The Burning Land Quotes

“Why do we fight?" he asked.

"Because we were born.”
― Bernard Cornwell, The Burning Land

“‎"He sang the song of the sword, keening as he fed his blade, and Rollo, standing thigh-deep in the creek, ax swinging in murderous blows, blocked the enemy's escape. The Frisians, transported from confidence to bowel-loosening fear, began to drop their weapons.”
― Bernard Cornwell, The Burning Land

“The gods are capricious, and I was about to amuse them. And Alfred was right. I was a fool.”
― Bernard Cornwell, The Burning Land

“He wanted to improve the world, while I did not believe and never have believed that we can improve the world, just merely survive as it slides into chaos.”
― Bernard Cornwell, The Burning Land

“Folk tell their children that success lies in working hard and being thrifty, but that is as much nonsense as supposing that a badger, a fox and a wolf could build a church. The way to wealth is to become a Christian bishop or a monastery's abbot and thus be imbued with heaven's permission to lie, cheat and steal your way to luxury.”
― Bernard Cornwell, The Burning Land

“Some oaths are made with love, and those we cannot break.”
― Bernard Cornwell, The Burning Land

“Thou shalt not kill, they preached, then screamed at us warriors to slaughter the pagans. Thou shalt not steal, they preached, and forged charters to take men’s lands. Thou shalt not commit adultery, they preached, and rutted other men’s wives like besotted hares in springtime.”
― Bernard Cornwell, The Burning Land

“Children are easily swayed by religion, which is why it is a good thing that most eventually grow into sense. Chanting monks led the procession, then came children with green boughs, more monks, a group of abbots and bishops, then Steapa and fifty men of the royal guard, who walked immediately in front of Alfred and his guests.”
― Bernard Cornwell, The Burning Land

“I just gazed at the smoke haze above Lundene, the darkness darkening a summer sky, and wished I were a bird, high in that nothingness, vanishing.   Haesten”
― Bernard Cornwell, The Burning Land

“You want to be a Dane, but you don’t have the courage.”
― Bernard Cornwell, The Burning Land

“I sense, I have always sensed, that we slide from light to darkness, from glory to chaos, and perhaps that is good. My gods tell us that the world will end in chaos, so perhaps we are living the last days and even I might survive long enough to see the hills crack and the sea boil and the heavens burn as the great gods fight.”
― Bernard Cornwell, The Burning Land

“My gods tell us that the world will end in chaos, so perhaps we are living the last days and even I might survive long enough to see the hills crack and the sea boil and the heavens burn as the great gods fight. And in the face of that great doom, Alfred built schools. His priests scurried like mice in rotting thatch, imposing their rules as if mere obedience could stop the doom. Thou shalt not kill, they preached, then screamed at us warriors to slaughter the pagans. Thou shalt not steal, they preached, and forged charters to take men’s lands. Thou shalt not commit adultery, they preached, and rutted other men’s wives like besotted hares in springtime.”
― Bernard Cornwell, The Burning Land

“There is no sense. The past is a ship’s wake etched on a gray sea, but the future has no mark.”
― Bernard Cornwell, The Burning Land

“I curse you,’ she said, pointing at me, ‘I curse your children, your woman, your life, your grave, the air you breathe, the food you eat, the dreams you have, the ground you tread.”
― Bernard Cornwell, The Burning Land

“The three spinners see our future. The gift of the gods to humankind is that we cannot see where the threads will go.”
― Bernard Cornwell, The Burning Land

“... when the lust dies then mercy takes its place”
― Bernard Cornwell, The Burning Land

“A rat doesn't demand supper from a wolf”
― Bernard Cornwell, The Burning Land

“To gain everything, a man must risk everything.”
― Bernard Cornwell, The Burning Land

“... we cannot decree what we would wish. Making an oath is like steering a course, but if the winds and tides of fate are too strong, then the steering oar losses its power.”
― Bernard Cornwell, The Burning Land

“... our lives are like a voyage across an unknown sea and sometimes we get tired of calm waters and gentle winds, and we have no choice but to slam the steering oar's loom hard over and head for the grey clouds and the whitecaps and the tumult of danger.”
― Bernard Cornwell, The Burning Land

“...intelligence is a weapon that has a sharp edge and a long reach”
― Bernard Cornwell, The Burning Land

“We're not puppets in God's hands. We are his instruments. We earn our fate.”
― Bernard Cornwell, The Burning Land

“Just then a bee landed on my right hand that was still resting on Æthelflæd’s shoulder. I did not try to brush it off, for I did not want to take my arm away. I felt it first, then saw it crawling dozily toward my thumb. It would fly away, I thought, but then, for no reason, it stung me. I swore at the sudden pain and slapped the insect dead, startling Æthelflæd. “Rub an onion on the sting,” she told me, but I could not be bothered to hunt for an onion, so I left it alone. I knew the sting was an omen, a message from the gods, but I did not want to think about it, for it could surely be no good sign.”
― Bernard Cornwell, The Burning Land

“I was without a lord. I was outcast. I was free. I was going Viking.”
― Bernard Cornwell, The Burning Land

“They shouted for mercy, but we showed none because we were still under the thrall of Æthelflæd’s savage wish.”
― Bernard Cornwell, The Burning Land

“I was arrogant that day, arrogant and confident, because there are times when men need to see arrogance”
― Bernard Cornwell, The Burning Land

“Bishop Asser was an earsling, which is anything that drops out of an arse.”
― Bernard Cornwell, The Burning Land

“superb book Mercia and the Making of England (Sutton Publishing, Stroud, 2000).”
― Bernard Cornwell, The Burning Land

“É um poema triste, e portanto um poema verdadeiro. Wyrd bið ful ãræd, diz ele. O destino é inexorável. E wyn eal gedreas. Toda alegria morreu.”
― Bernard Cornwell, The Burning Land

“I don’t care if he’s got a tail and tits, just take me to him.” The”
― Bernard Cornwell, The Burning Land