Top 87 Quotes & Sayings by Mercedes Lackey

These are my friends, my family. It would be hell on earth to spend the rest of my life leading them into situations where some of them are going to get killed... but it would be worse watching someone well-meaning but incompetent or untrained double those deaths.

I try to use all of my senses when describing a setting, and try to think of everything that would impact a character in any given scene.

When I am down, there is nothing like a bowl of hot popcorn; popcorn means great movies and reading fantasy books wrapped up in a soft blanket to me.

If there are going to be people out there making war on other people, don't you think it's a good idea for some of those people to at least follow a code of ethics? Not 'honor' but something you can pin down and be sure of, something with the same rules for everybody.

I always work from an outline, so I know all the of the broad events and some of the finer details before I begin writing the book.

The fastest I've ever done a book is a 112,000-word book in about a month.

I think canceling a game that is making a profit, along with destroying jobs and an online community, is entirely unethical.

It makes sense for people who are good at fighting to go out and do it-because if they're good at it, that means the fewest number of other people die.

Magic, like technology, is a tool.

There's more than enough seriousness in the world.

Writing with other people is absolutely delightful. It's social, which a writer doesn't usually get to do.

Other people can have all the children they want. Some people ask for no-smoking sections. I ask for no children.

To treat a person like a carpet, it is necessary that one do the walking, and one allow himself to be walked on. --Shin'a'in saying

I'm not a legend or a hero, I don't slay dragons, I don't do any of the things that a real hero can. But I can make things better, one day at a time, for most of the kingdom.

Witch' is just a religion, okay? No baby-sacrificing, no Black Masses, no sending imps out to scare the dog-snot out of kids, trying to make them think they're crazy. We don't do things like that. Our number-one law is 'Have fun in this lifetime, but don't hurt anybody.' Nice little paraphrase of "An it harm none, do as ye will" if I do say so myself.

The people who keep coping, keep trying, no matter how many blows Fate takes at them. Nobody'll make a song about them, but they're heroes all the same.

This I think I have learned: where there is love, the form does not matter, and the gods are pleased. This I have observed: what occurs in nature, comes by the hand of nature, and if the gods did not approve, it would not be there ~ Moondance k'Treva (Magic's Pawn)

Assume the attitude of prayer, and in time, the attitude will become prayer.

Of three things be wary- of a feather on a cat, The shepherd eating mutton, And a guardsman that is fat.

Doctor MacKenzie says "Sometimes I think the Victorians had the right idea. When you lost a family member back then you were suppose to be in full mourning, dress in nothing but black, for a whole year. Then you went into something they called 'half mourning' for another full year, adn during those two years, you were pretty much expected to have emotional breakdowns, you could do it whenever you felt you needed to, and everybody would support you. Now?, A month after a tragedy, maybe two, and you're expected to be all better-or down pills so you can pretend you are.

It isn't wise to be rude to one's mother. She knows everything about your childhood that is potentially embarassing.

The hatched chick cannot go back to the shell, the falcon who has found the sky does not willingly sit the nest.

When warriors feel afraid they lack something, it is only because they are forgetful. They have forgotten how capable they truly are.

Inexperience can be overcome, ignorance can be enlightened, but prejudice will destroy you.

Fanatics can justify practically any atrocity to themselves. The more untenable their position becomes, the harder they hold to it, and the worse the things they are willing to do to support it.

Some must be warriors, that others may live in peace.

It's hard being a rock; they have such a strange sense of time - and priorities.

I think I know why you never married, Sarah." "Well, and I reckoned if I wanted something that'd come and go as he pleased, take me for granted, and ignore me when he chose, I'd get a cat. And if I wanted something I'd always have to be picking up after, getting into trouble, but slavishly devoted, I'd get a dog.

Three things know a secret- First; the lady in a dream, The dog that barks no warning, And a maid that does not scream.

We're none of us quite so sure of our place in the world that we can't be rocked off our feet by bad times. It's the getting back up again that counts. Not that you fall, but getting back up again counts for more in the long run.

