Top 20 Quotes From Lt. Richard Sharpe

Richard: Name?
Cooper: Cooper, sir.
Richard: Where you from, Cooper?
Cooper: Shoreditch, sir.
Richard: Previous employment?
Cooper: By way of a trader, sir. In... property and the like.
Richard: Would that be other people's property, Cooper?

Richard: [Teresa and the Spanish have Sharpe and the riflemen at gunpoint, interrupting the brawl between Sharpe and Harper] Who the devil are you?
Major: [enters] Allow me to introduce Commandante Teresa. The commander of the guerrillas who fight the French in these mountains.
Richard: And who are you?
Major: I am Major Blas Vivar. Count of Mataomoro, Major General in the most holy armies of his Majesty the King of Spain. And you?
Richard: Lieutenant Sharpe. 95th Rifles.
Major: Only a lieutenant? Perhaps they do not promote you because you fight with your men?
Richard: That man is a mutineer, sir. He'll be taken back to Lisbon and shot!

Richard: Gimme a pick-lock, Cooper.
Cooper: Pick-lock, sir? Catch me with a pick-lock!
Patrick: They did, Coop. But when you got out of Newgate prison, you got another set, and that's the one the officer wants.
Cooper: Do I get it back, sir?
Richard: Trust me.
Cooper: It's very hard to trust a man who wants to borrow your pick-lock, sir.

Patrick: We don't want to go south, sir.
Richard: And what the hell do I care what you and the lads want, eh? You think the British Army's a bloody dem...
[searches]
Richard: Dem...
Harris: Democracy, sir. Comes from the Greek word "demos" and means "rule by-"
Richard: Shut up, Harris!

Major: Surprised to see me, Richard? Well you've done a grand job, a grand job. But now, at dawn tomorrow, with the help of my agent Commandante Teresa, who I believe you've met, I want you to seize the chapel at Torre Castro and hold it against all comers until Major Vivar has raised the gonfalon of Santiago over the chapel roof.
Richard: Seize Torre Castro? With six men and a straggle of Spaniards? Can't be done! May I remind you of our main mission, sir? To find a missing gentleman?
Major: Not now, Richard. Our mission is Torre Castro. Spain is a sleeping tiger! If the people of Torre Castro rise up, even for an hour, the shock will shake the whole of Spain. Carry on, sir.
Richard: Rise up? Do you really believe men will fight and die for a rag on a pole?
Major: You do, Richard, you do.

Major: [tosses a coin to Sharpe] What's that, Sharpe?
Richard: A shilling, sir.
Major: The King's Shilling, Sharpe. Our last shilling. London's late, the Army's broke, and we owe the lads two months' wages... What do you do when you're out of cash, Sharpe?
Richard: Do without, sir.
Major: You borrow, Richard! From a bank!

Major: What do you do when you're short of cash, Sharpe?
Sharpe: Do without, sir.

Major: A toast. 'Death to the French!'
[Sees that Sharpe is not drinking]
Major: - Why do you not drink?
Richard: I never liked that toast, Major. I'm a soldier, not an assassin.

Richard: [glares at his riflemen] Now listen. I'm in charge here. Not them, not Harper; I'm in command. You follow me.

Rifleman Hagman: Daniel Hagman, poacher.
Richard: You a good shot, then, Hagman?
Rifleman Hagman: Aye, I can shoot, sir.
Richard: Go on, then. Show me.
[He pulls a beret out of Hagman's belt, and tosses it into the air. Hagman fires his rifle. Sharpe picks up the beret and shows him the hole in it]
Richard: You've defaced the King's uniform, Hagman. I could put you up on a charge for that.

Richard: [is helping Hagman through the marsh, and winces] Damn knee! Old leg wound, Hagman. Rain plays the devil with it!
Rifleman Hagman: Aye. Brown paper and paraffin oil is the only cure for a contrary leg!

Man: There are two Spains, Lieutenant. My brother's Spain is a monastery - Silence and superstition. My Spain is a court - Science and scholarship. If you were Spanish, which would you choose?
Richard: I'm neither monk nor prince. So I would choose a tavern.

Teresa: If you were French, I would take a knife and you would tell me all I wanted to know.
Richard: But we are allies.
Teresa: Allies? Do allies keep secrets from each other?
Richard: Lovers keep secrets from each other, yet they still make love.

Richard: So... the Chosen Men, eh? Well, I didn't choose you. But I know you, you and your kind, all my life. All I know is how to fight. So if there's any man among you expecting a quick ramble through this war, now's the time.
[No one speaks up]
Richard: You're sure, now? Right! Join the column, at the double!

Richard: [hands Perkins the flag of the regiment] Perkins, I want you to protect this pennant with your life!
Rifleman Perkins: Yes sir.

[Sharpe is asking his men about their pasts]
Sharpe: Well?
Harris: Harris. From Wheatley in Oxfordshire.
Sharpe: And previously?
Harris: A courtier to my lord Bacchus and an unremitting debtor.
Sharpe: You're a rake and a wastrel, Harris. Is there anything you *can* do?
Harris: I can read, sir.

[riding in the coach with Sharpe and Teresa, Mr. and Mrs. Parker check that they are asleep, then Mr. Parker lights up a cigar and passes it to his wife, who drags contentedly. Sharpe wakes up, and Mr. Parker hurriedly takes the cigar back]
Richard: I didn't know a Methodist smoked.
Mr. Parker: Oh, it's, uh, for my lungs.
[Sharpe drifts back asleep. Mr. Parker says something under his breath in Yiddish. Mrs. Parker replies in the same language, and Louisa smothers a giggle]

Cooper: Can I ask you a question, sir? Where'd you learn to fight so dirty, sir?
Richard: Same place as you, Cooper. Saturday night in the gutters.
Cooper: Long way from home, sir.
Richard: Never was much of a home, Cooper.
Cooper: No, sir. That it weren't.
Richard: Did you volunteer for this lot, Cooper?
Cooper: Uh no, not exactly sir. I was invited to join... by a magistrate.

Rifleman Tongue: Isiah Tongue, sir!
Richard: Yes, I know that. Where you from, Tongue?
Rifleman Tongue: [mumbling] No, sir...
Richard: Speak up, man!
Rifleman Tongue: Don't know, sir!
Richard: What about your family?
Rifleman Tongue: Don't know, sir!
Richard: Previous employment?
Rifleman Tongue: Army, sir. Just army.

Wellesley: Pity about James Rothschild. I presume he's left the country?
Major: On the contrary, sir...
Richard: He's here in this room, sir.
[to Hogan's surprise, Sharpe turns and plucks off "Mrs. Parker's" wig. James Rothschild laughs and pulls an envelope from under his skirt]
James: Your banker's draft, Sir Arthur.
[to Sharpe]
James: How did you know?
Richard: You smelled of Turkish tobacco, the kind you can't get in Spain. You wouldn't eat your roast pork at the monastery. And I remember you speaking Yiddish in the coach.
James: [laughs] Sir, you are an edel mensch - a gentleman.