"There are many forms of cowardice, Chareos. One man can face a score of enemies with a sword, but not a sickness which paralyses him. Another can face death with a smile, yet fear the years of hardship and toil which are living. Are you a coward?"

"Blood always aids blood, my friend."

"Whores' lives don't make pretty tales."

"Hold on to your dreams, Kiall. They are more important than you realise."

"Never let anger, or outrage, or fear affect you. That is easy advice to give, but hard to follow. Men will bait you, they will laugh at you, they will jeer. But it is just noise, Kiall. They will hurt the people you love. They will do anything to make you angry or emotional. But the only way you can make them suffer is to win. And to do that you must remain cool."

"'A man should not risk his life for beauty alone, Kiall, for that fades. You might as well risk it for a rose. Think on it.'"

"Do not speak badly of yourself, for the warrior that is inside you hears your words and is lessened by them. You are strong and you are brave. There is a nobility of spirit within you. Let it grow — you will do well enough."

"A warrior has only one true friend: himself. So he feeds his body well; he trains it; works on it. Where he lacks skill, he practises. Where he lacks knowledge, he studies. But above all he must believe. He must believe in the strength of will, of purpose, of heart and soul."

"'Love is for fools. It is a surging of blood in the loins ... there is no mystery, and no magic. Find someone else, my boy.'"

"'Do not expect help.' 'One should always hope.' 'Then hope for a handsome savage with kindly ways.'"

"'I have no wish to argue, Father. Yet it must be said that the monks exist here in peace and security only because of the swords of the defenders. I do not belittle your views — I wish all men shared them. But they do not. ... if all men and women lived as you and I, there would be no children, and no humanity. What then would be the Will of the Source?'"

"'Why must I have the Piglet?' 'Because you are the best.' 'I do not understand.' 'Teach him.' 'And who teaches me?' ' As an officer, my lord, you will have many men under your command and not all will be gifted. You must learn to use each man to his best advantage ...'"

"[...] In real war an officer may have only one chance at succeeding. Consider each problem."

"Gentlemen, you are in sorry condition. But war will render you yet more sorry. The soldier will fight in mud and hail, snow and ice, drought and flood. It is rare that a warrior gets to fight in comfort."

"'... No, I should have died at Bel-Azzar. Nothing has gone right since then.' 'Death comes soon enough to all men. Don't wish for it.'"

"I was on top of the mountain. But there was nothing there. Just clouds. And I found that you can't live on that mountain. But when it throws you off — oh, how you long for it! I would kill to climb it again. I would sell my soul. It is so stupid. [...] I took the standard. And now I can't even become a farmer again. The mountain won't let me."

"'By my lights, my son, you are a young man. [...] there should be love in your life. Am I at fault in my thinking?' 'Not at fault, Senior Brother. I loved once, and in truth I could love again. But the pain of loss was too much for me. I would rather live alone than suffer for it.' 'Then you are here to hide, Charreos, and it is not a good reason. The gift of life is too great to waste in such a fashion...'"

"Women were strange creatures. They fell in love with a man and then sought to change him. Mostly they succeed - to spend the rest of their lives wondering how they could have married such boring conformists."

"Come back and stand with us, lad. We will all go down together—that's what makes us who we are."

"I think maybe it is better to believe than not to believe. But I couldn't tell you why."

"What do you mean, why? Is it not obvious? What is life but a betrayal? We start out young, full of hope. The sun is good; the world awaits us. But every passing year shows how small you are, how insignificant against the power of the seasons. Then you age. Your strength fails, and the world laughs at you through the jeers of younger men. And you die. Alone. Unfulfilled. But sometimes ... sometimes there will come a man who is not insignificant. He can change the world, rob the seasons of their power. He is the sun."

"Your face may be gone, but you know who you are."

"Life is sad enough, Magir. Laughter is a thing to be treasured."

"How do you do it? How do you stay so strong?" "I fake it."

""... But men don't come in just two groups, one of gold and the other of lead. They are a mix of both." "And what about women?" "Pure gold, my girl," Rayvan answered with a chuckle."

