George RR Martin

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.”

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

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

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

If you would take a man's life, you owe it to him to look into his eyes and hear his final words. And if you cannot bear to do that, then perhaps the man does not deserve to die.

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

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

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.

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

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.

“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.”

“We should start back,” Gared urged as the woods began to grow dark around them. “The wildlings are dead.”