David Gemmel

No one can take away the freedom of a man's soul.

The point is [...] that you never know whether you've lost until you've lost. Anything can happen.

There is only one way to survive in war, and that is by being willing to die. You will find soon that swordsmen can be downed by untutored savages who would slice their fingers if asked to carve meat. And why? because the savage is willing. Worse, he may be a baresark.

I don't give a damn, laddie. Until the actual moment, when they cut me down, I shall still be looking to win. And the gods of war are fickle at best.

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.

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

'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.'

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

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

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

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

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.