"Men! What do they know? They never grow up."

"...love is in the eyes, and one woman knows when another woman is in love."

"It is a rare man who notices a handsome woman."

"I don't think I would be too comfortable with many of his compliments ... He's a butcher!" "More than that, my friend ... he is a warmaster. And that makes him a master butcher."

"We irritated him, he told me. Why did he get himself killed for us?" "Because he was a hero. And that is what heroes do. You understand?"

"All things are possible, ... Except the passing of regret."

"A man makes mistakes, but he lives by them. Foolish it may be on occasion. But in the main it is the only way to live. We are what we say only so long as our words are iron."

"We don't seem to be overflowing with luck." "You make your own. I put no faith in gods, Lake. Never have. If they exist, they care very little—if at all—about ordinary mortals. I put my faith in me, and do you know why? Because I have never lost!"

"I had a teacher ... He said there were three kinds of people in life: winners, losers and fighters. Winners made him sick with their arrogance, losers made him sick with their whining, and fighters made him sick with their stupidity." "In which category did he put himself?" "He said he had tried all three and nothing suited him." "Well, at least he tried. That's all a man can do, Lake. And we shall try."

"One hundred only, Lord Earl. But judge us not by our number. Rather, watch the numbers of dead we leave behind."

"Foolish: It's all foolish. Life is a farce— a stupid, sickening farce played out by fools."

"You are getting too old for this." "A man is as old as he feels, woman!" "And how old do you feel?" "About ninety."

"I underestimated you, woman." ... "The cry of men down the ages."

"Most of the heroes we remember—we remember only because they won. To win you must be ruthless. Single-minded ... which was why he had no friends—just admirers."

"I remember a tutor who told me that all the world's hunters have eyes that faced front: lions, hawks, wolves, men ... He said man was no different from the tiger. We are nature's killers, and we have great appetites for it ... Listen, Rayvan, the beast is in all of us. We do our best in life, but often we are mean, or petty, or needlessly cruel. We don't mean to be, but that's the way we are."

""It seems to me that a man has only as much power as we allow him. Can Ceska move mountains? Can he put out the stars? Can he tell rain to fall? He is only a man, and if everyone disobeyed him, he would fall. But they don’t, do they? It is said that he has an army of forty thousand men. Men. Drenai men! Ready to march on other Drenai men. At least in the Nadir Wars we were sure of our enemy. Now there is no enemy. Only failed friends.”"

"But from now on act the part. You will be amazed at the number of people you fool. Don't share your doubts! Life is a game, Scaler. Play it like that."

"And now I am going to tell you a great truth, and if you are wise, you will take it to your heart. All men are stupid. They are full of fear and insecurity—it makes them weak. Always the other man seems stronger, more confident, more capable. It is a lie of the worst kind, for we lie to ourselves ... How do you know? You do not! You listened to the voice of your inadequacy, and because you believed, you are in my power. If I draw my sword, you are dead!"

"Look around you: see the people as they touch and show their love. But don't watch coldly, like an observer. Don't hover outside life—take part in it. There are people waiting to love you. It is not something you should turn down lightly."

"... a man can overcome his background, even as he can overcome a skilled opponent."

"What is life if a man cannot count on his friends when he has gone mad?"

"I never worshipped anything but my sword and my wits; now I suffer for it. But I can take it, for am I not a man? ... It is not hard to be a legend, Tenaka. It is what follows when you have to live like one."

"All things in the world are created for man, yet all have two purposes. The waters run that we might drink of them, but they are also symbols of the futility of man. They reflect our lives in rushing beauty, birthed in the purity of the mountains. As babes they babble and run, gushing and growing as they mature into strong young rivers. Then they widen and slow until at least they meander, like old men, to join with the sea."

"Evil lives in a pit. If you want to fight it, you must climb down into the slime to do so. White cloaks show the dirt more than black, and silver tarnishes."

"I am not going to kill a man because he won't let us rob him." "Then go back to your mother and send for a man who wants to win."