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The Pale Horseman (The Saxon Stories, #2) QUOTES

The Pale Horseman (The Saxon Stories, #2) QUOTES

1 " This isn't just a war over land, it's a war about God. And Alfred...is Christ's servant... "

― Bernard Cornwell , The Pale Horseman (The Saxon Stories, #2)

2 " And I looked,' Pyrlig said to me, 'and I saw a pale horse, and the rider's name was death.' I just stared in amazement. 'It's in the gospel book,' he explained sheepishly, 'and it just cam to mind. "

― Bernard Cornwell , The Pale Horseman (The Saxon Stories, #2)

3 " Life is simple," I said. "Ale, women, sword, and reputation. Nothing else matters. "

― Bernard Cornwell , The Pale Horseman (The Saxon Stories, #2)

4 " There is such joy in chaos. Stow all the world's evils behind a door and tell men that they must never, ever, open the door, and it will be opened because there is pure joy in destruction. "

― Bernard Cornwell , The Pale Horseman (The Saxon Stories, #2)

5 " Words are like breath," she said, "you say them and they're gone. But writing traps them. "

― Bernard Cornwell , The Pale Horseman (The Saxon Stories, #2)

6 " Wyrd biõ ful ãræd,” I said. Fate is fate. It cannot be changed or cheated. "

― Bernard Cornwell , The Pale Horseman (The Saxon Stories, #2)

7 " Religion makes strange bedfellows. "

― Bernard Cornwell , The Pale Horseman (The Saxon Stories, #2)

8 " But deep under the earth, where the corpse serpent gnaws at the roots of Yggdrasil, the tree of life, there are three spinners. Three women who make our fate. We might believe we make choices, but in truth our lives are in the spinners' fingers. They make our lives, and destiny is everything. The Danes know that, and even the Christians know it, Wyrd biõ ful araed, we Saxons say, fate is inexorable. "

― Bernard Cornwell , The Pale Horseman (The Saxon Stories, #2)

9 " You do like them thin, don't you?" Pyrlig said, amused. "Now I like them meaty as well-fed heifers! Give me a nice dark Briton with hips like a pair of ale barrels and I'm a happy priest. Poor Hild. Thin as a ray of sunlight, she is, but I pity a Dane who crosses her path today. "

― Bernard Cornwell , The Pale Horseman (The Saxon Stories, #2)

10 " There comes a moment in life when we see ourselves as others see us. I suppose that is part of growing up, and it is not always comfortable. Eanflæd, "

― Bernard Cornwell , The Pale Horseman (The Saxon Stories, #2)

11 " And that, too, was the truth, that a man cannot step back from a fight and stay a man. We make much in this life if we are able. We make children and wealth and amass land and build halls and assemble armies and give great feasts, but only one thing survives us. Reputation. I could not walk away. "

― Bernard Cornwell , The Pale Horseman (The Saxon Stories, #2)

12 " I have a path to follow," I said, "and it goes north. North back to Bebbanburg. "

― Bernard Cornwell , The Pale Horseman (The Saxon Stories, #2)

13 " We had to fight, because to decline battle was a defeat. "

― Bernard Cornwell , The Pale Horseman (The Saxon Stories, #2)

14 " The world began in chaos and it will end in chaos. The gods brought the world into existence, and they will end it when they fight among themselves, but in between the chaos of the world's birth and the chaos of the world's death is order, and order is made by oaths, and oaths bind us like the buckles of a harness. "

― Bernard Cornwell , The Pale Horseman (The Saxon Stories, #2)

15 " There is such joy in chaos. Stow all the world’s evils behind a door and tell men that they must never, ever, open the door, and it will be opened because there is pure joy in destruction. "

― Bernard Cornwell , The Pale Horseman (The Saxon Stories, #2)

16 " There is a greater war, Uhtred. Not the fight between Saxon and Dane, but between God and the devil, between good and evil! We are part of it! "

― Bernard Cornwell , The Pale Horseman (The Saxon Stories, #2)

17 " He was a startlingly handsome young man, and that, too, distracted him for girls were attracted to him like priests to gold. "

― Bernard Cornwell , The Pale Horseman (The Saxon Stories, #2)

18 " A trial relied heavily on oaths, but both sides would bring as many liars as they could muster, and judgment usually went to the better liars or, if both sides were equally convincing, to the side who had the sympathy of the onlookers. "

― Bernard Cornwell , The Pale Horseman (The Saxon Stories, #2)

19 " The fear came then. The shield wall is a terrible place. It is where a warrior makes his reputation, and reputation is dear to us. Reputation is honour, but to gain that honour a man must stand in the shield wall where death runs rampant. I had been in the shield wall at Cynuit and I knew the smell of death, the stink of it, the uncertainty of survival, the horror of the axes and swords and spears, and I feared it. And it was coming. "

― Bernard Cornwell , The Pale Horseman (The Saxon Stories, #2)

20 " The world began in chaos and it will end in chaos. The gods brought the world into existence, and they will end it when they fight among themselves, but in between the chaos of the world’s birth and the chaos of the world’s death is order, and order is made by oaths, and oaths bind us like the buckles of a harness. "

― Bernard Cornwell , The Pale Horseman (The Saxon Stories, #2)