Tad Williams Quotes
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To fight a war, you must believe it can accomplish something. We fight this one to save John’s kingdom, or perhaps even to save all of mankind...but isn’t that what we always think? That all wars are useless-except the one we’re fighting now?
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Ambitious men never believe others aren’t the same.
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The last thing a drunkard loses, you see, is his cunning: it outlasts his soul by a long season.
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A king’s son has nothing but inferiors, each one a potential assassin.
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Sometimes you men are like lizards, sunning on the stones of a crumbled house, thinking: 'what a nice basking-spot someone built for me.'
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We trolls say: 'Make Philosophy your evening guest, but do not let her stay the night.'
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'Sharp it away, lad, sharp it away,' the burly guardsman said, making the blade skitter across the whetstone, 'lest otherways ye’ll be a girl afore ye’re a man.'
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There are no promises in life, Sludig, but it seems to me smarter to take fewer chances.
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She realized now that she knew little about people outside the courts of Nabban and Erkynland, although she had always thought herself a shrewd judge of humanity. However, it was a larger and much more complicated world on the other side of the castle walls than she had ever suspected.
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If you have not noticed, we are preparing for war. I’m sorry if that inconveniences you.
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No charm is proof against a dagger in the back.
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'Do you get tired, singing?' she asked.Gan Itai laughed quietly. 'Does a mother grow tired raising her children? Of course, but it is what I do.'
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You can never tell when princes will get squinty on you. You can never tell when they might suddenly feel their blood and go all royal.
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She had been dressed in her sky-blue gown and had been suddenly almost terrible in her completeness-so different from the ragged serving girl who had slept on his shoulder. And yet, the very same girl had been inside that blue dress.
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She had little doubt that whatever happened to her on this drifting ship was of scant interest to a God who could allow her to reach this sorry state in the first place.
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'You have something that might be more use to me than either gold or power-something that in fact brings both in its train.''And what is that?'The count leaned forward. 'Knowledge.'
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The wise man is not waiting for the realness of the world to prove itself to him. How can one be an authority before the experiencing of this realness? My master taught me-and to me it seems chash, meaning correct-that you must not defend against the entering of knowledge.
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Nothing is without cost. There is a price to all power, and it is not always obvious.
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Humans turn the places they live into great crowded piles of mud and stone, like the nests termites build--but what happens when in all the world there are termite hills left but no bush?
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He who is certain he knows the ending of things when he is only beginning them is either extremely wise or extremely foolish; no matter which is true, he is certainly an unhappy man, for he has put a knife in the heart of wonder.
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Perhaps he was a bumpkin; at least he was an honest bumpkin.
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'Thank you, Duke,' the troll said seriously. 'May your god be blessing us indeed. We go into unknown places.''As do all mortals,' Josua added. 'Sooner or later.'
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Not being stupid is important.
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Tiamak closed his eyes to make a short prayer of thanks, hoping that the gods, like children, could be confirmed in good behavior by praise.