Top 195 Quotes & Sayings by Janet Morris - Page 2

Wars don't bring lasting peace, only lasting death.

Everything that anyone respects is what men naturally excel at: fighting, accruing wealth, playing at power.

All gods are tricksters, and war gods worst of any.

Such hubris could only come from a man's mouth.

Revenge is fruitless.

You three have done quite enough today: all of you and your feckless, treacherous god.

He loves the world so much. I agree it would be a shame to take that love away from meadow and tree, stream and sky, and all that lives in nature, and leave them lonely.

It is upon each soul to recognize its limit.

Here Stormbringer spies the Stepsons, the Theban fighters, and the 3rd Commando, attending to their own. In the face of such unflinching determination and unswerving devotion, the hurricane pauses and calms. Its ravings turn to mutters.

Every man's in his own hands, with a little help from his brothers.

Death is a doorway, Niko, that leads to an adventure greater than any you have ever known.

Survival has its own etiquette.

What wastrel mankind destroyed takes time for nature to put to rights.

I can start the rain. Bring thunder. Bring lightning. Want to see?

For me, myth is the 'common' language of us all.

Your honor blinds you, Tempus, to what's right and wrong these days.

Revenge is never the best driver for a battle, but a common one.

Use him wisely. Few have been given such a weapon by the gods or Fates before.

Only so much can be borne from men, so much from gods

The gods want to bring a better day, and you are their messengers. Trust not in all you see. Trust only in your hearts. And in us, who love you both.

Sanctuary is for lovers, not fighters, this season.

Her idea of who's worth what ain't mine.

"Godling? Demigod?" Lysis nearly howled. "You'd be beaten black and blue in Thebes, and staked out overnight for claims like that. In Sparta, the secret police would ambush you, violate you, skin you alive and use your skull for a drinking cup."

War is all and king of all

Now the Fates are here on the beach, three shadows blacker than black, walking through the dunes and looking for their own. Just shadows, lamb-white hands beneath black robes spun of tears, glide among the celebrants on this night wherein the spirits of Thebes have found a home, if serendipitously.

Arrows are cheap; you're expensive.

If you want to write something completely unique, you will probably fail or at best write something without redeeming value. The mind works in certain patterns: the mind organizes facts in story form; it is your commonality with that body of human thought that makes a good book, not its estrangement from the common values that humans share.

Sacred Bands and elite squadrons aren't what the mercenaries' guild is about. Field them at your peril.

Live to fight on other days.

Learn when to fear, and how to fear, and how much to fear, before you squander all you have left.

I thought we'd die there, quarrels in our backs, you for what you did and me for bearing witness.

Very little in science fiction can transcend the gimmickry of a technical conceit, yet without that conceit at its heart a book is not truly science fiction. Furthermore, so little emerging thought and technology is employed by sf writers today that the genre is lagging far behind reality both in the cosmology area and the technology area: sf is no longer a place to experiment, but is now very derivative.

If the gods sent you to fight here, then the gods are fools.

So some will be left who remember.

Only from chaos does order come. The angry Fates bring death where they will, when war is king, says Enlil, storm god of the armies, and the tip of his crown rends the clouds above their heads. "Wheresoever I rule, death comes shambling after. So it has always been, is, and will be."

"Learn what can, and cannot, be asked from destiny."

For the gift of life, the only true thanks was in living fully, and facing death with honor.

Death's easy to find. If She wants you, you'll meet Her here as well as anywhere.

Men live, and then they die. It is the quality of the process of living which matters, that and that alone.

Strife brings all things into being on her battlefield. This I know. I have been there many times," says Vashanka, lord of sack and pillage. "I have died before.

Grab reality by the balls and squeeze.

I must decide if you deserve to die.

Vengeance is disappointing, always.

Gods and men honor those who have fought in battle.

Painful things are quickly forgotten.

One man can make another's life so much better.

Survival's the thing, isn't it?

You have crossbows: Shoot early; shoot often.

Don't blame yourself, or worry. Neither does a bit of good.

In this new world, this day and forever, then, we are not only Thebans - we are all Stepsons. We are all one Sacred Band. If you will have us. And mine will fight by yours, henceforth, as brothers.

I won't go back and live in the sea again.

Time is so...fluid where I live

Wisdom, Niko thought as he leaned his cheek against his long-handled rake, cannot be had without price.

Wanting neither too much to live, nor too much to die.

I want to live like a man.

The two stallions, the silver and the black, represent the equine god (whomsoever horses pray to) in this ritual so ancient that no one knows what god to thank.

But we're dying here.

Each soul has its appointed doom. How is it you dare to raise a mortal boy so high - high enough to flout the gods? Bring godhead where a man may reach out and take it? growls Enlil, and lightning splits a clear blue sky.

Humiliation sets armies marching, empires falling, breaks hearts and minds and souls.

Gods and politics are the tools with which the godless and unprincipled manipulate the gullible.