Novelists From England

"For the lion to to prosper the deer must die. All the world is combat."

"We sit here safe, within a circle of swords held by other men."

"It's a funny thing about weaknesses....Most people will tell you they know their weaknesses. When asked, they'll tell you, 'Well for one thing, I'm overgenerous.' ... that's what innkeepers are for."

"War is for men, for honor and glory."

"I don't understand how any man would wish to pursue such a away of life.Causing pain, being hurt, risking death — and for what? so that a crowd of fat-bellied merchants can see blood flow."

"Most men mock what they can never aspire to."

"You kol-isha think you know everything. You think the world was created for your pleasure, but you do not understand the land.You sit there and you breathe and you feel the cold earth beneath you,and you notice nothing. And why? Because you live your lives in cities of stone, building walls to keep at bay the spirit of the land. You see nothing. You hear nothing. You feel nothing."

"I thought you were the best," she chided. "Fathers always seem that way," he said dryly. "But no. With bow or knife I am superb. But with the sword? only excellent." "And so modest. Is there anything at which you do not excel?"

"‘We don’t have time for theological debates, or philosophical discussion on the nature of evil,’ he said. ‘Men have been killing each other for centuries without need to blame skulls or relics.'"

"Fear is like a fire in your belly. Controlled, it warms you and keeps you alive. Uncontrolled, it burns and destroys you."

"Constantly at war, the tribesmen fought one another with pitiless ferocity, and only the very strong survived to manhood."

"One day you'll find a love, and then we can talk on equal terms. I do not mean that to sound patronizing. You are bright and intelligent. You have courage and wit. But sometimes, it is like trying to describe colors to a blind man. Love, as I hope you will find, has great power. Even death cannot destroy it. And I still love her."

"You think evil corrupts men by saying come with me and I will turn you into a merciless killer, and damn your soul for eternity? Who would agree to such a bargain? Evil corrupts, Bael, by promising us what we want, and telling us that it is good. Evil talks of the end justifying the means. It speaks of distant goals — aye, and of golden ages. It seduces, Bael. It does not threaten. Not at first."

"‘Is the war coming to Eldacre, my lord?’ asked Ramus, as he settled into the chair. 'I fear it is. A more stupid and wasteful business there never was. Fields will not be planted, food will run low, tax revenues will dry up — save from the makers of swords and munitions.'"

"“You are the leader, Gaise. Men always tend to agree with the leader. It is the nature of things.” “This is not a game, Father.” “Of course it is: the oldest game in the world. You have proved yourself in battle, leading men in cavalry charges. This game is different. This game is unlikely to be won by a single heroic charge. This will be like the wolf pack hunting the stag. This will be about planning, movement, wearing down the enemy, bringing him to bay at exactly the point where he is at his weakest. This will be about subtlety and deception. Winter Kay is an excellent strategist. He thinks he is the wolf. He is right. We are the stag. To win you must make him the stag.”"

"'Makes no sense to me,' said Huntsekker. 'You don't know who is at your door, but you know the thoughts of a man twenty miles away.' ‘Life is a mystery,’ said Powdermill, with a gold-toothed grin. 'It is that, right enough,' agreed Huntsekker."

"I don't pray, Master Ring. I act."

"Our ancestors have fought wars since time. And won them. More than that, we have built societies and held them together. We are the rulers, Gaise. We are the mighty. Remember that tomorrow."

"The Pinance laughed. “I hate the man, but I have never before seen him as a fool or a coward.” “He is not a military man, my lord. He is a schemer, skilled in the art of politics and treachery.” “It seems to me that those two beasts are one and the same,” said the Pinance."

"The onset of fear makes the simplest actions complex and difficult."

"Steal a loaf of bread and they hang you, steal a land and they'll make you king."

"'He didn't want to come, Dweller. He didn't want to get involved. It should have been me who died.' 'Of course he wanted to come. Why else was he here? You didn't force him, Draig. He came because you were his brother and he loved you. He could have left at any time once the pursuit began. He made his own choices. Just as you did. Just as I knew you would.'"

"No need for confusion, my dear Mulgrave [...] Beautiful wine and sour vinegar come from exactly the same source. Curiously if one leaves a bottle of wine open for long enough it will become vinegar. Happily in this house wine never survives long enough to go bad."

"I think that for the coward every day carries a kind of death."

"It never ceases to surprise me how few friends the doomed have. One moment they are surrounded by smiling faces, the next they are utterly friendless."

"I do not mock men who have faith. It gives them comfort, and oft times leads them to help others. Yet I have also seen great evils done in the name of the Source. And never have I witnessed a miracle. Until I do I shall remain sceptical."

