Quotes from Bernard Cornwell

It is hard to force obedience," he said, "without encouraging resentment.

Thousands! Appah Rao's tone mocked the claim. You may have thousands, Colonel, but the Tippoo has tigers.

There's a time for caution,' I said, 'and a time to just kill the bastards.

And at the end of life, what does it all matter? We grow old and the young look at us and can never see that once we made a kingdom ring for love.

Some oaths are made with love, and those we cannot break.

Fear might work on a man, but confidence fights against fear.

the Christian god has nothing better to do than to make rules for us. He

Yet to complain of the world's unfairness was the same as grumbling that the sun was hot or that the wind sometimes changed its direction.

Why do they put cows over the gates, sir? For the same reason we put images of a tortured man in our churches. Religion. You ask too many questions, Sharpe.

In the dark, lord, all cats are black.

Serpent-Breath was in my hand and anger in my soul.

Be mad enough, his father once said, and they will either lock you away or make you a saint.

Nós queremos a fidelidade nas pessoas que amamos, senhora, então não é óbvio que elas a queiram em nós? A fidelidade é um presente que oferecemos aos que amamos.

Haesten. If this world ever contained one worthless, treacherous slime-coated piece of human dung then it was Haesten.

To fight battles, Derfel,' he corrected me, 'on behalf of people who can't fight for themselves. I learned that in Brittany. This miserable world is full of weak people, powerless people, hungry people, sad people, sick people, poor people, and it's the easiest thing in the world to despise the weak

We might know how it ends, but like all good stories it bears repetition. So here it is again, the story of a battle.

The standing to be cannonaded,' he wrote in the memoirs of his military service: and having nothing else to do, is about the most unpleasant thing that can happen to soldiers in an engagement.

Thou shalt not kill, they preached, then screamed at us warriors to slaughter the pagans. Thou shalt not steal, they preached, and forged charters to take men's lands. Thou shalt not commit adultery, they preached, and rutted other men's wives like besotted hares in springtime.

Harlequin , probably derived from the old French Hellequin : a troop of the devil's horsemen.

Kill them! I shouted and put my spurs back. Kill them. This is what the poets sing about. At night, in the hall, when the hearth smoke thickens about the beams and the ale-horns are filled and the harpist plucks his strings, the songs of battle are sung. They are the songs of our family, of our people, and it is how we remember the past.

We have forgotten that courage is a choice and that permission to move forward with boldness is never given by fearful masses

I am Uhtred, son of Uhtred, and this is the tale of a blood feud. It is a tale of how I will take from my enemy what the law says is mine. And it is the tale of a woman and her father, a king. He was my king and all that I have I owe to him. The food that I eat, the hall where I live, and the swords of my men, all come from Alfred, my king, who hated me.

Put a cat to watch a flock and the wolves eat well.

An archbishop is important to the Christians, he knows more sorcery than ordinary priests, even more than the bishops, and he has more authority. I have met several archbishops over the years and there was not one of them I would trust to run a market stall selling carrots.