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3dbc08f
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I'm in pain all the time," I said, "and if I gave in to it then I'd do nothing."
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Bernard Cornwell |
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0123c1d
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If the purpose of life was to be an unpredictable, murderous tyrant, then it would be easy to be godlike, but I suspected we had a different duty and that was to try to make the world better.
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Bernard Cornwell |
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dd65e65
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A man whose house is burning to the ground does not carry water to his neighbour's fire,
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Bernard Cornwell |
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4254779
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The law says I own that land, and the law, we are told, is what makes us men under God instead of beasts in the ditch.
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Bernard Cornwell |
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b4e3131
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So Urdr, Verdandi and Skuld would decide our fate. They are not kindly women, indeed they are monstrous and malevolent hags, and Skuld's shears are sharp. When those blades cut, they cause tears that feed the well of Urdr that lies beside the world tree, and the well gives the water that keeps Yggdrasil alive, and if Yggdrasil dies, then the world dies, and so the well must be kept filled, and for that there must be tears. We cry so that th..
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Bernard Cornwell |
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687ca75
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He doesn't want to face Englishmen,' the Lord of Douglas said, and he knew he was right. Ever since the Scottish knights
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Bernard Cornwell |
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24cdd1a
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The law. we are told, is what makes us men under God instead of beasts in the ditch
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irony
justice
justice-system
the-law
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Bernard Cornwell |
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5f1a041
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I am never certain that deserters are to be trusted," Gudin said mildly. He was accompanied by a burly French sergeant who kept giving the tigers nervous glances. "If a man can betray one flag," Gudin observed, "why not another?"
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Bernard Cornwell |
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dba5874
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And suddenly, after weeks of thinking about desertion, Sharpe realized that what he had just said was true. He did want to go back to the army, and that knowledge surprised him. The army had bored Richard Sharpe, then done its best to break his spirits. It had even flogged him, but now, standing on Seringapatam's battlements, he missed the army. For at heart, as Richard Sharpe had just discovered for himself, he was a soldier.
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Bernard Cornwell |
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55db468
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Frederick the Great once said that the greatest crime in war is not to make the wrong decision, but to make no decision.' Again the Prince gestured at Sharpe with the brandy glass. 'You should remember that axiom, Sharpe!' Sharpe did not even know what an axiom was, but he nodded respectfully. 'I will, sir.
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Bernard Cornwell |
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9b3c90f
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He died without cutting his nails," she said accusingly, as if I was responsible for that ill luck, and it was bad fortune indeed because now the grim things of the underworld would use Ivar's nails to build the ship that would bring chaos at the world's end."
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Bernard Cornwell |
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492e496
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If the leader is a good man he will be liked and if he's not, he won't, and if he is a good man and a bad leader then he is better off dead.
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Bernard Cornwell |
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788b0a8
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I charge more for prophecy," Offa said, "on the grounds that what is worthless must be made expensive."
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Bernard Cornwell |
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5ebc244
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King Alfred's dream was turning into reality. I am old enough to remember a time when the Danes ruled almost all of what is now England. They captured Northumbria, took East Anglia, and occupied all of Mercia. Guthrum the Dane had then invaded Wessex, driving Alfred and a handful of men into the marshes of Sumorsaete, but Alfred had won the unlikely victory at Ethandun, and ever since the Saxons had inexorably worked their way northwards.
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Bernard Cornwell |
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28cfe26
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Nor did he care about his childhood, for certainly I never heard him speak of it. I once questioned him about his early days and he would not answer. 'What is the egg to the eagle?' he asked me, then said he had been born, he had lived and he had become a soldier, and that was all I needed to know. (p97)
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Bernard Cornwell |
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42dcdb3
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I learned that the joy and the fear are the exact same things, the one merely transformed into the other by action,
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Bernard Cornwell |
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462b2f5
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I spoke in English because the language of the Frisian people is so close to our own.
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Bernard Cornwell |
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33050e1
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How many's that?" I asked the shepherd. "Jiggit and mumph, lord," he said. "Is that enough?" "It's enough, lord." "Kill the rest then," I said. "Jiggit and mumph?" Willibald asked, still shivering. "Twenty and five," I said. "Yain, tain, tether, mether, mumph. It's how shepherds count. I don't know why. The world is full of mystery."
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Bernard Cornwell |
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95a0e85
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King Edmund of East Anglia is now remembered as a saint, as one of those blessed souls who live forever in the shadow of God. Or so the priests tell me. In heaven, they say, the saints occupy a privileged place, living on the high platform of God's great hall where they spend their time singing God's praises. Forever. Just singing. Beocca always told me that it would be an ecstatic existence, but to me it seems very dull. The Danes reckon t..
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Bernard Cornwell |
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142f2d6
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Because when he returns, Richard, he would be the biggest man in town. He wants revenge on his childhood. He wants the respect of the town. Saint Paul tells us that when we were children we spoke as children, we understood and thought as children but when we become men we put away childish things, but I'm not so sure we ever do put them away. I think the childish things linger on, and your brother craves what he wanted as a child, the respe..
