David Gemmell Quotes
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By nature of definition only the coward is capable of the highest heroism.
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We are full of dreams ... We long for the unattainable. We believe in the nonsense of fables. There is no pure love; there is lust and there is need.
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'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.'
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How do you decide a battle is lost? Numbers, strategic advantage, positioning? It's all worth a sparrow's fart. It comes down to men who are willing. The largest army will founder if its men are less willing to die than to win.
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All men have talents. Some build, some paint, some write, some fight. For me it is different.
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Every man has his own reason for every deed. Usually it is selfish.
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I don't know yet whether I fully believe in fate, but certain things do happen in a man's life that he cannot explain.
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'One day you'll find a love, and then we can talk on equal terms. I do not mean that to sound patronizing. You are bright and intelligent. You have courage and wit. But sometimes, it is like trying to describe colors to a blind man. Love, as I hope you will find, has great power. Even death cannot destroy it. And I still love her.'
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Fear is like a fire in your belly. Controlled, it warms you and keeps you alive. Uncontrolled, it burns and destroys you.
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He who fears to lose will never win.
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'I don't understand how any man would wish to pursue such a away of life.Causing pain, being hurt, risking death - and for what? so that a crowd of fat-bellied merchants can see blood flow.'
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Life is nothing unless death has been faced down.
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I'm not laughing at you. ... I'm laughing at the whole stupid business. We face the biggest threat in our history and they give me a helmet too big,and you a helmet too small, and tell us we can't exchange them. It's too much. Really.
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It's a funny thing about weaknesses....Most people will tell you they know their weaknesses. When asked, they'll tell you, 'Well for one thing, I'm overgenerous.' ... that's what innkeepers are for.
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While men compete in war, there will be warriors. While there are warriors, there will be princes among warriors. Among the princes will be kings, and among the kings an emperor.
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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.
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A man cannot spend his life worrying about the unexpected.
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Our modern world, though infinitely more complex than that of ancient Greece, is also far more superficial. Where the Greeks offered simple psychological training, we live in an age of style and spin in which perceptions of good and evil slither and shift with the political view of the moment.
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A man must know his limitations.
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Only a fool loves war. Or a man who has never seen it. The trouble is that the survivors forget about the horrors and remember only the battle lust. They pass on that memory, and other men hunger for it.
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The onset of fear makes the simplest actions complex and difficult.
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A problem shared is a problem doubled.
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'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?'
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All beauty is sad. For it fades.