Bernard Cornwell Quotes

86 Sourced Quotes

Sharpe had no thought of deserting now, for now he was about to fight. If there was any one good reason to join the army, it was to fight. Not to hurry up and do nothing, but to fight the King's enemies, and this enemy had been shocked by the awful violence of the close-range volley and now they stared in horror as the redcoats screamed and ran toward them.

Bernard Cornwell
You won't regret the men you never killed, but you will regret the women you passed up.

Bernard Cornwell
I do not approve of you, Thomas, and I do not approve of your woman, but nor can I approve of a Church that uses pain to bring the love of God to a sinful world. Evil begets evil, it spreads like a weed, but good works are tender shoots that need husbandry.

Bernard Cornwell
The Grail is like God. It is everywhere, all around us, obvious, but we refuse to see it. Men think they can only see God when they build a great church and fill it with gold and silver statues, but all they need do is look. The Grail exists, Thomas, you just need to open your eyes.

Bernard Cornwell
He could chafe against the rich and privileged but he acknowledged that the army had taken him from the gutter and put an officer's sash round his waiste and Sharpe could think of no other job that would offer a low-born bastard on the run from the law the chance of rank and responsibility.

Bernard Cornwell
"She's like a woman, sir, take care of her and she'll take care of you."
"You'll notice he let Mister Sharpe do the ramming, sir."

Bernard Cornwell
"Don't waste your life, Tom."
"I think I already have, father."
"You're just young. It seems like that when you're young. Life's nothing but joy or misery when you're young."

Bernard Cornwell
Sharpe knew himself to be a tough man, but he had always thought of himself as a reasonable one, yet now, in the mirror of William's nervousness, he saw himself as something far worse; a bullying man who would use the small authority of his rank to frighten men. In fact, the very kind of officer Sharpe had most hated when he himself was under their embittered authority.

Bernard Cornwell
Remember, Mr Sharpe, an officer's eyes are more valuable than his sword!

Bernard Cornwell
The first bombs looked like livid shooting stars. Then, as they began their shrieking fall, the bomb trails converged. God had not shown mercy, the British possessed none and Copenhagen must suffer.

Bernard Cornwell
"I did not love, but yearned to love."
"A very elaborate way of saying you're lonely."

Bernard Cornwell
Did you see that wee church in Salamanca where the Virgin's statue had eyes that moved? Your priest there said it was a miracle, but you could see the string the fellow jerked to make the wooden eyeballs twitch! But why go to the trouble of having a string? I asked myself. Because the people want a miracle, that's why. And just because some people invent a miracle doesn't mean there aren't real ones, does it? It means the opposite, so it does, for why would you imitate something that doesn't exist?

Bernard Cornwell
In the short time I've known you, Richard, I've noticed you possess a lamentable tendency to put on shining armor and look for ladies to rescue. King Arthur, God rest his soul, would have loved you. He'd have had you fighting every evil knight in the forest.

Bernard Cornwell
A soldier's death, he thought, was a happy one, because a man, even in the throes of awful pain, would die in the best company of the world.

Bernard Cornwell
The Tippoo himself led the defenders north of the breach. The Tippoo had cursed Gudin for blowing the mines too early and thus wasting its terrible destructive power, but now he tried to revive the defense by his personal example. He stood in the front rank of his soldiers while behind him a succession of aides loaded jewel-encrusted hunting rifles. One by one the rifles were given to the Tippoo who aimed and fired, aimed and fired, and redcoat after redcoat was struck down.

Bernard Cornwell
The Tippoo still led the fight. [...] Those gaudy stones made him a target for every redcoat and sepoy, yet he insisted on staying in the very front rank where he could pour his rifle fire at the stalled attackers, and his charms worked, for though the bullets flicked close none hit him. He was the Tiger of Mysore, he could not die, only kill.

Bernard Cornwell
"You are like the Spanish, Captain Sharpe, confused. Cadiz is filled with politicians and lawyers and the encourage confusion. They argue. Should we be a Republic? Or perhaps a monarchy? Do we want a Cortes? And if so, should it have one chamber or two? Some want a parliament like Britain's. Others insist that Spain is best ruled by God and by a king. They squabble about these like children, but in truth there is only one real argument."
"The argument, is whether Spain fights France or not?"
"Exactly."
"And you, believe Spain should fight against France?"
"You know what the French have done to our country? The women raped, the children killed, the churches desecrated? Yes, I believe we should fight."

Bernard Cornwell
Arthur Wellesley had waited six years for this moment. He was twenty-nine years old and had begun to fear that he would never see battle, but now, at last, he would discover whether he and his regiment could fight, and so he filled his lungs to give the order that would start the slaughter.

Bernard Cornwell
The British army fought against other infantry arrayed in two ranks and every man could use his musket, and if cavalry threatened they marched and wheeled into a square of four ranks, and still every man could use his musket, but the soldiers at the heart of the two French columns could never fire without hitting the men in front.

Bernard Cornwell
It seemed that if someone was lost in Copenhagen then the citizens regarded it as their duty to offer help.

Bernard Cornwell
But the implication of the psalm, is it not, is that we are sheep and that God is our shepherd? Why else would He put us in a pasture and protect us with a staff? But what I have never fully understood is why the shepherd blames the sheep when they become ill.

Bernard Cornwell
But when you have order, you don't need Gods. When everything is well ordered and disciplined then nothing is unexpected. If you understand everything,' I said carefully, 'then there's no room left for magic. It's only when you're lost and frightened and in the dark that you call on the Gods, and they like us to call on them. It makes them feel powerful, and that's why they like us to live in chaos.

Bernard Cornwell
"You know how to deal with senior officers?"
"Respectfully."
"Confuse them. Except for the ones who can't be confused, like Wellington."

Bernard Cornwell
"Form them up Sergeant!"
"Aye aye, sir."
"You're not a bloody sailor, Sergeant. A plain yes will do."
Aye aye, sir."

Bernard Cornwell
My God, I will not abide plundering, especially by officers. How can you expect obedience from the men when officers are corrupt?

Bernard Cornwell
"You had no choice, sir."
"There's always a choice."

Bernard Cornwell
What did he want? A tournament? Who does he think we are? The knights of the round bloody table? I don't know what happens to some folk. They put a sir in front of their names and their brains get addled. Fighting fair! Whoever heard of anything so daft? Fight fair and you lose.

Bernard Cornwell
Sharpe had seen columns before, and was puzzled by them. [...] These columns had around forty men in a rank and twenty in each file. The French used such a formation, a great battering block of men, because it was simpler to persuade conscripts to advance in such an array and because, against badly trained troops, the very sight of such a great mass of men was daunting. But against redcoats? It was suicide.

Bernard Cornwell
He had an inspiration and went to the Quinta's kitchen and stole two large tins of tea. He reckoned it was time Kate did something for her country and there were few finer gestures than donating good China tea to riflemen.

Bernard Cornwell
He asked three things of his men. That they fought, as he did, with a ruthless professionalism. That they stole only from the enemy and the dead unless they were starving. And that they never got drunk without his permission.

Bernard Cornwell