"To paraphrase Thoreau, it was not sherry I drank nor I who drank sherry; it was the wine of the Hesperides and I was served it by the wind from the west."

"She knew that life was but a long struggle against disorder, and that disorder was the inevitable winner."

"(The book that…kept me up way too late:) Tailchaser’s Song by Tad Williams, which starts like a children’s story and then becomes something Very Dark."

"“In my experience,” he said with more than a touch of bitterness, “the gods do not seem to care much what their servants deserve—or at least the rewards they give are too subtle for my understanding.”"

"There was nothing he could do unless he accepted what was real."

"Binabik had taught him to do only what he could at any given time. “You cannot catch three fish with two hands,” the little man often said."

"“You have something that might be more use to me than either gold or power—something that in fact brings both in its train.” “And what is that?” The count leaned forward. “Knowledge.”"

"In times of badness, gold is being worth more than beauty."

"To fight a war, you must believe it can accomplish something. We fight this one to save John’s kingdom, or perhaps even to save all of mankind...but isn’t that what we always think? That all wars are useless—except the one we’re fighting now?"

"Strangely, although the world is already full of fearful things, mortals seems always to hunt for new worries."

"Empires were like seawalls, he thought sadly, even those which embodied the best of hopes. The tide of chaos beat at them, and as soon as no one was shoring up the stones any more..."

"Everyone at the Hayholt had seemed obsessed with the empty ritual of power, something Miriamele had lived with for so long that it held no interest for her. It was like watching a confusing game played by bad-tempered children."

"Miriamele was dismayed by her own willful ignorance. How could she, with all her native good fortune, be so consumed with the few inconveniences that God or fate had put in her way? It was shameful. She tried to tell Duke Isgrimnur something of her thoughts, but he would not let her slide too far into self-loathing. “Each one of us has our own sorrows, Princess,” he said. “It’s no shame to take them to heart. The only sin is to forget that other folk have theirs, too—or to let pity for yourself slow your hand when someone needs help.”"

"Perhaps it is fortunate that most heroes who die for their people cannot come back to see what the people do with that hard-bought life and freedom."

"Are these things you all say magical charms to chase me away? If so, they do not seem to be working."

"“Why can nothing be simple?” Geloë shifted on her stool. The wise woman’s voice was surprisingly sympathetic. “Because nothing is simple, Prince Josua.”"

"She had been dressed in her sky-blue gown and had been suddenly almost terrible in her completeness—so different from the ragged serving girl who had slept on his shoulder. And yet, the very same girl had been inside that blue dress."

"You can never tell when princes will get squinty on you. You can never tell when they might suddenly feel their blood and go all royal."

"It was easy to hate if he did not think, Simon discovered."

"She realized now that she knew little about people outside the courts of Nabban and Erkynland, although she had always thought herself a shrewd judge of humanity. However, it was a larger and much more complicated world on the other side of the castle walls than she had ever suspected."

"Tiamak closed his eyes to make a short prayer of thanks, hoping that the gods, like children, could be confirmed in good behavior by praise."

"Only the mercenaries were here by choice. To Simon, the minds of men who would come to this of their own will were suddenly as incomprehensible as the thoughts of spiders or lizards—less so, even, for the small creatures of the earth almost always fled from danger. These were madmen, Simon realized, and that was the direst problem of the world: that madmen should be strong and unafraid, so that they could force their will on the weak and peace-loving. If God allowed such madness to be, Simon could not help thinking, then He was an old God who had lost His grip."

"It was impossible to see warfare as anything other than what Morgenes had once termed it: a kind of hell on earth that impatient mankind had arranged so it would not have to wait for the afterlife."

"The last thing a drunkard loses, you see, is his cunning: it outlasts his soul by a long season."

"I gave up the love of learning for the love of oblivion—the two cannot live together."

"If the strong can bully the weak without shame, then how are we different from the beasts of forest and field?"

"She had little doubt that whatever happened to her on this drifting ship was of scant interest to a God who could allow her to reach this sorry state in the first place."

