"One day I may make you a lord, smuggler. If only to irk Celtigar and Florent. You will not thank me, though. It will mean you must suffer through these councils, and feign interest in the braying of mules." "Why do you have them, if they serve no purpose?" "The mules love the sound of their own braying, why else?"

"If she saw two futures, well ... both cannot be true." King Stannis pointed a finger. "There you err, Onion Knight. Some lights cast more than one shadow."

"Every man who's tasted my cooking has told me what a good whore I am."

"There are no shadows in the dark. Shadows are the servants of light, the children of fire. The brightest flame casts the darkest shadows."

"My most trusted advisors are a eunuch and a sellsword, and my lady's a whore. What does that say about me?"

"When I was smuggling, I learned that some men believe everything, and some nothing."

"I believe in steel swords, gold coins and men's wits."

"Men fight more fiercely for a king who shares their peril than one who hides behind his mother's skirts."

"Whether they believe the story or not, they delight to tell it."

"A dog doesn't need courage to chase off rats ... What do you think a knight is for, girl? You think it's all taking favors from ladies and looking fine in gold plate? Knights are for killing."

"One skull looks much like another ..."

"I have become the most splendid beggar in the world, but a beggar all the same."

"He distrusts everyone, she reflected, and perhaps for good reason."

"The gods don't care about men, no more than kings care about peasants."

"The living should smile, for the dead cannot."

"Some men are born to be killed."

"Well, let her enjoy her plots. She was much sweeter when she thought she was outwitting him."

"Tomorrow's trials concerned her more than yesterday's triumphs."

"You'd best get a bird ready. Mormont will want to send back word." "I wish I could send them all. They hate being caged." "You would too, if you could fly."

"You think I'm wrong to keep the rangers close?" "It's not for me to say, my lord." "It is if you're asked."

"Why would the gods send a warning if we can't heed it and change what's to come?"

"... for a moment the forest seemed a deep green sea, storm-tossed and heaving, eternal and unknowable."

"Sorcery is the sauce fools spoon over failure to hide the flavor of their own incompetence."

"Bronn had a score of sellswords scattered throughout the crowd with orders to stop any trouble before it started. Perhaps Cersei had similarly disposed her Kettleblacks. Somehow Tyrion did not think it would help much. If the fire was too hot, you could hardly keep the pudding from scorching by tossing a handful of raisins in the pot."

"“Maester Luwin says there’s nothing in dreams that a man need fear.” “There is,” said Jojen. “What?” “The past. The future. The truth.”"

"Have you ever considered that too many answers are the same as no answer at all? ... When a king dies, fancies sprout like mushrooms in the dark."

"“Kings have no friends,” Stannis said bluntly, “only subjects and enemies.”"

"If you step in a nest of snakes, does it matter which one bites you first?"

"Look across the fields, brother? Do you see all those banners?" "Do you think a few bolts of cloth will make you king?"

"Gods do not forget ..."

"“Sleep is good,” he said. “And books are better.”"

"It is real, all of it, he thought, the wars, the intrigues, the great bloody game, and me in the center of it ... me, the dwarf, the monster, the one they scorned and laughed at, but now I hold it all, the city, the girl. This was what I was made for, and gods forgive me, but I love it."

""I am not without mercy", thundered he who was notoriously without mercy."

"As for those she served with, she did not even want to even know their names. That only made it hurt worse when they died."

"Arya watched them die and said nothing. What good did it do you to be brave? ... There were no brave people on that march, only scared and hungry ones."

"Every night Arya would say their names. "Ser Gregor," she'd whisper to her stone pillow. "Dunsen, Polliver, Chiswyck, Raff the Sweetling, The Tickler and The Hound. Ser Amory, Ser Ilyn, Ser Meryn, King Joffrey, Queen Cersei." Back in Winterfell, Arya had prayed with her mother in the setp and with her father in the godswood, but there were no gods on the road to Harrenhal, and the names were the only prayer she cared to remember."

"The middle wall, forty feet high, was grey granite alive with scenes of war: the clash of sword and shield and spear, arrows in flight, heroes at battle and babes being butchered, pyres of the dead. The innermost wall was fifty feet of black marble, with carvings that made Dany blush until she told herself that she was being a fool. She was no maid; if she could look on the grey wall’s scenes of slaughter, why should she avert her eyes from the sight of men and women giving pleasure to one another?"

"She thought she had known what it meant to be afraid, but she learned better in the storehouse beside the Gods Eye."

"What sort of knight beats helpless maids?" "The one who serves his king ..."

"He thought he could smell smoke, though perhaps it was just the scent of his nerves fraying."

"... [W]hen you've known me longer, you'll learn that I mean everything I say." "Even the lies?" "Especially the lies."

"I was a boy, and what boy does not wish to find secret powers hidden in himself?"

"One day she would allow herself to be less than strong. But it could not be today."

"When there are no battles to fight, men start to think of hearth and harvest."

"Pity filled Catelyn's heart. Is there any creature on earth as unfortunate as an ugly woman?"

"Dawn came cruel, a dagger of light."

"Knights and lordlings, they take each other captive and pay ransoms, but they don't care if the likes of you yield or not."

"That was the way of war. The smallfolk were slaughtered, while the highborn were held for ransom."

"King is only a word, but fealty, loyalty, service ... those I must have."