Black Sails quotes

Anne Bonny

[to Jack, about Max] I know she's dangerous. Especially to me. I ain't in my right head about here. She knows it. And it ain't hard to imagine her intent is to play us off one against the other. But I'm asking you to do this. Watch my back on the other side of that door. Cause I know that as long as you are, there ain't shit she can do to get between us.

This is the solution most likely to lead to our desired result. It also has the virtue of being the right thing to do.

Absolution. A clean slate for all those willing to accept it. A few hours ago, I informed my father that this was my intended solution to the pirate issue on New Providence Island. We've talked in this room about reason. We've talked about justice. We've talked about virtue and the right. We've talked and talked. And now perhaps it is time to do that which we've only spoken about behind closed doors. I am committed to this end.

Mr. Scott

[to Flint] I know Eleanor's argument. I know why you think it is weak and I do not disagree with you. But because she is compromised, it does not necessarily follow that she is wrong. I fear that to take that fort will be to divide this island in a most dangerous way. To force men to take sides against each other at a time when our very survival demands the very opposite. I fear that if we go down this road, by the time Spain or England arrive, they will find their job done for them. They will find Nassau has destroyed itself. The world changes. It is inevitable. Perhaps the only thing that is inevitable. If it were me facing this decision, I would make peace with that. I would teach myself to see Captain Vane as an unfortunate but unavoidable change in our landscape. And I would ensure that we all live to see the sunrise again tomorrow.

James McGraw

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

Miranda Hamilton

[to James] Thomas, he sees only the principle. The right. It's inspiring. It can be intoxicating. It's why I love him. But you, you see the world as it is. You see its truths and how to navigate them. How to bend them to your will. It's why I love you. Men like Thomas need men like you to protect them from the world, and that is what I am asking you to do.

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.

Billy

Have you ever been tortured? Suffered pain applied by men who saw you as less than a man? Saw you as... an animal? Because it isn't actually the pain they're inflicting that's the most frightening part of it. It isn't the fear of future pain. It's the knowledge that even when the pain stops, even if they were to let you go, that they've changed you. That that pain, that fear, that despair, has made you someone else. Someone you barely recognize, against your will.

Billy

I would fight to the death to ensure that not a single one of my brothers ever has to face what I had to face. Now, if there's a man on this crew that feels differently, that feels as though he'd be willing to accept another brother suffering that fate so that he might avoid it, then that's a man I need to remove from my crew.

Flint

Everyone is a monster to someone. Since you are so convinced that I am yours, I will be it.

Silver

[to Flint] This crew has spilled a great deal of blood to make your name what it is. It doesn't belong to you. It's a jointly held asset belonging to every man on this crew who sacrificed some part of himself to build it. They have a say in how it is managed and I am the voice of that.

Flint

This is getting more dangerous. The strong among us must stand together and face it. But the fools, the pretenders, they were never truly among us to begin with.

Rackham

Please, relay to whom you must: Jack Rackham is not stupid, Jack Rackham is not lazy, Jack Rackham is not blind.

Max

I own a tavern, a brothel, a tanner, a butcher--interests in a dozen other concerns on the street. I am the one they come to here when they need things, want things, fear things. In another time and another place, they would call me a queen. I built this from nothing. And none of it is real. Because it is built upon things I cannot control, cannot predict. It is built on sand. And when the day comes when that foundation shifts, when civilization returns, do you know what they will call me then? The whore that lost everything.