Quotes from Bernard Cornwell

Gods fight, Ragnar went on earnestly, and some win, some lose. The Christian god is losing. Otherwise why would we be here? Why would we be winning? The gods reward us if we give them respect, but the Christian god doesn't help his people, does he? They weep rivers of tears for him, they pray to him, they give him their silver, & we come along & slaughter them! Their god is pathetic. If he had any real power then we wouldn't be here, would we?

Instinct is a strange thing. You cannot touch it, feel it, smell it, or hear it, but you must trust it, and that night, as we listened to the slap of the waves and the creak of the oars, I was as certain as I could be that my fears were justified.

Earsling,' a harsh voice challenged me from beside the Wheatsheaf's heart. 'What rancid demon brought you here to spoil my day?' I stared. And stared. Because the last person I had ever expected to see in AEthelred's stronghold of Gleawecestre was staring at me. 'Well, earsling?' he demanded, 'what are you doing here?' It was my father.

People like mystery. They want nothing explained, because when things are explained then there is no hope left. I have seen folk dying and known there is nothing to be done, and I am asked to go because the priest will soon arrive with his dish covered by a cloth, and everyone prays for a miracle. It never happens. And the person dies and I get blamed, not God or the priest, but I!

The fear came then. The shield wall is a terrible place. It is where a warrior makes his reputation, and reputation is dear to us. Reputation is honour, but to gain that honour a man must stand in the shield wall where death runs rampant. I had been in the shield wall at Cynuit and I knew the smell of death, the stink of it, the uncertainty of survival, the horror of the axes and swords and spears, and I feared it. And it was coming.

O mundo está apodrecendo. A Igreja é corrupta e os reis são fracos. Cabe a nós fazer um mundo novo, amado por Deus, mas para fazê-lo temos de destruir o velho. Temos de tomar o poder e depois dar o poder a Deus. É por isso que estamos lutando.

Love is a voyage too, a voyage with no destination except death, but a voyage of bliss.

He was watching my eyes. A man who uses a sword with lethal skill always matches his opponent's eyes.

Always fight the horse, not the rider.

I was born a Saxon, but raised by Danes, my daughter had married a Norseman, my dearest friend was Irish, my woman was a Saxon, the mother of my children had been Danish, my gods were pagan, and my oath was sworn to AEthelflaed, a Christian. Whose side was I on?

It was an unsettling thought, that somehow we were sliding back into the smoky dark and that never again would man make something so perfect as this small building.

If an oath is a mistake then you are still obligated because you are sworn to it.

May the gods always send me stupid enemies.

He was a startlingly handsome young man, and that, too, distracted him for girls were attracted to him like priests to gold.

Merlino mi fissò. - Credi che tu, Derfel, o Artù possiate essere tanto forti da resistere a Nimue? Lei è una donna. Le donne ottengono sempre ciò che vogliono, e se per ottenerlo devono rovinare il mondo e tutto ciò che il mondo contiene, così sia.

Você nunca, nunca deve contar seus crimes aos outros, a não ser que sejam tão grandes a ponto de não poderem ficar escondidos, e nesse caso descreva-os como política ou ação de Estado.

Putting a cat into a stable doesn't make it a horse

Esse é o verdadeiro dom das mulheres, ser sábias, e não são muitos os homens que o têm.

His charms worked, for though the bullets flicked close none hit him. He was the tiger of Mysore, he could not die, only kill.

His men howled with him. They were caught up in Baird's madness. At this hour, under the fire of the sun and emboldened by the arrack and rum they had drunk in their long wait in the trenches, the redcoats and sepoys had become gods of war. They gave death with impunity as they followed a warmaddened Scotsman down an enemy wall that was sticky with blood. Baird would have his city or else he would die in its dust.

The wheel of fortune that had once raised her so high had taken her into the utter depths.

It was madness. And, as Finan had said, sometimes madness works.

Because there could not be peace, not while two tribes shared one land. One tribe must win. Even the nailed god cannot change that truth. And I was a warrior, and in a world at war the warrior must be cruel.

I was angry. I wanted blood in the dawn.