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Bernard Cornwell: 350 quotes1 like

“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

Narrator, p. 28
Sharpe (Novel Series), Sharpe's Tiger (1997)

“Sharpe's sword was lucky. There was a soldier's goddess and her name was Fate and she had liked the sword Harper made for Sharpe. The Kligenthal was stained with the blood of friends, with the torture of flayed priests, and the beautiful sword contained not luck, but evil.”

Bernard Cornwell

Narrator, p. 312
Sharpe (Novel Series), Sharpe's Sword (1983)

“Sir Thomas was a sentimental man. He loved Soldiers. He had once thought all men who wore the red coat were rogues and thieves, the scourings of the gutters, and since he had joined the army he had discovered he was right, but he had also learned to love them. He loved their patience, their ferocity, their endurance, and their bravery.”

Bernard Cornwell

General Thomas Graham, p. 234
Sharpe (Novel Series), Sharpe's Fury (2006)

“We take what we want … we don't pay our enemies for food.”

Bernard Cornwell

Sharpe (Novel Series), Sharpe's Escape (2003)

“Our duty, Richard, is to be decorative and stay alive long enough to be promoted. But no one expects us to be useful! Good God! A junior officer being useful? That'll be the day.”

Bernard Cornwell

Ensign Roderick Venables, p. 20
Sharpe (Novel Series), Sharpe's Fortress (1999)

“Look after him, Lieutenant. An army isn't made of it's officers, you know, though we officers like to think it is. An army is no better than its men, and when you find good men, you must look after them. That's an officer's job.”

Bernard Cornwell

Colonel Jean Gudin, p. 353
Sharpe (Novel Series), Sharpe's Tiger (1997)

“Your friend Will is a good man, too, but I fear he's no longer an archer." "It would have been better, I sometimes think-" "If he had died? Wish death on no man, Thomas, it comes soon enough without a wish."”

Bernard Cornwell The Grail Quest

Mordecai and Thomas of Hookton, p. 352
The Grail Quest, Vagabond (2002)

“It is not wise, I think, to mix private revenge with war." "Of course it's not wise, but it's bloody enjoyable. Enjoying yourself, Sergeant?”

Bernard Cornwell

<br/k> "Never been happier, sir."
Lieutenant Jorge Vicente, Captain Richard Sharpe, and Sergeant Patrick Harper, p. 161
Sharpe (Novel Series), Sharpe's Escape (2003)

“He was not certain why he was sure of defeat. It was, perhaps, that he admired Wellington. The English General had a mind of fine calculation that appealed to Ducos, who did not believe that the vainglorious Marshals of France had the measure of the Englishman. The Emperor, now, he was different. He would out-calculate and outfight any man.”

Bernard Cornwell

Major Pierre Ducos, p. 233
Sharpe (Novel Series), Sharpe's Honor (1985)

“"Sensible thing to do, is for us to bugger off out of here and got to bed." "Sensible thing to do, is get out the bloody army and die in bed." "But that's not why we joined, is it?" "Speak for yourself, sir. I just joined to get a square meal. Getting killed wasn't really part of the idea at all."”

Bernard Cornwell

Captain Richard Sharpe and Sergeant Patrick Harper, p. 187
Sharpe (Novel Series), Sharpe's Battle (1995)

“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

Narrator, p. 201
Sharpe (Novel Series), Sharpe's Prey (2001)

“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

Narrator, p. 33
Sharpe (Novel Series), Sharpe's Tiger (1997)

“They thought war was a game and every defeat only made them more eager to play.”

Bernard Cornwell The Grail Quest

Philip of Valois, King of France, regarding his more reckless nobles, p. 4
The Grail Quest, Heretic (2003)

“There are, very crudely, two factions in the Cortes. One side are the traditionalists. They're comprised of the monarchists, the pious, and the old-fashioned. They're called the serviles. It's an insulting nickname, like calling a man a Tory. Serviles means the slaves, and they wish to see the king restored and the church triumphant. They are the faction of landlords, privilege, and aristocracy. The serviles are opposed by the liberalles, who are so called because they are forever talking about liberty. The liberalles want to see a Spain in which the people's wishes are more influential than the decrees of a tyrannical church or the whim of a despotic king. His Brittanic Majesty's government has no official view in these discussions. We merely wish to see a Spanish government willing to pursue the war against Napoleon.”

Bernard Cornwell

Lord William Pumphrey, p. 162
Sharpe (Novel Series), Sharpe's Fury (2006)

“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

Lieutenant Richard Sharpe, p. 81
Sharpe (Novel Series), Sharpe's Rifles (1988)

“Whoa there, lad! Whoa! Gentle now! Die well, die well.”

Bernard Cornwell

Sergeant Michael Connelly, p. 184
Sharpe (Novel Series), Sharpe's Sword (1983)

“He had thought the army would pay for the voyage, but the army had refused, saying that Sharpe was accepting an invitation to join the 95th Rifles and if the 95th Rifles refused to pay his passage then damn them, damn their badly colored coats, and damn Sharpe. […] Britain had sent Sharpe to India, and Britain, Sharpe reckoned, should fetch him back.”

Bernard Cornwell

Lieutenant Richard Sharpe, p. 11
Sharpe (Novel Series), Sharpe's Trafalgar (2000)

“"They're drunk sods, sir, but they're the best Soldiers in the world. The very best." And he meant it. They were the elite, the damned, the Rifles. They were Soldiers in green. They were Sharpe's Rifles.”

Bernard Cornwell

Lieutenant Richard Sharpe, p. 302
Sharpe (Novel Series), Sharpe's Rifles (1988)

“It was the French way, the method that had brought victory to the armies of the Empire, the irresistible mass. Throw the mass like a human missile at the Castle's defenders, overwhelm them with targets, terrify them with the massed drummers in the column's centre, and push over the dead to victory.”

Bernard Cornwell

En Masse.
French General, p. 271
Sharpe (Novel Series), Sharpe's Enemy (1984)

“"The Major's a grand big fellow, so he is." "So what are we? The damned?" "We're that, sure enough, but we're also Riflemen, sir. You and me, we're the best God-damned Soldiers in the world."”

Bernard Cornwell

Sergeant Patrick Harper and Lieutenant Richard Sharpe, p. 262
Sharpe (Novel Series), Sharpe's Rifles (1988)