Quotessence
Home / Authors / Bernard Cornwell
Bernard Cornwell

Bernard Cornwell Quotes

Author

Filter quotes by topic

AllUhtredBernard CornwellBattleBookWarWritingCornwellBernardMenSaxon StoriesShield WallSigtryggrStiorraThe Empty ThroneThinkingFateIfsLandSaidShit

Famous Bernard Cornwell Quotes

“Oh the madness of battle! We fear it, we celebrate it, the poets sing of it, and when it fills the blood like fire it is a real madness. It is joy! All the terror is swept away, a man feels he could live for ever, he sees the enemy retreating, knows he himself is invincible, that even the gods would shrink from his blade and his bloodied shield. And I was still keening that mad song, the battle song of slaughter, the sound that blotted out the screams of dying men and the crying of the wounded. It is fear, of course, that feeds the battle madness, the release of fear into savagery. You win in the shield wall by being more savage than your enemy, by turning his savagery back into fear.”

WarFearBattleMadnessSavageryShield Wall
Book:Warriors of the Storm
Create image

“The shield wall reeks of shit, and all a man wants is to be home, to be anywhere but on this field that prepares for battle, but none of us will turn and run or else we will be despised for ever. We pretend we want to be there, and when the wall at last advances, step by step, and the heart is thumping fast as a bird’s wing beating, the world seems unreal.”

WorldHeartHomeWallBattleBirdManUnrealDespisedRunPretendShitFieldTurnEverShieldWingPreparesReeks
Book:The Flame Bearer
Create image

“You will not say how you are haunted by the faces of the men you killed, how in their last gasp of life they sought your pity and you had none. You will not speak of the boys who died screaming for their mothers while you twisted a blade in their guts and snarled your scorn into their ears. You will not confess that you wake in the night, covered in sweat, heart hammering, shrinking from the memories. You will not talk of that, because that is the horror, and the horror is held in the heart’s hoard, a secret, and to admit it is to admit fear, and we are warriors. We do not fear. We strut. We go to battle like heroes. We stink of shit.”

FearSecretHorrorBattleHeroesWarriorsShit
Book:The Flame Bearer
Create image

“Thirty paces, twenty, and you can see the eyes of the men who will try to kill you, and see the spear-blades, and the instinct is to stop, to straighten the shields. We cringe from battle, fear claws at us, time seems to stop, there is silence though a thousand men shout, and at that moment, when terror savages the heart like a trapped beast, you must hurl yourself into the horror. Because the enemy feels the same. And you have come to kill him. You are the beast from his nightmares.”

BattleKillingShield Wall
Book:Warriors of the Storm
Create image