Fantasy Authors

"“It is a common belief that all paleskins are superhumanly lusty and incorrigibly lecherous.” “Now it is you who flatter us,” said Halran."

"While a hundred wives and concubines may satisfy the vanity of a king, you would search the wide world over ere you found a king who could satisfy a hundred wives and concubines."

"Three things should not be counted upon: the level of a river, the tameness of a lion, and the promise of a king."

"The only sure defense against reproach, sir, is obscurity."

"Although laid out in more orderly fashion than any Greek city, Babylon had no true civic life and so was not, in the strict Greek sense of the word, a city at all. Here were hundreds of thousands of human beings, whose only concern with the government of their city was to avoid the police and cheat the tax gatherers. It reminded Myron of the swarming life sometimes found under a flat stone."

"Bessas scowled. “I trust, sir banker, that you seek not to take advantage of our simplicity to squeeze unwonted wealth from us. You money-grubbers would pick a farthing from a dunghill with your teeth.”"

"“Why told you not the entire tale?” “It is foolish to entangle oneself, any more deeply than can be helped, in the struggles of the great. The man who is down today may be up tomorrow, and rancor outlasts gratitude as stone outlasts wood.”"

"In the early years of his reign, everyone praised you-know-who to the skies. And indeed he did well at the outset. But I suppose the responsibilities and the temptations of kingship, acting together, in time break down the strongest character."

"My master Herakleitos used to say: Most men might as well be blind and deaf, for all that they comprehend what lies about them. If you would gain wisdom, he said, get about, see things for yourself, and subject the impressions thus gained to the divine power of reason."

"A king’s wrath is as lasting as the hills, but his favor is as dew upon the grass."

"If the gods made man, which I doubt, they should have made him so he sometimes enjoyed what he has instead of forever yearning for what he has not."

"There’s more magic in a well-aimed three-talent ball than in all the wizards of Egypt."

"Folly is mortals’ self-selected misfortune."

"I soon found, however, that most of these parties bored me to tears. These magnates are not really such villains as the poor are wont to think them; their worst fault is dullness. They talk about their games and sports, their children and relatives, their purchases and sales, their aches and pains, and they talk about them over and over."

"“You cannot expect men to be rational about national enmities,” said Dikaiarchos. “As everyone knows, people like to have friends, but they also like to have enemies. A hereditary foe is a useful thing to have. It gives you somebody to feel superior to; it provides a handy target for all the furies and hatreds which you have boiling around inside you but which you dare not direct at those nearer you.”"

"“I must be stupid,” I said. “I don’t doubt that his talk is full of profound hidden truths, but I find it terribly hard to understand.” Dikaiarchos laughed. “I’ll tell you a secret, Chares. I cannot understand it, either.” “You, sir?” “Yes. It may be that we are both stupid, or it may be that there is nothing to understand. It is a good practical rule that, if a man cannot explain himself in terms that any reasonably intelligent listener can comprehend, he doesn’t know what he is talking about himself.”"

"All we can say for sure is that monotheism proved as deadly a foe to learning as war and barbarism. Tantum religio potuit suadere malorum."

"Berosos sighed. “Ah me! Once we, too, were a race of warriors and conquerors.” “Be thankful you are no longer,” said Dikaiarchos. “These kings reap a bit of glory, but what do they accomplish besides burning cities, killing and enslaving multitudes, and destroying the accumulated wealth and wisdom of the ages to aggrandize their own mediocre selves? He who ascertains a new law of nature or invents a new device is greater than all your conquerors, and in the long run has more influence.”"

"Folly is mortals’ self-chosen misfortune."

"“Now, cut your arm a little and swear by all your gods that you will adhere faithfully to me and be my friend, helper, and defender, sharing in need and standing fast in danger, until our quest be done or until death part us!” “If you like; though it’s the man who makes us believe the oath, not the oath the man.”"

"But the king spoke: “This Hellenic passion to see all and pry into all is a curious new form of insanity. I am told that there are even people among you called wisdom-lovers, who devote their entire lives to this pursuit. How do you pronounce it? Fir—firos—” “Philosophers, sire. Your slave studied under one of the great ones, Herakleitos of Ephesos. I hope some day to be considered a wisdom-lover myself. And now may—” “Curious,” persisted Xerxes, running his fingers through his beard. “I should not care to rule an entire nation of these wisdom-lovers. They would demand a reason for every command or ever they obeyed it, and nought would get done.”"

