantyne, The Island Queen: Dethroned by Fire and Water: A Tale of the Southern Hemisphere

“I could speak too if I had a mind to, but what’s the use o’ speakin’ here!”
― Robert M. Ballantyne

“I am not prone to indulge in effeminate demonstration, but I am not ashamed to confess that when I gazed on the weather-beaten though ruddy countenance of my old companion, and observed the eager glance of his bright blue eyes, I was quite overcome, and rushed violently into his arms.”
― R.M. Ballantyne, The Gorilla Hunters

“the hand of God shielded him, and nothing on earth could kill him till his work on earth was done; and nothing on earth could save him when his time to die should come.”
― R.M. Ballantyne, The Thorogood Family

“I have since learned, however, that this want of observation is a sad and very common infirmity of human nature, there being hundreds of persons before whose eyes the most wonderful things are passing every day who nevertheless, are totally ignorant of them. I therefore have to record my sympathy with such persons, and to recommend to them a course of conduct which I have now for a long time myself adopted—namely, the habit of forcing my attention upon all things that go on around me, and of taking some degree of interest in them whether I feel it naturally or not. I suggest this the more earnestly, though humbly, because I have very frequently come to know that my indifference to a thing has generally been caused by my ignorance in regard to it. We”
― R.M. Ballantyne, The Coral Island

“quite so sure. We rather think, upon”
― R.M. Ballantyne, The Dog Crusoe and His Master: A Story of Adventure in the Western Prairies

“He who once gains such love carries the dog's life in his hand. But let him who reads note well, and remember that there is only one coin that can purchase such love, and that is kindness. The coin, too, must be genuine. Kindness merely expressed will not do, it must be felt.”
― R.M. Ballantyne, The Dog Crusoe and His Master: A Story of Adventure in the Western Prairies

“I’m determined to shoot a gorilla, or prove him to be a myth.”
― R.M. Ballantyne, The Gorilla Hunters

“Little did Dick think, when the flood of horses swept past him, that his own good steed was there, rejoicing in his recovered liberty. But Crusoe knew it. Ay, the wind had borne down the information to his acute nose before the living storm burst upon the camp; and when Charlie rushed past, with the long tough halter trailing at his heels, Crusoe sprang to his side, seized the end of the halter with his teeth, and galloped off along with him.

It was a long gallop and a tough one, but Crusoe held on, for it was a settled principle in his mind never to give in. At first the check upon Charlie’s speed was imperceptible, but by degrees the weight of the gigantic dog began to tell, and after a time they fell a little to the rear; then by good fortune the troop passed through a mass of underwood, and the line getting entangled brought their mad career forcibly to a close; the mustangs passed on, and the two friends were left to keep each other company in the dark.

How long they would have remained thus is uncertain, for neither of them had sagacity enough to undo a complicated entanglement. Fortunately, however, in his energetic tugs at the line, Crusoe’s sharp teeth partially severed it, and a sudden start on the part of Charlie caused it to part. Before he could escape, Crusoe again seized the end of it, and led him slowly but steadily back to the Indian camp, never halting or turning aside until he had placed the line in Dick Varley’s hand.”
― R.M. Ballantyne, The Dog Crusoe and His Master: A Story of Adventure in the Western Prairies

“Crusoe did not bark; he seldom barked; he usually either said nothing, or gave utterance to a prolonged roar of indignation of the most terrible character, with barks, as it were, mingled through it. It somewhat resembled that peculiar and well-known species of thunder, the prolonged roll of which is marked at short intervals in its course by cannon-like cracks. It was a continuous, but, so to speak, knotted roar.”
― R.M. Ballantyne, The Dog Crusoe and His Master: A Story of Adventure in the Western Prairies

“Dere is one cave,” remarked the guide, “not far off to here. P’raps we be safe if we git into ’im. But I ’fraid it not do, cause him be peepiled by fiends an’ dead man’s spirits.” “That’s”
― R.M. Ballantyne, The Gorilla Hunters

“From all these things I came at length to understand that things very opposite and dissimilar in themselves, when united, do make an agreeable whole; as, for example, we three on this our island, although most unlike in many things, when united, made a trio so harmonious that I question if there ever met before such an agreeable triumvirate. There was, indeed, no note of discord whatever in the symphony we played together on that sweet Coral Island; and I am now persuaded that this was owing to our having been all tuned to the same key—namely, that of love! Yes, we loved one another with much fervency while we lived on that island; and, for the matter of that, we love each other still.”
― R.M. Ballantyne, The Coral Island

“Now, Crusoe,” said Dick, sitting down on the buffalo’s shoulder and patting his favourite on the head, “we're all right at last. You and I shall have a jolly time o't, pup, from this time for’ard.”

