Sharpe's Company Quotes
"A man must sometimes make his own luck."
"The truth is, Mr Sharpe, that there was a mistake."
"Only the Rifle Regiments gave a badge to the survivors, a laurel-wreath that was sewn to the sleeve."
"I thought Christians were supposed to forgive their enemies."
"The baby’ll be all right, so she will. The lads will all look out for her."
"They know, but they don't see what they know, so they pretend they do not know."
"No child of hers would give up easily its hold on life."
"This was the fourth year of fighting the French in Spain, and still the country was occupied by the enemy."
"Perhaps only when the last Frenchman, still dreaming of ruling the world, was hammered and battered into the blood-soaked mud."
"You’ll marry her. You will, I can tell."
"It’s a war fought on three continents, on all the oceans."
"You don’t understand? By throwing so many poor bastards into the fight that the French simply can’t kill them all. It’s the only way and I don’t like it."
"Take a man who has failed at everything, give him a final chance, show him trust, lead him to one success, and there is a sudden confidence that will lead to the next success."
"Here’s to Ireland, sir, and death to Hakeswill."
"I’ll drink to that. How is the bastard?"
"Watch yours. I’m growing eyes in my bum with that bastard around."
"They even like him. And the fool did not realize it."
"You don’t really think we can fail, do you?"
"We fight them because they’re meddlesome bastards and someone has to stamp all over them."
"You know where you’re going. To the top, wherever that is."
"Night attacks are prone to confusion, sir."
"I think you’re going to die, Sergeant. Shall I tell you why?"
"The city waited in darkness. Silence in Badajoz."
"Perhaps it was because she had shown no fear, and Hakeswill liked to see fear."
"In the cathedral that day the prayers had been unceasing, muttered, sometimes hysterical; the words had accompanied the beads as the women of Badajoz feared for the dead who would come to their streets that night."
"It was a spring morning, full of hope as green as the new plants, a hope put there by a third, surprise breach."
"I don’t think I want you dead, Sharpe. The army would be, somehow, less interesting."
"Tonight he was a god, tonight he could do no wrong, because tonight he was leading a Forlorn Hope against the biggest citadel the British army had ever attacked."
"The guns could reach every inch of the ditch, firing in scientific patterns, killing, killing, killing."
"The noise of the living in the ditch was a growl and, suddenly, it rose to a sound of fury."
"Still they went forward, incoherently brave, trying to reach an enemy they could not see or touch."
"Sharpe wondered if the French were playing with them."
"Men sheltered behind parapets made from the dead."
"They died in dozens, but still they went towards the breach."
"A man did not go into a breach to fight for a company, not even a Captaincy."
"The dead choked the living, the breach had won."
"The Rifleman had said what Wellington had wanted him to say."
"He listened gloomily to the sounds of battle."
"They killed till their arms were tired, till they were soaked with blood."
"Sharpe leaped, downhill, into the city, and the sword was a live thing in his hand."
"Badajoz had fallen. The Fifth Division were in the city’s streets."
"Only rage and anger; humanity must go, feeling, all must go except rage."
"It was all done? Out of the horror, the pulverizing fire and iron that smothered the south-east corner of Badajoz, death had given Sharpe back what had once been his."
"He looked up at Harper. ‘Sergeant. We’re going to Badajoz.’"
"‘They are going to die, and I can’t ask you to come with me, because you don’t have to come, but I’m going, and you can stay here and I won’t blame you.’"