367 Quotes by Bernard Cornwell

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

It was while he was on the tower thatRobbie came to the rampart beneath. 'I want you to look at this,' Robbie called up to him, and flourished a newly painted shield. 'You like it?'Thomas peered down and, in the moonlight, saw something red. 'What is it?' he asked. 'A blood smear?''You blind English bastard,' Robbie said, 'it's the red heart of Douglas!''Ah. From up here it looks likesomething died on the shield.

-"I have kept the faith, Planchard." -"Then you are the only man who has" Planchard said, "and it is an heretical faith."-"They crucified Christ for heresy" Vexille said, "so to be named a heretic is to be one with Him.

We should know who they are," I said, "before we kill them. That's just being polite.

...victory does not come to men who listen to their fears.

An English man-at-arms had his helmet split open and his skull with it, so that he rode wavering from the fight, blood pouring down his mail coat. His horse stopped a few paces from the turmoil and the man-at-arms slowly, so slowly, bent forward and then slumped down from his saddle. One foot was trapped in a stirrup as he died but his horse did not seem to notice. It just went on cropping the grass.

So a good man can be a bad Christian?""I suppose so.""Then a bad man," I said, "can be a good Christian?

If they saw men swarming up the wall, if they saw the axes chopping at our shields on the wall’s top, then they would join the battle. Men want to be on the winning side.

Men do not relish the shield wall. They do not rush to death's embrace. You look ahead and see the overlapping shields, the helmets, the glint of axes and spears and swords, and you know you must go into the reach of those blades, into the place of death, and it takes time to summon the courage, to heat the blood, to let the madness overtake caution.