A Song of Ice and Fire

"Anger flashed in her brother’s lilac eyes. “Do you take me for a fool?” The magister bowed slightly. “I take you for a king. Kings lack the caution of common men.”"

"Generations of capering fools in motley have won me the right to dress badly and say any damn thing that comes into my head."

"Never forget what you are, for surely the world will not. Make it your strength. Then it can never be your weakness. Armor yourself in it, and it will never be used to hurt you."

"Give me honorable enemies rather than ambitious ones, and I'll sleep more easily by night."

"Death is so terribly final, while life is full of possibilities."

"I ask you, Ned, what good is it to wear a crown? The gods mock the prayers of kings and cowherds alike."

"My mind is my weapon. My brother has his sword, King Robert has his warhammer, and I have my mind...And a mind needs books as a sword needs a whetstone, if it is to keep its edge."

"Never draw your sword unless you mean to use it."

"He was always clever, even as a boy, but it is one thing to be clever and another to be wise."

"Jon could not find it in him to pray to any gods, old or new. If they were real, he thought, they were as cruel and implacable as winter."

"They hate me because I'm better than they are" "No. They hate you because you act like you're better than they are."

"Let them see that their words can cut you, and you'll never be free of the mockery. If they want to give you a name, take it, make it your own. Then they can't hurt you with it anymore."

"Know the men who follow you, and let them know you. Don't ask your men to die for a stranger."

"“The common people pray for rain, healthy children, and a summer that never ends,” Ser Jorah told her. “It is no matter to them if the high lords play their game of thrones, so long as they are left in peace.” He gave a shrug. “They never are.”"

"I swear to you, I was never so alive as when I was winning this throne, or so dead as now that I've won it."

"Wizards die the same as other men, once you cut their heads off."

"A true man does what he will, not what he must."

"When you play the game of thrones, you win or you die. There is no middle ground."

"Ah, but when the queen proclaims one king and the Hand another, whose peace do they protect?" Lord Petyr flicked at the dagger with his finger, setting it spinning in place. When at last it slowed to a stop, the blade pointed at Littlefinger. "Why, there's your answer. They follow the man who pays them."

"You wear your honor like a suit of armor, Stark. You think it keeps you safe, but all it does is weigh you down and make it hard for you to move."

"Laughter is poison to fear."

"Some commands are more easily given than obeyed."

"There is no creature on earth half so terrifying as a truly just man."

"For fifteen years I protected him from his enemies, but I could not protect him from his friends."

"What strange fit of madness led you to tell the queen that you had learned the secret of Joffrey's birth?" "The madness of mercy."

"“You are an honest and honorable man, Lord Eddard. Ofttimes I forget that. I have met so few of them in my life.” He glanced around the cell. “When I see what honesty and honor have won you, I understand why.”"

"Tell me, Lord Eddard ... why is it always the innocents who suffer most, when you high lords play your game of thrones?"

"In life, the monsters win."

"A craven can be as brave as any man, when there is nothing to fear. And we all do our duty, when there is no cost to it. How easy it seems then, to walk the path of honor. Yet soon or late in every man’s life comes a day when it is not easy, a day when he must choose."

"Wherever you have a camp, you are certain to have camp followers."

"A man who fights for coin is loyal only to his purse."

"It is no good hammering your sword into a plowshare if you must forge it again on the morrow."

"Is it so far from madness to wisdom?"

"Many called her beautiful. She was not beautiful. She was red, and terrible, and red."

"The world preferred to forget that men who knew how to heal also knew how to kill."

"The Watch needs good men" he told them as they set out, "but you lot will have to do."

"Prince Tommen was not so obedient. “I’m supposed to ride against the straw man.”“Not today.”“But I want to ride!”“I don’t care what you want.”“Mother said I could ride.” “She said,” Princess Myrcella agreed. “Mother said,” mocked the king. “Don’t be childish.” “We’re children,” Myrcella declared haughtily. “We’re supposed to be childish.”The Hound laughed. “She has you there.”"

"Crowns do queer things to the heads beneath them."

"Schemes are like fruit, they require a certain ripening"

"Doubtless fresh rats were to be preferred to old stale rotten rats ... When times grew lean, even bakers found sellswords cheaper than bread, he reflected."

"Only cowards kill the vanquished"

"I'm terrified of my enemies, so I kill them all."

"“I’ll have the boy.” ... “You’ll have no one,” Yoren said stubbornly. “There’s laws on such things.” The gold cloak drew a shortsword. “Here’s your law.” Yoren looked at the blade. “That’s no law, just a sword. Happens I got one too.”"

"There's no shame in fear, my father told me, what matters is how we face it."

"Some men want whores on the eve of battle, and some want gods. Jon wondered who felt better afterward."

"Catelyn was finding that kings do not listen half so attentively as sons."

"“He’ll want what kings always want,” she said. “Homage.”"

"My first rule of war, Cat—never give the enemy his wish."

"Can a whore truly love anyone, I wonder?"

"If it is the swordsmen who rule us in truth, why do we pretend kings have the power?"