Bernard Cornwell quotes - page 4

A charge of knights was supposed to be thundering death on hooves, a flail of metal driven by the ponderous weight of men, horses and armor, and properly done, it was a mass maker of widows. (Bernard Cornwell)
Let me tell you about the English War Bow, Joscelyn. It is a simple thing, med of yew, a peasant's tool, really. My huntsman can use one, but he is the only man in Berat who has ever mastered the weapon. Why do you think that is? I'll tell you anyway. It takes years, Joscelyn, many years to master the yew bow. Ten years? Probably that long, and after ten years a man can send an arrow clean through armor at two hundred paces. Splat! A thousand ecus of man, armor, and weaponry fallen to a peasant's bow. And it isn't luck, Joscelyn. My huntsman can put an arrow through a bracelet at a hundred paces. He can pierce mail coat at two hundred. I've seen him put an arrow through an oak door at a hundred and fifty, and the door was three inches thick! View quote
Bernard Cornwell
I doubt I called him illegitimate, sir. I wouldn't use that sort of word. I probably called him a bastard. View quote
Bernard Cornwell
They were German hussars and they streamed out of the dunes leaving a trail of dust, their drawn blades glittering. View quote
Bernard Cornwell
Don't tell me the moon is shining, show me the glint of light on broken glass. View quote
Bernard Cornwell
Defeat the enemy's infantry and the cavalry and gunners had nowhere to hide. View quote
Bernard Cornwell
The redcoats were doing what they did best, what they were paid a shilling a day less stoppages to do: they were killing. View quote
Bernard Cornwell
They had pride. And they had the precious ability to fire platoon volleys. View quote
Bernard Cornwell
It was death to be in their way and seven French battlions were now in death's forecourt. View quote
Bernard Cornwell
How can you expect obedience from the men when officers are corrupt? View quote
Bernard Cornwell
And he was amazed, as he always was, by the courage of the French. They were being struck hard, yet they stayed. (Bernard Cornwell)
Once a thief, always a thief, only now I steal from the enemy. View quote
Bernard Cornwell
A soldier's job was to kill. A rifle killed. View quote
Bernard Cornwell
All feared the artillery, coughing its death in fan-like swathes. View quote
Bernard Cornwell
To say anything was useless, to say nothing was cowardly. View quote
Bernard Cornwell
We celebrate kings, we honor great men, we admire aristocrats, we applaud actors, we shower gold on portrait painters and we even, sometimes, reward soldiers, but we always despise merchants. View quote
Bernard Cornwell
Destiny is all, Ravn liked to tell me, destiny is everything. He would even say it in English, "Wyrd biõ ful ãræd. View quote
Bernard Cornwell
The preachers tell us that pride is a great sin, but the preachers are wrong. Pride makes a man, it drives him, it is the shield wall around his reputation... Men die, they said, but reputation does not die. View quote
Bernard Cornwell
He tolerated his fellow Englishmen, but the Welsh were cabbage-farting dwarves, the Scots were scabby arse-suckers, and the French were shriveled turds. View quote
Bernard Cornwell
A leader leads,” Ragnar said, "and you can't ask men to risk death if you're not willing to risk it yourself. View quote
Bernard Cornwell
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)
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. View quote
Bernard Cornwell
We take what we want ... we don't pay our enemies for food. View quote
Bernard Cornwell
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. View quote
Bernard Cornwell
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." View quote
Bernard Cornwell