Pirates!
To get in the mood to write some pirating, I found some pirate-related quotes online and thought I'd share them as inspiration.
(Attributions are not guaranteed to be correct.)
Sea Shanties and Songs of the Sea
http://www.contemplator.com/sea/
"Avast belay, yo ho, heave to,
A-pirating we go
And if we're parted by a shot
We're sure to meet below!"
"Yo ho, yo ho, the pirate life,
The flag o'skull and bones
A merry hour, a hempen rope,
And hey for Davy Jones."
-from Peter Pan
"Merchant and pirate were for a long period one and the same person. Even today mercantile morality is really nothing but a refinement of piratical morality."
-Friedrich Nietzsche
"Remember, in a pirate ship, in pirate waters, in a pirate world, ask no question. Believe only what you see. No, believe half of what you see."
-The Crimson Pirate Roland Kibbee
"When I sally forth to seek my prey
I help myself in a royal way
I sink a few more ships it’s true
Than a well-bred monarch ought to do."
-The Pirates of Penzance W.S. Gilbert
"There! That's what I think of ye. Before an hour's out, I'll stove in your old block house like a rum puncheon. Laugh, by thunder, laugh! Before an hour's out, ye'll laugh upon the other side. Them that die'll be the lucky ones."
-Treasure Island
Fifteen men on the dead man’s chest- Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum! Drink and the devil had done for the rest- Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!”
-Treasure Island
"Why join the navy if you can be a pirate?"
- Steve Jobs
"Only the devil and I know the whereabouts of my treasure, and the one of us who lives the longest should take it all."
-Black Beard
"The average man will bristle if you say his father was dishonest, but he will brag a little if he discovers that his great-grandfather was a pirate."
- Bern Williams
"Because I do it with one small ship, I am called a terrorist. You do it with a whole fleet and are called an emperor."
- A pirate from St. Augustine's "City of God"
"Even pirates, before they attack another ship, hoist a black flag."
-Bela Kiraly
"That as to hanging, it is no great hardship, for were it not for that, every cowardly fellow would turn pirate and so unfit the Seas, that men of courage must starve." -Mary Read
"There is nothing so desperately monotonous as the sea, and I no longer wonder at the cruelty of pirates."
- James Russell Lowell, 1819 - 1891
"Now and then we had a hope that if we lived and were good, God would permit us to be pirates."
- Mark Twain, 1835 - 1910 "Life on the Mississippi"
"And don't they wear the bulliest clothes! Oh no! All gold and silver and diamonds," said Joe, with enthusiasm."
- The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
"...there is thin commons, low wages, and hard labour; in this, plenty and satiety, pleasure and ease, liberty and power; and who would not ballance creditor on this side, when all the hazard that is run for it, at worst, is only a sower look or two at choaking. No, a merry life and a short one, shall be my motto."
-Bartholomew Roberts
"damn ye, you are a sneaking puppy, and so are all those who will submit to be governed by laws which rich men have made for their own security, for the cowardly whelps have not the courage otherwise to defend what they get by their knavery; but damn ye altogether: damn them for a pack of crafty rascals, and you, who serve them, for a parcel of hen-hearted numskuls. They villify us, the scoundrels do, when there is only this difference, they rob the poor under the cover of law, forsooth, and we plunder the rich under the protection of our own courage."
-Charles Bellamy lecturing a captured captain in "Villains of All Nations" by Marcus Rediker
"Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats."
- H.L. Mencken
By His Majesty's Lieutenant Governor and Commander in Chief of the Colony and Dominion of Virginia,
A PROCLAMATION.
Publishing the Rewards Given for Apprehending or Killing Pirates.
