Force cannot be eliminated

Governments may think and say what they like, but force cannot be eliminated, and it is the only real and unanswerable power. We are told the pen is mightier than the sword, but I know which of these two weapons I would choose

A.C. de Wiart, Happy Odyssey (1950), 271

I asked the doctor to take my fingers off; he refused

My hand was a ghastly sight; two of the fingers were hanging by a piece of skin, all the palm was shot away and most of the wrist. For the first time, and certainly the last, I had been wearing a wrist-watch, and it had been blown into the remains of the wrist. I asked the doctor to take my fingers off; he refused, so I pulled them off myself and felt absolutely no pain in doing it.

A.C. de Wiart, Happy Odyssey (1950), 64

I then measured them by their prowess at sport or taste in Burgundy

We were the usual miscellaneous collection of brains and brawn, and though many of my contemporaries have become famous, illustrious in the Church, Politics and all the Arts, I then measured them by their prowess at sport or taste in Burgundy and remained unimpressed by their mental gymnastics 

A.C. de Wiart, Happy Odyssey (1950), 16