Dick paused for breath, and Crusoe wagged his tail and looked as if to say—pshaw! “as if!”

We tell you what it is, reader, it’s of no use at all to go on writing “as if,’ when we tell you what Crusoe said. If there is any language in eyes whatever—if there is language in a tail, in a cocked ear, in a mobile eyebrow, in the point of a canine nose,—if there is language in any terrestrial thing at all, apart from that which flows from the tongue, then Crusoe spoke! Do we not speak at this moment to you? and if so, then tell me wherein lies the difference between a written letter and a given sign?

Yes, Crusoe spoke. He said to Dick as plain as dog could say it, slowly and emphatically, “ That’s my opinion precisely, Dick. You're the dearest, most beloved, jolliest fellow that ever walked on two legs, you are; and whatever’s your opinion is mine, no matter how absurd it may be.”
― R.M. Ballantyne, The Dog Crusoe and His Master: A Story of Adventure in the Western Prairies

“Save it, pup,” cried Dick, pointing to the child, which had been caught in an eddy, and was for a few moments hovering on the edge of the stream that rushed impetuously towards the fall.

The noble Newfoundland did not require to be told what to do. It seems a natural instinct in this sagacious species of dog to save man or beast that chances to be struggling in the water, and many are the authentic stories related of Newfoundland dogs saving life in eases of shipwreck. Indeed, they are regularly trained to the work in some countries; and nobly, fearlessly, disinterestedly do they discharge their trust, often in the midst of appalling dangers. Crusoe sprang from the bank with such impetus that his broad chest ploughed up the water like the bow of a boat, and the energetic workings of his muscles were indicated by the force of each successive propulsion as he shot ahead.

In a few seconds he reached the child and caught it by the hair. Then he turned to swim back, but the stream had got hold of him. Bravely he struggled, and lifted the child breast-high out of the water in his powerful efforts to stem the current. In vain. Each moment he was carried inch by inch down until he was on the brink of the fall, which, though not high, was a large body of water and fell with a heavy roar. He raised himself high out of the stream with the vigour of his last struggle, and then fell back into the abyss.”
― R.M. Ballantyne, The Dog Crusoe and His Master: A Story of Adventure in the Western Prairies

“Very justly and modestly said,” remarked Peterkin, with an approving nod. “’Tis a pity that men are not more generally animated with your spirit, Mak. Most people, when they do wrong or make a mistake, are too apt to try to excuse themselves.”
― R.M. Ballantyne, The Gorilla Hunters

“And so, reader, it was ultimately settled, and in the course of two weeks more we three were on our way to the land of the slave, the black savage, and the gorilla.”
― R.M. Ballantyne, The Gorilla Hunters

“How long I lay in this condition I know not, but I was suddenly awakened by a yell so appalling that my heart leaped as if into my throat, and my nerves thrilled with horror.”
― R.M. Ballantyne, The Gorilla Hunters

“Peterkin’s face was undergoing the most remarkable series of changes of expression, which, as I concluded, merged into a smile of beaming delight, as he said,—“Ralph, you’re a trump!” “Possibly,”
― R.M. Ballantyne, The Gorilla Hunters

“I propose,” replied Jack, “that we shall undress ourselves, rub ourselves entirely over with charcoal and grease, so that they shall not recognise us, and dash in and carry the girl off by a coup de main. In which case it will, of course, be neck or nothing, and a tremendous race to the cave, where, if they follow us, we will keep them at bay with our rifles.” “Umph!”
― R.M. Ballantyne, The Gorilla Hunters

“There are muffs in this world. I do not refer to those hairy articles of female apparel in which ladies are wont to place their hands, handkerchiefs, and scent-bottles.”
― R.M. Ballantyne, The Gorilla Hunters