Quotes from Bernard Cornwell

I only need repent, they say, and I will go to heaven and live for evermore in the blessed company of the saints. And I would rather burn till time itself burns out.

then went to the small room where Uhtred lay. Except he was no longer Uhtred. He called himself Father Oswald now and I found him propped up in his bed with color in his cheeks.

I killed that ship's crew to save myself having to kill hundreds of other Danes." "The Lord Jesus would have wanted you to show mercy," she said, her eyes wide. She is an idiot.

Alfred would not listen. He was a clever man, perhaps as clever as any man born, but he did not understand battle. He did not understand that battle is not just about numbers, it is not about moving tall pieces, and it is not even about who has the advantage in ground, but about passion and madness and a screaming, ungovernable rage.

Entregue a criança. — Gundleus ignorou os insultos, sabendo que eram apenas desafios esperados de um homem antes da batalha. — Dê-me o rei aleijado! — Dê-me a sua prostituta, Gundleus — respondeu Owain. — Você não é homem suficiente para ela. Dê-me a prostituta e você pode ir em paz. Gundleus cuspiu.

I was without a lord. I was outcast. I was free. I was going Viking.

We were dressed for war, and war was coming.

You need mending?" "We all do. When we are young it is the spirit that breaks, and when we are old it is the body.

if we open ourselves then we can become a part of the game instead of its victims.

Some Gods are wicked, Derfel. And besides, they have no duty to us, only we to them. Maybe it amused them?

Ranks of men on foot, men with shields, men with weapons, a shield wall that was meant to awe us, and it did. A shield wall is a terrible thing. It is a wall of wood, iron, and steel with one purpose alone, to kill. And this shield wall was massive, a wall of painted round shields stretching wide across the ridge's flat top, and above it were the banners of the jarls, chieftains, and kings who had come to kill us.

You go back to your kitchen, woman.

God's purposes are not always easy to understand, but I have found that his methods are not as indirect as ours. We complicate God because we do not see that goodness is so very simple.

Division. The smaller French column, meant to reinforce the success of the two that had climbed through Sula, had swung away

If a man is not party to a fight then he cannot be party to the settlement afterward.

I could tell you tales of priestly behavior that would make you shudder.

You can't live somewhere," he told me, "if the people don't want you to be there. They can kill our cattle or poison our streams, and we would never know who did it. You either slaughter them all or learn to live with them.

Nor did he care about his childhood, for certainly I never heard him speak of it. I once questioned him about his early days and he would not answer. 'What is the egg to the eagle?' he asked me, then said he had been born, he had lived and he had become a soldier, and that was all I needed to know. (p97)

My sword, I told him, says I tell the truth, and that you are a stinking bag of wind, a liar from hell, a cheat and a perjurer who deserves death. Up to our arses again, Leofric said.

É um poema triste, e portanto um poema verdadeiro. Wyrd bið ful ãræd, diz ele. O destino é inexorável. E wyn eal gedreas. Toda alegria morreu.

I don't care if he's got a tail and tits, just take me to him." The

That was why he was thinking about vultures. He was thinking that he wanted to run, but that he did not want to feed the vultures. Do not get caught. Rule number one in the army, and the only rule that mattered. Because if you got caught the bastards would flog you to death or else reorganize your ribs with musket balls, and either way the vultures got fat.

A hall-burning," Rorik said bitterly. "Hall-burning?" "It happens at home," Rorik explained. "You go to an enemy's hall and burn it to the ground. But there's one thing about a hall-burning. You have to make sure everyone dies. If there are any survivors then they'll take revenge, so you attack at night, surround the hall, and kill everyone who tries to escape the flames.

Sharpe wanted to be ready and so he untied the rag from his musket's lock and stuffed it into the pocket where he kept the ring Mary had given him. The ring, a plain band of worn silver, had belonged to Sergeant Bickerstaff, Mary's husband, but the Sergeant was dead now and Green had taken Bickerstaff's sergeant's stripes and Sharpe his bed.