"In honest service there are thin commons, low wages, and hard labour. Yet as gentlemen of fortune we enjoy plenty and satisfaction, pleasure and ease, liberty and power... so what man with a sensible mind would choose the former life, when the only hazard we pirates run is a sour look from those without strength or splendour? No, a merry life and a short one, shall be my motto. For I have dipped my hands in muddied waters, and, withdrawing them, find 'tis better to be a commander than a common man!"