"Well, who decides who has won or lost? It's not like Avondale any more. That was easy. We charged. They ran. We captured their cannon. Now, that was a victory. Now, we just charge each other, kill each other, and argue about who won."

"...[A]ll duels followed a pattern. They began with heat and fury, then settled into a contest of wills. With two equally matched opponents there would come a time when the worm of doubt entered the equation. The truly skilled recognized such moments, and fed them. It was at this time that the endgame would begin."

"The nature of a coward is to avoid death. If such a man courts peril there can be only two reasons. Either he is not a coward at all — or there is no danger."

"As men we are all cursed by the violence in our natures. Men like the Moidart — aye, and Winterbourne — revel in that nature. We do not. We struggle to overcome it."

"When healers yearn to kill then hope begins to die ... Evil cannot be overcome by evil."

"Kings are chosen by the Source, so it is said ... Therefore those who fight for the king can be said to be godly. Is that not cause enough?"

"You have suffered many wounds." [...] "It shows how many skilled swordsmen there are."

"“Greed got me into this,” Powdermill said, mournfully. “I swear to the Source that if I get out of this alive, I’ll never give in to greed again.” Huntsekker laughed. “We are what we are, little man. We won’t change. Now, set to and see something we can take to the Moidart.”"

"Well lad, this is what you have chosen. Are you pleased with yourself?" “I am alive," said Bane. “And eight men are dead," said Landis. “Eight souls cast out of the world. More mothers to grieve, more children to know sorrow. Is this a life you want for yourself?” “No it is not," Bane told him. “But we do what we must.” “Not true! We do what we choose. And we face the consequences."

"'The creature no human could overcome? It was a lesson, Bane. A good man tried to teach it to me many years ago. You cannot overcome hatred with more hatred. Sometimes you have to surrender in order to win. There are only three possibilities when faced with an enemy: run from him, fight him, or make him your friend. The creature in the circle was created to respond. Attack it - and it will come back at you with twice your strength. I ignored it. And it, true to its nature, ignored me.'"

"Aye, it is hard when those we love leave the world. No denying it."

"The freedom to fail is vital if you're going to succeed. Most successful people fail from time to time, and it is a measure of their strength that failure merely propels them into some new attempt at success."

"In America, success has always been easy to measure. It is the distance between one's origins and one's final achievement that matters."

"The American system demands success, and in order to succeed we must first believe that we can. Yet our society, with its intolerance of failure and poverty, traps millions of people in positions where any kind of success seems impossible to contemplate, and in which failure itself is a kind of passive rebellion against their own misery and the social system which created it in the first place. To succeed it is necessary to accept the world as it is and rise above it."

"The first step to success is to accept the consequences of knowing that you're right, when that is the case. It is not so much a matter of being assertive, as of giving up the comfortable cocoon of apologies and guilt in which most of us have chosen to live."

"If you don't believe in yourself, then who will believe in you?"

"• It's O.K. to be ambitious. • It's O.K. to look out for Number One. … • It's O.K. to be a winner. • And it's always O.K. to be rich. A word of caution: people will tell you that success can't buy you happiness. This is true enough, but success is the next best thing to happiness, and if you can't be happy as a success, it's very unlikely that you would find a deeper, truer happiness in failure."

"Success on any major scale requires you to accept responsibility. You have to assume all the problems, difficulties and doubts of other people, and to reflect back your capacity for decision-making and action, and for enduring without visible signs of worry or panic. In the final analysis, the one quality that all successful people have (and which is the most difficult one of all to learn or fake) is the ability to take on responsibility. It is easy to be responsible for things you control and are sure of; but to be successful you must make yourself responsible for the blunders of the people who work for you as well. Responsibility requires a highly developed ego and a good deal of courage, but it is ultimately the one test you cannot afford to fail. You must be willing to accept personal responsibility, for the success of your assignments, for the actions of the people who work for you and for the goals you have accepted or been given."

"Your chances of success are directly proportional to the degree of pleasure you derive from what you do. If you are in a job you hate, face the fact squarely and get out. You may earn a good living, you may have a safe career, but you will never be a success. Find out what you enjoy doing, and your chances of succeeding will be dramatically better. We play the game every day, sometimes without even recognizing that we're doing it. We compete with other people, or other teams, or other companies, not only because it is essential to business survival, but because we frankly enjoy competition. It's fun to be in the game, and it's even more fun to win."

"Never reveal all of yourself to other people; hold back something in reserve so that people are never quite sure if they really know you."

"Learn to use time, think of it as a friend, not an enemy. Don't waste it in going after things you don't want."

"The biggest fool in the world is he who merely does his work supremely well, without attending to appearance."

"Act impeccably! Perform every act as if it were the only thing in the world that mattered."

"Learn to accept your mistakes. Don't be a perfectionist about everything."