WHEREAS, by an Act of Assembly, made-at a Session of Assembly, begun at the Capital in Williamsburg, the eleventh day of November in the fifth year of His Majesty's Reign, entitled An Act to Encourage the Apprehending and Destroying of Pirates: It is amongst other things enacted, that all and every person or persons, who, from and after the fourteenth day of November, in the Year of Our Lord One Thousand Seven Hundred and Eighteen, and before the fourteenth day of November, which shall be in the Year of our Lord One Thousand Seven Hundred and Nineteen, shall take any Pirate or Pirates, on the sea or land, or in case of resistance, shall kill any such Pirate or Pirates, between the degrees of thirty four and thirty nine Northern latitude, and within one hundred leagues of the Continent of Virginia, or within the Provinces of Virginia, or North Carolina, upon the conviction, or making due proof of the killing of all, and every such Pirate, and Pirates, before the Governor and Council, shall be entitled to have, and receive out of the public money, in the hands of the, Treasurer of this Colony, the several rewards following that is to say, for Edward Teach, commonly called Captain Teach or Blackbeard, one hundred pounds; for every other commander of a pirate ship, sloop or vessel, forty pounds; for every lieutenant, master or quartermaster, boatswain or carpenter, twenty pounds; for every other inferior officer, fifteen pounds, and for every private man taken aboard such ship, sloop, or vessel, ten pounds; and that for every Pirate which shall be taken by any ship, sloop or vessel, belonging to this colony, or North Carolina, within the time aforesaid, in any place whatsoever, the like rewards shall be, paid according to the quality and condition of such pirates. Wherefore, for the encouragement of all such persons as shall be willing to serve His Majesty and their Country, in so just and honourable undertaking, as the suppressing a sort of people, who may be truly called enemies to mankind: I have thought fit, with the advice and consent of His Majesty's Council to issue this Proclamation; hereby declaring, the said rewards shall be punctually and justly paid, in current money in Virginia, according to the directions of the said Act. And, I do order and appoint this Proclamation, to be published by the Sheriffs at their respective County houses, and by all Ministers and Readers in the several Churches and Chapels throughout this Colony.
Given at Our Council Chamber at Williamsburg, this 24th day of November, 1718. In the Fifth year of His Majesty's Reign.
GOD SAVE THE KING.
-A. Spotswood. [Governor of Virginia, 1710-1722]
(Attributions are not guaranteed to be correct.)
Sea Shanties and Songs of the Sea
http://www.contemplator.com/sea/
"Avast belay, yo ho, heave to,
A-pirating we go
And if we're parted by a shot
We're sure to meet below!"
"Yo ho, yo ho, the pirate life,
The flag o'skull and bones
A merry hour, a hempen rope,
And hey for Davy Jones."
-from Peter Pan
"Merchant and pirate were for a long period one and the same person. Even today mercantile morality is really nothing but a refinement of piratical morality."
-Friedrich Nietzsche
"Remember, in a pirate ship, in pirate waters, in a pirate world, ask no question. Believe only what you see. No, believe half of what you see."
-The Crimson Pirate Roland Kibbee
"When I sally forth to seek my prey
I help myself in a royal way
I sink a few more ships it’s true
Than a well-bred monarch ought to do."
-The Pirates of Penzance W.S. Gilbert
"There! That's what I think of ye. Before an hour's out, I'll stove in your old block house like a rum puncheon. Laugh, by thunder, laugh! Before an hour's out, ye'll laugh upon the other side. Them that die'll be the lucky ones."
-Treasure Island
Fifteen men on the dead man’s chest- Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum! Drink and the devil had done for the rest- Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!”
-Treasure Island
"Why join the navy if you can be a pirate?"
- Steve Jobs
"Only the devil and I know the whereabouts of my treasure, and the one of us who lives the longest should take it all."
-Black Beard
"The average man will bristle if you say his father was dishonest, but he will brag a little if he discovers that his great-grandfather was a pirate."
- Bern Williams
"Because I do it with one small ship, I am called a terrorist. You do it with a whole fleet and are called an emperor."
- A pirate from St. Augustine's "City of God"
"Even pirates, before they attack another ship, hoist a black flag."
