Andre Norton

"It is always impossible—he was conscious again with that strange clarity of mind—for a man to face his own death honestly. A man always continues to believe to the last moment of his life that something will intervene to save him."

"Only darkness could not be held off by the will of men."

"And the opposite of dreams are facts!"

"They’re females right enough, and they can make the impossible happen. I’d say that classifies them as witches."

"Their tribal system is strictly matriarchal, which follows a pattern even Terra once knew: the fertile earth mother and her priestesses, who became the witches when the gods overruled the goddesses."

"You can’t play the role of thug all over the galaxy and not store up in the subconscious a fine line of private fears and remembered enemies."

"Treasure! That word, which had always been so exciting, meant something different now. Fafnir had taken the treasure and turned from man into monster because of his greed for it. Mimir, who had been Sigurd’s master and good friend—when the treasure had lain before him, he, too, became a monster, in another way. Then Sigurd had made his choice, to leave the evil, and so he had gone away a hero."

"There was a saying of the peasants—the rat cannot call the cat to account. But it was also true that if the moon moves but slowly, still it crosses the city."

"He was listening, too, for it is through the eyes and ears that one learns. A spiderweb of facts can tie up the lion of action; not to know is bad; not to strive to know is worse."

"Stout men, not stout walls, make a well-held city."

"Jade and men are both shaped by harsh tools; be not unaware of sudden changes of fortune."

"Does mud care which cloak it bespatters?"

"A foot of jade is of no value, an inch of time is to be prized."

"From a gabled roof the rolling melon has two choices of descent, though both lead to disaster."

"Each man follows the path of destiny, but no two paths are alike. It seems that mine now runs into a place of evil intent, wasted wisdom, and stupidity."

"Well, we don't know a lot, and most people don't want to learn more’n what's right before their eyes. You point out things that don’t fit into what they've always accepted, and they say it’s all your imagination and nothing like that is real."

"Mrs. Clapp was some distance away, Jeremiah’s trophy laid across one knee, stroking the cat’s head and telling him what a brave, smart boy he was. Jeremiah accepted this praise complacently, with a feline’s estimate of his own worth."

"And life in a continual state of apprehension was no life at all."