"Sometimes doing the gods’ bidding required a hardened heart."

"She didn’t know which she liked less, having people tell lies about her or having people know the truth."

"The manchildren, the mortals, have many ideas of what happens after they die, and wrangle about who is right and who is wrong. These disagreements often come to bloodshed, as if they wished to dispatch messengers who could discover the answer to their dispute. Such messengers, as far as I know of mortal philosophy, never return to give their brethren the taste of truth they yearn for."

"There are no promises in life, Sludig, but it seems to me smarter to take fewer chances."

"“As with all dwellings,” she said, “of mortals and immortals both, it is the living that makes a house—not the doors, not the walls.”"

"“Do you get tired, singing?” she asked. Gan Itai laughed quietly. “Does a mother grow tired raising her children? Of course, but it is what I do.”"

"There are three kinds of people—the living, the dead, and those at sea."

"He wanted a home desperately. He was close to the point where he would take a mattress in Hell if the Devil would lend him a pillow."

"Part of manhood, I am thinking, is to ponder one’s words before opening one’s mouth."

"Thank you for your news, Princess. It is none of it happy, but only a fool desires cheerful ignorance and I try not to be a fool. That is my heaviest burden."

"“There is nothing like the ocean to remind you of what is important,” she said quietly, and smiled. Cadrach’s returned smile was weak. “Ah, by the Good Lord, that’s true,” he groaned. “I am reminded that life is sweet, that the sea is treacherous, and that I am a fool.” Miriamele nodded solemnly, staring up at the bellying sails. “Those are good things to remember,” she said."

"No charm is proof against a dagger in the back."

"Light, with its handmaiden color, was everywhere."

"The spider hung motionless, like a dull brown gem in an intricate necklace. The web was complete, now, the last strands laid delicately in place; it stretched from one side of the ceiling corner to the other, quivering gently in the rising air as though strummed by invisible hands. For a moment Isgrimnur lost the thread of talk, important talk though it was. His eyes had drifted from the worried faces huddled near the fireplace in the great hall, roving up to the darkened corner, and to the tiny builder at rest. There’s sense, he told himself. You build something and then you stay there. That’s the way it’s meant to be. Not this running here, running there, never see your blood-family or your home roofs for a year at a time."

"“Thank you, Duke,” the troll said seriously. “May your god be blessing us indeed. We go into unknown places.” “As do all mortals,” Josua added. “Sooner or later.”"

"If you have not noticed, we are preparing for war. I’m sorry if that inconveniences you."

"Perhaps he was a bumpkin; at least he was an honest bumpkin."

"“Sharp it away, lad, sharp it away,” the burly guardsman said, making the blade skitter across the whetstone, “lest otherways ye’ll be a girl afore ye’re a man.”"

"“Is this being in love?” he suddenly wondered? It was nothing like the ballads he had heard sung—this was more irritating than uplifting."

"Ambitious men never believe others aren’t the same."

"As he silently approached the last float, a latticework ball of reeds, he offered an unspoken prayer to He Who Always Steps on Sand that even now the little bottom-walkers were pushing and shoving their way into the cage below. Because of his unusual education, which included a year living on Perdruin—unheard of for a Wrannaman—Tiamak did not really believe in He Who Always Steps on Sand anymore, but he still held a fondness for him, such as might be felt for a senile grandfather who often tumbled down from the house, but once brought nuts and carved toys. Besides, it never hurt to pray, even if one did not believe in the object of prayer. It helped to compose the mind, and, at the very least, it impressed others."

"Not being stupid is important."

"“Neither War nor Violent Death,” Morgenes had written, “have anything uplifting about them, yet they are the candle to which Humanity flies again and again, as complacently as the lowly moth. He who has been upon a battlefield, and who is not blinded by popular conceptions, will confirm that on this ground Mankind seems to have created a Hell on Earth out of sheer impatience, rather than waiting for that original to which—if the priests are correct—most of us will eventually be ushered."