The freedom to swing your fist ends at my nose.

It's only gossip if you repeat it. Until then, it's gathering information.

Getting angry over something that won't change is like seeing what happens if you hit your hand with a hammer over and over again, and being surprised each time when it hurts. So you might as well stop doing it.

There’s no such thing as `one, true way’; the only answers worth having are the ones you find for yourself; leave the world better than you found it. Love, freedom, and the chance to do some good — they’re the things worth living and dying for, and if you aren’t willing to die for the things worth living for, you might as well turn in your membership in the human race.

If only. Those must be the two saddest words in the world.

Three things never trust in- The maiden sworn as pure, The vows a king has given, And an ambush that is sure.

Mister Cameron - I have read the unexpurgated Ovid, the love poems of Sappho, the Decameron in the original, and a great many texts in Greek and Latin histories that were not though fit for proper gentlemen to read, much less proper ladies. I know in precise detail what Caligula did to, and with, his sisters, and I can quote it to you in Latin or in my own translation if you wish. I am interested in historical truth, and truth in history is often unpleasant and distasteful to those of fine sensibility. I frankly doubt that you will produce anything to shock me.

It's just as easy to be lonely in a city as out in the wilderness. Easier, really. It's harder to get to know someone when you meet in a crowded place. People can freely ignore you in the city; they can assume they don't have any responsibility for you. When there are fewer people, (...) they begin assuming some kind of responsibility, simply because you naturally do the same.

He isn't stupid, but his interests are so narrow I doubt I could slip a sheet of paper in between them

Three things trust and cherish well- The horse on which you ride, The beast that guards and watches, And your shield-mate at your side.

You are human and mortal; we are the sum of our weak moments and our strong.

She just dropped it and ran!!

Time doesn't. All that Time does is make it more distant, put more space between you and what happened. It doesn't heal anything. I don't know how or what does the healing, but it isn't Time.

Once the blinders are off, it's rather hard to go back to seeing things the way you used to.

Evil working in subtler fashion; marriages that proved to be no more then legalized slavery, and the careful manipulation of a bright and sensitive mind until its owner truly believed with all her heart in her own worthlessness. Betrayal, not once, but many times over.

There will always be bad times... It's the getting back up again that counts." - Gallen in "Intrigues

Sympathy can be addictive and can kill strong men as surely as a diet of nothing but sugar.

If I'm walking on thin ice, I might as well dance my way across

The great love is gone. There are still little loves - friend to friend, brother to sister, student to teacher. Will you deny yourself comfort at the hearthfire of a cottage because you may no longer sit by the fireplace of a palace? Will you deny yourself to those who reach out to you in hopes of warming themselves at your hearthfire?

Honor was never taking the easy way when it was also the wrong one. Never telling a falsehood unless the truth was painful and unnecessary, or a lie was necessary to save others. Never manipulating the truth to serve only yourself. Protecting the weak and helpless; standing fast even when fear made you weak. Keeping your word.

Caught between glass and wood, that which breaks and that which bends, that which sings and that which survive. So our lives go.

I have no place in my life for someone who is sure he can do everything. --Steelmind

Change or stagnate. Keep moving or die.

Zen Hugs - the hugs that you would get, if we were there, if we could hug you, but we aren't, and we can't.

If you would rise, do so alone.

If it is stupid but it works, it isn't stupid. (a Shin'a'in saying)

Adventure, yeah. I guess that's what you call it when everybody comes back alive.

Give your enemy a face, If he is human, do not dehumanize him. Know him and know why he is your enemy. If your enemy is within you, understand what it is and why you are afraid. Put a face on your fear. When you understand it, and it is no longer vague and shapeless, you will find that your fear is no longer so formidable.

Parents always know what strings control your heart and soul. After all, they are the ones who tied them there.

Do you know the kind of things that live up there?...things without names 'cause no one who's seen 'em has lived long enough to give them any name besides 'AAAARG!