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Bernard Cornwell |
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e7fd7a8
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I envy your Christian God. He is three and He is one, He is dead and He is alive, He is everywhere and He is nowhere, and He demands that you worship Him, but claims nothing else is worthy of worship. There's room in those contradictions for a man to believe in anything or nothing, but
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Bernard Cornwell |
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a8af647
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There is no cause so hopeless, no creed so mad, no idea so ludicrous that it will not attract some believers,
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Bernard Cornwell |
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6953c6f
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In other words," she said tartly, "women are supposed to do all that a man can't do. And right now it seems men can't fight, so I'd better do that too." --
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Bernard Cornwell |
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4b2cc43
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It would cause nothing but madness, Thomas thought. Men would fight for it, lie for it, cheat for it, betray for it and die for it. The Church would make money from it. It would cause nothing but evil, he thought, for it stirred horror from men's hearts,
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holy-grail
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Bernard Cornwell |
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924709e
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sardonic
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Bernard Cornwell |
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35a24a3
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We have forgotten that courage is a choice and that permission to move forward with boldness is never given by fearful masses
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Bernard Cornwell |
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126d63b
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Some Gods are wicked, Derfel. And besides, they have no duty to us, only we to them. Maybe it amused them?
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Bernard Cornwell |
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858e099
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I could tell you tales of priestly behavior that would make you shudder.
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history-repeating-itself
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Bernard Cornwell |
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5edcc4b
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You can't live somewhere," he told me, "if the people don't want you to be there. They can kill our cattle or poison our streams, and we would never know who did it. You either slaughter them all or learn to live with them."
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Bernard Cornwell |
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4392315
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Wyrd bi ful araed, fate is unstoppable.
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Bernard Cornwell |
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9ea0928
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Did I know all that at eleven? Some, I think. It lay in my heart, unformed, unspoken, but hard as a stone. It would be covered over in time, half forgotten and often contradicted, but it was always there. Destiny is all, Ravn liked to tell me, destiny is everything. He would even say it in English, "Wyrd bi ful araed."
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Bernard Cornwell |
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dd0bb32
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Put a cat to guard the sheep and the wolves would eat well.
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Bernard Cornwell |
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c7f3462
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The hellequin," she said icily, "are the dead who have no souls. The dead who were so wicked in life that the devil loves them too much to punish them in hell and so he gives them his horses and releases them on the living."
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Bernard Cornwell |
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60336e3
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Lust is the deceiver. Lust wrenches our lives until nothing matters except the one we think we love, and under that deceptive spell we kill for them, give all for them, and then, when we have what we have wanted, we discover that it is all an illusion and nothing is there. Lust is a voyage to nowhere, to an empty land, but some men just love such voyages and never care about the destination.
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Bernard Cornwell |
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0e821e6
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So long as there is war there will be warlords. Leaders. What makes a man follow a leader? Success. A warrior wants victory, he wants silver, he wants land, and he looks to his lords for all those things.
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Bernard Cornwell |
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a6f1c9a
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It never occurred to me that they might not accept it, yet looking back I am astonished that the battle of Cynuit was fought according to the idea of a twenty-year-old who had never stood in a slaughter wall. Yet I was tall, I was a lord, I had grown up among warriors, and I had the arrogant confidence of a man born to battle. I am Uhtred, son of Uhtred, son of another Uhtred, and we had not held Bebbanburg and its lands by whimpering at al..
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Bernard Cornwell |
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c66ca34
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What do we look for in a lord? Strength, generosity, hardness, and success, and why should a man not be proud of those things? Show me a humble warrior and I will see a corpse.
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Bernard Cornwell |
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e64357f
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Your mother didn't give birth to you," I told him, "but farted you out of her shriveled arsehole."
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Bernard Cornwell |
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97c9364
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Nao seja estupido, Derfel - reagiu Merlin impaciente. - Os druidas nao tem permissao de escrever nada, e contra as regras. Voce sabe disso! Assim que voce escreve alguma coisa ela se torna fixa. Vira dogma. As pessoas passam a discutir a respeito, ficam autoritarias, referem-se aos textos, produzem manuscritos, discutem mais e logo estao matando umas as outras. Se voce nunca escreve nada, ninguem sabe exatamente o que disse, de modo que sem..
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Bernard Cornwell |
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2c7343b
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They have no idea we're here. And stupidity gets you killed.
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Bernard Cornwell |
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58f8622
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Sharpe is the epitome of a nineteenth-century, romantic working-class hero. Cool, flash and fragrant ... Escape and enjoy' Daily Express
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Bernard Cornwell |
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b48fc2f
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We believe there are many gods, so we accept another man's religion as his own affair, while Christians, who perversely insist that there is only one god, think it their duty to kill, maim, enslave, or revile anyone who disagrees. They tell me this is for our own good.
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Bernard Cornwell |
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96775ab
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I can unbutton your breeches and I can point you down wind, but even with the Good Lord's help I can't piss for you.
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Bernard Cornwell |
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5bd6558
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piquancy,
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Bernard Cornwell |