David Gemmell

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.

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?

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

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.

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

"A methodical people," pulsed the voice of Kesa Khan. "They call themselves civilized because they can build tall castles and pitch their tents with geometric precision, but from here you can see the reality. Ants build in the same way. Are they civilized?"

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.

“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.”

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.

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

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.

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