Bernard Cornwell: Quotes about combat

“"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

“"Would you give my warmest regards to Sir Arthur Wellesley? Or Lord Wellington as we must now call him." "You know him, sir?" "Of course. We were at the Royal Academy of Equiation together, at Angers. It's strange, Major, how your greatest soldier was taught to fight in France."”

Bernard Cornwell

Colonel Michel Dubreton (French Army) and Major Richard Sharpe, p. 80
Sharpe (Novel Series), Sharpe's Enemy (1984)

Fight , Anger

“In the short time I've known you, Richard, I've noticed you possess a lamentable tendency to put on shining armor and look for ladies to rescue. King Arthur, God rest his soul, would have loved you. He'd have had you fighting every evil knight in the forest.”

Bernard Cornwell

Captain Michael Hogan, p. 254
Sharpe (Novel Series), Sharpe's Havoc (2003)

Love , God , Soul , Evil

“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)

Fear , Waiting , Fight

“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)

Fight

“Forrest saw the war as a moral crusade, a fight for decency and order, and victory to the British would mean that the Almighty, who could not possibly be suspected of Republican sentiments, had blessed the British effort.”

Bernard Cornwell

Major Joseph Forrest, p. 162
Sharpe (Novel Series), Sharpe's Company (1982)

War , Effort , Victory , Fight

“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

“The Hanoverian knew the cavalry was no danger. It was the infantry, the unstoppable red-jacketed infantry, that was going to beat him […] He stared at the 78th and he reckoned that no force on earth could stop such men. "The best damn infantry on earth. Watch them! You'll not see better fighting men while you live!"”

Bernard Cornwell

Sergeant Anthony Pohlmann, p. 271
Sharpe (Novel Series), Sharpe's Triumph (1997)

Men , Fight

“The Tippoo still led the fight. […] Those gaudy stones made him a target for every redcoat and sepoy, yet he insisted on staying in the very front rank where he could pour his rifle fire at the stalled attackers, and his charms worked, for though the bullets flicked close none hit him. He was the Tiger of Mysore, he could not die, only kill.”

Bernard Cornwell

Narrator, p. 358
Sharpe (Novel Series), Sharpe's Tiger (1997)

Fight

“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

“And don't tell me this isn't your war. You swore an oath to serve the King of Spain, and the king of Spain is a prisoner in France and you were supposed to be his guard. By God, this is your war far more than it's my war. I never swore an oath to protect Spain, I never had a woman raped by a Frenchman or a child murdered by a dragoon or a harvest stolen and a house burned by a Crapaud forage party. Your country has suffered all those things, and your country is Spain, and if you'd rather fight for Ireland than for Spain, then why in the name of Almighty God did you take the Spanish oath?”

Bernard Cornwell

Captain Richard Sharpe, p. 110
Sharpe (Novel Series), Sharpe's Battle (1995)

God , War , Suffering , Fight

“Sharpe led the way towards the right hand door, all waiting done, all nervousness dispelled because the fight was on and there was nothing now but to win. This was the Sharpe who had saved Wellington's life at Assaye, who had hacked through the ranks to take an Eagle with Harper, who had gone, maddened, into the breach at Badajoz. This was the Sharpe whom Major General Nairn had only been able to guess at as he looked at the quiet, dark-haired man across the rug in Frenada.”

Bernard Cornwell

Narrator, p. 118
Sharpe (Novel Series), Sharpe's Enemy (1984)

Life , Way , Waiting , Fight

“He was a soldier and he marched where he was ordered to march and he killed the king's enemies when he arrived. That was his job and the army was his home and he loved both even though he knew he would have to fight like a gutter-born bastard for every step of advancement that other men took for granted. And he knew too that he would never be prized for his birth or his wit or his wealth, but would only be reckoned as good as his last fight, but that thought made him smile. For Sharpe's last battle had been against the best soldier France had and Sharpe had drowned the bastard like a rat. Sharpe had won, Loup was dead, and it was over at last: Sharpe's battle.”

Bernard Cornwell

Captain Richard Sharpe, p. 354
Sharpe (Novel Series), Sharpe's Battle (1995)

Love , Men , Smile , Home

“There are rules, orders, regulations, Sharpe, by which our lives are conducted. If we ignore those rules, burdensome though they may be, then we open the gates to anarchy and tyranny; the very things against which we fight!”

Bernard Cornwell

Lieutenant Colonel Brian Windham, p. 104
Sharpe (Novel Series), Sharpe's Company (1982)

Fight

“There are men in Spain who need me, who trust me. They're not special men, they wouldn't look very well in Carlton House, but they are fighting for all of you. That's why I'm here.”

Bernard Cornwell

Major Richard Sharpe, p. 53
Sharpe (Novel Series), Sharpe's Regiment (1986)

Men , Fight , Housing

“He had trampled through Italy winning victory after victory, he had smashed the Russians on the border of Switzerland and rammed bloody defeat down Austrian throats before Marengo. Marshall André Masséna, Duke of Rivoli and Prince of Essling, was not a pretty soldier, but by God, he knew how to fight, which was why, at fifty-two years old, he had been sent to retrieve the disasters besetting the emporer's armies in Spain and Portugal.”

Bernard Cornwell

Narrator, describing Marshal André Masséna, p. 265
Sharpe (Novel Series), Sharpe's Battle (1995)

God , Victory , Fight

“Sharpe bellowed in anger, the war shout. They thought him weak and beaten, but he had one fight in him and they would learn what a Rifleman was in a fight.”

Bernard Cornwell

Narrator, p. 186
Sharpe (Novel Series), Sharpe's Honor (1985)

War , Learning , Fight , Anger

“A man could fight bullets and bayonets, even rockets if he understood the weapon, but no man understood the invisible enemies. Sharpe wished he knew how to propitiate Fate, the soldiers' Goddess, but She was a capricious deity, without loyalty.”

Bernard Cornwell

Major Richard Sharpe, p. 311
Sharpe (Novel Series), Sharpe's Enemy (1984)

Fate , Fight , Loyalty

“What did he want? A tournament? Who does he think we are? The knights of the round bloody table? I don't know what happens to some folk. They put a sir in front of their names and their brains get addled. Fighting fair! Whoever heard of anything so daft? Fight fair and you lose.”

Bernard Cornwell The Grail Quest

Will Skeat, p. 94
The Grail Quest, The Archer's Tale/Harlequin (2000)

Thinking , Fight

“The Major was a courteous man, judicious and sensible, but he doubted the fighting efficiency of the South Essex would be improved by a campaign to improve its manners.”

Bernard Cornwell

Major Joseph Forrest, p. 148
Sharpe (Novel Series), Sharpe's Escape (2003)

Fight