Bernard Cornwell: Likeness

Bernard Cornwell is British writer. Explore interesting quotes on likeness.
Bernard Cornwell: 350   quotes 1   like

“All feared the artillery, coughing its death in fan-like swathes.”

Bernard Cornwell

Narrator, p. 63
Sharpe (Novel Series), Sharpe's Sword (1983)
Context: Some feared the cavalry and in their minds they rehearsed the thunder of a thousand hooves, the dust rolling like a sea fog from the charge and shot through with the bright blades that could slice a man's life away or, worse, hook out his eyes and leave him in darkness for life. Others feared musket fire, the lottery of an unaimed bullet coming in the relentless volleys that would fire the dry grass with burning wads and roast the wounded where they fell. All feared the artillery, coughing its death in fan-like swathes. It was best not to think about that.

Death , Fear

“But fate, as Merlin always taught us, is inexorable. Life is a jest of the Gods, Merlin liked to claim, and there is no justice. You must learn to laugh, he once told me, or else you'll just weep yourself to death.”

Bernard Cornwell book The Winter King

Source: The Winter King

Life , Death , God , Fate

“Destiny is all, Ravn liked to tell me, destiny is everything. He would even say it in English, “Wyrd biõ ful ãræd.”

Bernard Cornwell book The Last Kingdom

Source: The Last Kingdom

“"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

Captain Fernando Galiana and Captain Richard Sharpe, p. 202
Sharpe (Novel Series), Sharpe's Fury (2006)

Women , God , Children , Truth

“"I'm a Soldier, not a bloody clerk! I fetch bloody forage, count bloody shovels, and take punishment drills. It's yes, sir, no, sir, can I dig your latrine, sir, and it's not bloody soldiering!" "It is bloody soldiering! What the hell else do you think soldiering is? Do you think you can win a war without forage? Or without shovels? Or, God help us, without latrines? That is soldiering! Just because you've been allowed to swan about like a bloody pirate for years doesn't mean you shouldn't take your turn at real work."”

Bernard Cornwell

Lieutenant Richard Sharpe and Major Michael Hogan, p. 114
Sharpe (Novel Series), Sharpe's Company (1982)

God , War , Hell , Thinking

“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)

Fate , Beauty , Evil

“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)

Men , Thinking

“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)

God , Star , Suffering

“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)

War , People , Fashion

“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)

Way , Victory , Dead

“Whenever human beings don't know what to do, they call in the soldiers. Force ends everything, yes? That's what they did with Christ, Mr. Sharpe, they called in the soldiers. They didn't know what to do with him so they called on men like you and I don't suppose they thought twice about what they were doing, they just banged in the nails. You'd have done that, wouldn't you?”

Bernard Cornwell

Reverend Doctor Patrick Curtis, p. 223
Sharpe (Novel Series), Sharpe's Sword (1983)

Men , Christ

“"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

Rifleman Hagman and Sergeant Patrick Harper, p. 188
Sharpe (Novel Series), Sharpe's Havoc (2003)

“"Our guide, a fisherman. A good fellow." "He doesn't hate us?" "Hate us?" "I keep being told how the Spanish hate us, sir." "He hates the French, like I do, Sharpe. If there is one constancy in this vale of tears, it is always hate the damned French, always."”

Bernard Cornwell

General Thomas Graham and Captain Richard Sharpe, p. 126
Sharpe (Novel Series), Sharpe's Fury (2006)

Hate , Tear

“The Marques' thought he had the Rifleman beaten, but all he had done was to make the Rifleman fight. This no longer looked like a duel to d'Alembord; it looked like a brawl leading to slaughter.”

Bernard Cornwell

Captain Peter d'Alembord, p. 65
Sharpe (Novel Series), Sharpe's Honor (1985)

Fight

“Most of the men don't like officers up from the ranks, but they're kind of fond of Sharpe. He scares them. They want to be like him.'
'I can't see that scaring men is a virtue in an officer.”

Bernard Cornwell

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

Men

“You can keep your sword, for you fought proper. Like a proper soldier. Take your blade to paradise, and tell them you were killed by another proper soldier.”

Bernard Cornwell

Private Richard Sharpe to the Tippoo Sultan, p. 372
Sharpe (Novel Series), Sharpe's Tiger (1997)

“He was confused. He was in love with a woman he did not know, except he knew her loyalty was to the enemy. Yet Denmark did not feel like an enemy, though it was. And he was a Soldier still, and Soldiers, he reckoned, fought for those who could not fight for themselves, and that meant he should be fighting for Astrid's folk and not his own. But that was too great a wrench to contemplate.”

Bernard Cornwell

Lieutenant Richard Sharpe, p. 136
Sharpe (Novel Series), Sharpe's Prey (2001)

Love , Feeling , Fight , Loyalty

“He had been a tough, cheerful youngster, the sort who collected birds' eggs, scrapped with other boys and climbed the church tower on a dare, and now he was a tough cheerful young man who thought that being an officer in Lawford's regiment was just about the finest thing life could afford. He liked soldiering and he liked soldiers.”

Bernard Cornwell

Lieutenant Jack Bullen, p. 307
Sharpe (Novel Series), Sharpe's Escape (2003)

Life , Boy , Bird

“If I take a man into battle, my lord, i like to offer him a better than even chance that he'll march away with his skin intact. If I wanted to kill the buggers I'd just strangle them in their sleep. It's kinder.”

Bernard Cornwell

Captain Richard Sharpe, p. 88
Sharpe (Novel Series), Sharpe's Battle (1995)

Sleep , Chance

“There's a great bloody mine, sir! Just waiting to kill our lads! I ain't letting that happen. You can do what you bloody well like, but I'm going to kill some more of these bastards.”

Bernard Cornwell

Private Richard Sharpe, p. 329
Sharpe (Novel Series), Sharpe's Tiger (1997)

Waiting