James McGraw quotes from Black Sails

James McGraw

In most cases, a man trying to change the world fails for one simple and unavoidable reason: everyone else.

James McGraw

Anything that has ever been worth doing has been worth doing in the face of a little danger.

James McGraw

[to Admiral Hennessey] There's an opportunity here today. An opportunity that may not present itself again. If we act right now, we can prevent a catastrophic loss to the empire. We can make England stronger tomorrow than she is today. We can save Nassau, and all it takes is for us to do a very reasonable thing. I know how it will be perceived. I know how it looks for me to even raise the subject with you here. But this is too important to be deterred by dangers imagined. And if I have learned anything from you, it is that it is moments like these that are the precise measure of a man's courage.

James McGraw

[to Admiral Hennessey] I heard you. But I've come to see that you and I were wrong about him. Lord Hamilton isn't someone we should be wary of, he is exactly the kind of man we should be listening to. On the day I was made an officer, you pulled me aside. You told me how proud you were of me. You told me that the measure of a man is in the moment when he is confronted by himself. By opposing voices in his head, both arguing that they are right, but one has to be wrong. To be the difference in that moment, that is what makes an officer. What makes a man. Well, I see the difference here. I know it.