-Bela Kiraly
"That as to hanging, it is no great hardship, for were it not for that, every cowardly fellow would turn pirate and so unfit the Seas, that men of courage must starve." -Mary Read
"There is nothing so desperately monotonous as the sea, and I no longer wonder at the cruelty of pirates."
- James Russell Lowell, 1819 - 1891
"Now and then we had a hope that if we lived and were good, God would permit us to be pirates."
- Mark Twain, 1835 - 1910 "Life on the Mississippi"
"And don't they wear the bulliest clothes! Oh no! All gold and silver and diamonds," said Joe, with enthusiasm."
- The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
"...there is thin commons, low wages, and hard labour; in this, plenty and satiety, pleasure and ease, liberty and power; and who would not ballance creditor on this side, when all the hazard that is run for it, at worst, is only a sower look or two at choaking. No, a merry life and a short one, shall be my motto."
-Bartholomew Roberts
"damn ye, you are a sneaking puppy, and so are all those who will submit to be governed by laws which rich men have made for their own security, for the cowardly whelps have not the courage otherwise to defend what they get by their knavery; but damn ye altogether: damn them for a pack of crafty rascals, and you, who serve them, for a parcel of hen-hearted numskuls. They villify us, the scoundrels do, when there is only this difference, they rob the poor under the cover of law, forsooth, and we plunder the rich under the protection of our own courage."
-Charles Bellamy lecturing a captured captain in "Villains of All Nations" by Marcus Rediker
"Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats."
- H.L. Mencken
By His Majesty's Lieutenant Governor and Commander in Chief of the Colony and Dominion of Virginia,
A PROCLAMATION.
Publishing the Rewards Given for Apprehending or Killing Pirates.
WHEREAS, by an Act of Assembly, made-at a Session of Assembly, begun at the Capital in Williamsburg, the eleventh day of November in the fifth year of His Majesty's Reign, entitled An Act to Encourage the Apprehending and Destroying of Pirates: It is amongst other things enacted, that all and every person or persons, who, from and after the fourteenth day of November, in the Year of Our Lord One Thousand Seven Hundred and Eighteen, and before the fourteenth day of November, which shall be in the Year of our Lord One Thousand Seven Hundred and Nineteen, shall take any Pirate or Pirates, on the sea or land, or in case of resistance, shall kill any such Pirate or Pirates, between the degrees of thirty four and thirty nine Northern latitude, and within one hundred leagues of the Continent of Virginia, or within the Provinces of Virginia, or North Carolina, upon the conviction, or making due proof of the killing of all, and every such Pirate, and Pirates, before the Governor and Council, shall be entitled to have, and receive out of the public money, in the hands of the, Treasurer of this Colony, the several rewards following that is to say, for Edward Teach, commonly called Captain Teach or Blackbeard, one hundred pounds; for every other commander of a pirate ship, sloop or vessel, forty pounds; for every lieutenant, master or quartermaster, boatswain or carpenter, twenty pounds; for every other inferior officer, fifteen pounds, and for every private man taken aboard such ship, sloop, or vessel, ten pounds; and that for every Pirate which shall be taken by any ship, sloop or vessel, belonging to this colony, or North Carolina, within the time aforesaid, in any place whatsoever, the like rewards shall be, paid according to the quality and condition of such pirates. Wherefore, for the encouragement of all such persons as shall be willing to serve His Majesty and their Country, in so just and honourable undertaking, as the suppressing a sort of people, who may be truly called enemies to mankind: I have thought fit, with the advice and consent of His Majesty's Council to issue this Proclamation; hereby declaring, the said rewards shall be punctually and justly paid, in current money in Virginia, according to the directions of the said Act. And, I do order and appoint this Proclamation, to be published by the Sheriffs at their respective County houses, and by all Ministers and Readers in the several Churches and Chapels throughout this Colony.
Given at Our Council Chamber at Williamsburg, this 24th day of November, 1718. In the Fifth year of His Majesty's Reign.
GOD SAVE THE KING.
-A. Spotswood. [Governor of Virginia, 1710-1722]