"Some give their dead to earth, and some to fire, And some to beasts that roam the deserts dire; But since the dead do not return to rail, For aught I care, my guts may string a lyre!"

"“How goes the City of the Persians?” “The same as ever: plots and intrigues in the palace; Persian arrogance in the streets; peasant ignorance in the countryside.”"

"Whereas you believe in no gods but Iao, he carries this skepticism to its logical conclusion and believes in no gods at all. The difference seems slight to me."

"The trouble with Rhodes is, it’s got too many orators and not enough engineers."

"The Knossians did not like to give up piracy themselves; in fact, many of their young men went elsewhere to enlist in piratical crews. However, they loved an excuse to meddle in the other cities’ affairs; for, next to robbery on the high seas, cutting their neighbors’ throats is the greatest joy of the Cretans."

"The moving shadow saith: “Swift Time doth run, And soon he’ll hale thee where there is no sun.” Well then, am I Time’s slave? I’ll mock the fiend, And gaily revel till my course be done!"

"Mighty is the empire of habit."

"As they say, no tears are shed when an enemy dies."

"Now I said: “It’s unjust, Father. A man’s fate should be determined impersonally, on the basis of his virtues and abilities alone, without regard to all these petty personal likes and dislikes.” My father replied: “Perhaps it should be but it isn’t. If they like you, they’ll excuse your faults; if they dislike you, they’ll overlook your virtues.” “Then they’re a lot of stupid fools!” “Are you only just now learning that? But if they are, you won’t change them, not in one lifetime."

"Verily, the great man finds gold and rubies more easily come by than true friendship."

"“When I met him in Antigoneia, he seemed a man of truly kingly quality.” Nikolaos, the full citizen, said: “If by kingly quality you mean cold-blooded treachery and murder, then Antigonos is your man.”"

"“So you studied under Lysippos? Didn’t you find him a somewhat thorny character?” “At times, though I should prefer a difficult teacher of the first rank to an amiable mediocrity.”"

"As all young men must, I was learning the painful lesson that there is no substitute for experience."

"There was no harder-boiled materialist than I; I rejected Marxism as too mystical and not materialistic enough."

"The world is full of people who, if they got to Heaven, would complain about the tune of the harps and the dampness of the clouds."

"I passed that off as women’s intuition, which is wrong more often than not. People remember the times it works and forget those it fails."

"But what argument could I offer? It was nothing but an irrational feeling—the kind of “premonition” we get from time to time but remember only on the rare occasions when it is fulfilled by the event. I had no evidence."

"It was hardly fair to his opponents, but I have never had much sympathy for the victims of gambling sharks. If they were not trying to get something for nothing, they would not expose themselves to being taken."

"We rented an apartment in a rambly wooden-frame building, a block from the beach. This was before the waterfront sprouted a host of huge condominiums, like a plague of concrete mushrooms."

"Yngvi is a louse!"

"Certainly their intentions are peaceful, like those of the lion for the lamb. The lion wishes only to be allowed to devour the lamb in peace."

"Before sending my opinions forth across the chasm of surmise, I prefer to wait until they’re provided with a more solid bridge of fact."

"I find that verse provides one of the cheapest and most harmless of life’s major pleasures."

"In all these fights and flights I have never known that mad joy of battle of which the epics speak. Before the combat I am frightened, during it I am confused, and after it I am weary and disgusted."

"His voice had a hypnotic quality, which lulled one into a kind of passive daze. One ended with the impression that one had had a wonderful revelation but without remembering much of what the Master had actually said. Some of his assertions seem to contradict what others had told me of his doctrines; but I understood that he brought out a new doctrine every month or two, keeping his suckers too confused to think."

"“You make it sound wonderful, sir. Could I but be sure…” “Wait to be sure of anything and you will find yourself looking out through the sides of a funerary urn, your quest unaccomplished.”"

"For thousands of years, priests and philosophers have told us to love mankind without giving any sound reason for loving the creatures. The mass of them are a lot of cruel, treacherous, hairless apes. They hate us intellectuals, longhairs, highbrows, eggheads, or double-domes, despite—or perhaps because—without us they would still be running naked in the wilderness and turning over flat stones for their meals. Love them? Hah!"

"I fear me that the eighteenth century, which I have idealized all these years, never really existed. The real one was far dirtier, more narrow-minded, brutal, orthodox, and superstitious than I could have ever conceived without seeing it."

"I once read that the Devil studied Basque for seven years and only learned two words."