“ A leader leads, Ragnar said, and you can’t ask men to risk death if you’re not willing to risk it yourself. Bernard Cornwell
“ Why prefer a god who wants you to torture yourself instead of worshipping Eostre who wants you to take a girl into the woods and make babies? Bernard Cornwell
“ Much followed from that hurried ceremony in the flower-speckled clearing beside the stream. So many died. There was so much heartache, so much blood and so many tears that they would have made a great… Bernard Cornwell
“ Houses. I remember the first time I ever climbed a Roman staircase, and how odd it felt, and I knew that in times gone by men must have taken such things for granted. Now the world was dung and straw… Bernard Cornwell
“ Words are like breath, she said, you say them and they're gone. But writing traps them. Bernard Cornwell
“ What did you want to achieve? Liberty, of course! The answer was swift, but followed immediately by a deprecating smile. Except I’ve learned there’s no such thing. There isn’t? You can’t have freedom… Bernard Cornwell
“ Welsh kingdoms in some safety, and that thought was encouraging. Christians do like pilgrims, those pious folk who gaze at pig bones that pretend to be dead saints and then give money, lots of money,… Bernard Cornwell
“ They’re frightened that we’ll make a sally and kill them all, Ragnar said, so they’re going to sit there and try to starve us out. Bernard Cornwell
“ They make laws that no one wants, then make money disagreeing with each other what the damned law means, and the more they disagree the more money they make, but still they go on making laws, and they… Bernard Cornwell
“ There are seasons of our lives when nothing seems to be happening, when no smoke betrays a burned town or homestead and few tears are shed for the newly dead. I have learned not to trust those times,… Bernard Cornwell
“ The wheel of fortune that had once raised her so high had taken her into the utter depths. Bernard Cornwell
“ The rest merely requires common sense; it is like a boxing match, the more you punch the better it is. Bernard Cornwell
