Waterloo Quotes

“The Immortals were about to engage the Impregnable. The unbeaten would fight the unbeatable.”
― Bernard Cornwell, Waterloo: The History of Four Days, Three Armies, and Three Battles

“The standing to be cannonaded,’ he wrote in the memoirs of his military service: and having nothing else to do, is about the most unpleasant thing that can happen to soldiers in an engagement.”
― Bernard Cornwell, Waterloo: The True Story of Four Days, Three Armies and Three Battles

“There is a famous painting of the young Napoleon crossing the St Bernard Pass on his way to the Italian campaign which rocketed him to fame. Louis David’s canvas shows him on a rearing horse, and everything about the painting is motion; the horse rears, its mouth open and eyes wide, its mane is wind-whipped, the sky is stormy and the General’s cloak is a lavish swirl of gale-driven colour. Yet in the centre of that frenzied paint is Napoleon’s calm face. He looks sullen and unsmiling, but above all, calm. That was what he demanded of the painter, and David delivered a picture of a man at home amidst chaos.”
― Bernard Cornwell, Waterloo: The True Story of Four Days, Three Armies and Three Battles

“We might know how it ends, but like all good stories it bears repetition. So here it is again, the story of a battle.”
― Bernard Cornwell, Waterloo: The True Story of Four Days, Three Armies and Three Battles

“The survivors of that confusion would surely be bemused by the argument that Waterloo really was not that important, that if Napoleon had won then he would have still faced overwhelming enemies and ultimate defeat. That is probably, though not certainly, true. If the Emperor had forced the ridge of Mont St Jean and driven Wellington back into a precipitate retreat, he would still have had to cope with the mighty armies of Austria and Russia that were marching towards France. Yet that did not happen. Napoleon was stopped at Waterloo, and that gives the battle its significance. It is a turning point of history, and to say history would have turned anyway is not to reduce the importance of the moment it happened.”
― Bernard Cornwell, Waterloo: The True Story of Four Days, Three Armies and Three Battles

“It is well that war is so terrible, or we should grow too fond of it.’ Napoleon”
― Bernard Cornwell, Waterloo: The History of Four Days, Three Armies, and Three Battles

“Men and women used pliers to pull teeth from the dead and, for years after, false teeth were known as Waterloo Teeth.”
― Bernard Cornwell, Waterloo: The True Story of Four Days, Three Armies and Three Battles

“The rest merely requires common sense; it is like a boxing match, the more you punch the better it is.”
― Bernard Cornwell, Waterloo: The History of Four Days, Three Armies, and Three Battles

“Si ya en la batalla de Agincourt el barro había ralentizado el avance de los hombres de armas franceses, dejándoles exhaustos, también el barro de Waterloo iba a convertirse ahora en una ventaja para los hombres de”
― Bernard Cornwell, Waterloo

“Bem, graças a Deus eu não sei o que é perder uma batalha, mas certamente nada pode ser mais doloroso do que ganhar uma com a perda de tantos amigos.”
― Bernard Cornwell, Waterloo: The True Story of Four Days, Three Armies and Three Battles

“É uma coisa ruim estar sempre combatendo”, disse ele a ela:

Enquanto estou no meio daquilo fico atarefado demais para sentir qualquer coisa; mas logo depois a sensação é deplorável. É praticamente impossível pensar em glória. A mente e os sentimentos ficam exauridos. Fico desconfortável até mesmo no momento da vitória, e sempre digo que, depois de uma batalha perdida, o maior sofrimento é uma batalha vencida. Não apenas você perde amigos queridos com os quais convivia como é obrigado a deixar os feridos para trás. É certo que se tenta fazer o melhor por eles, mas como isso é pouco! Nesses momentos, qualquer sentimento em seu íntimo fica amortecido. Só agora estou começando a retomar meu estado de ânimo natural, mas não desejo mais combate algum”
― Bernard Cornwell, Waterloo: Chroniques D'Une Bataille Legendaire