A.J. Darkholme quotes:

Sometimes we exist long enough to lead the next generation; other times, only to plant a seed and let its resonations of our time here on Earth ripple into new waves.

The world is changeable, and its ability to change is so fragile that a single person can be responsible for it.

Remain open-minded, even when you believe yourself to be a king among peasants. You never know what blessings can be gained or crises averted just by listening.

Time spent worrying - about anything - provides no emotional or physical benefit to us; such things only weaken us for the fights we must endure in our lives.

In times of war, skepticism can be just cause for execution.

Most physical battles begin once mental ones have been lost, anyway. Conquer the mind, conquer the body.

We are not slaves of the past, nor servants of the present, but masters of the future.

My happiness with the future and the present depends on my ability to let the past go and make peace with it.

Emperors are not made from cowards; they are made from those who take great risk where there stands to be even greater gain.

The only way we succeed as a group is not simply following directions, but in keeping each other accountable for our actions.

Our lives consist of a series of internal battles, deep within us, where weapons don't exist and technology is unable to create devices that better the best of yesterday. Our knowledge is our only defense; caution, our only friend.

Never overestimate the strength of the torchbearer's arm, for even the strongest arms grow weary.

Being a leader is not about finding ways to get others to serve you, but knowing how to serve your followers.

If you refuse to accept what is, and choose to see what could be, then you set a course for yourself that makes others take notice of you, respect you, revere you. It is then that they become objects of your destiny instead of you playing a support role in theirs.

Love is one of the most motivating and self-defining forces in our lives, whether we turn from it or allow ourselves to be drawn to it. If you allow romantic possibilities with others to consume all your time and energy, they will distract you from the things of interest that fill your life with passion and purpose.

No army is comprised of all the same kinds of units or types of troops. There is power in diversity. If you always see only one choice, or use only one option, you will surely lose more than you win.

What you withhold in this life will be withheld from you in the next.

Sic vis pacem para bellum - if you want peace, prepare for war.

The lion does not need the whole world to fear him, only those nearest where he roams.

We must humble ourselves before [others] so we may learn from what others have lived. It is only when we have added their expertise to our own that we can truly excel towards our most ambitious goals and reach our fullest potential.

Power and influence: things that should be obtained not for means of greed, nor pride, nor ego, but rather to ensure that in the right moment, when your wisdom and benevolence are required to keep humanity strong and united, you can deliver and orchestrate others toward the greater good.

A good leader must have the wisdom to know when a pursuit is no longer worthy of being pursued - a time when the losses of the present must be accepted - and cut - to preserve the gains and providence of the future.

Some only follow the holy man while others only follow the warlord. But the truth is, both sides are within all of us, and if people could only see that, they wouldn't have to wear masks, or pretend to be holy like a holy man, or pretend that nothing can hurt them like a warlord. They could just be themselves, unjudged.

The strong will always rule the weak.

Always hear others out and remain open-minded; the day you think you know everything is the day you have the most yet to learn.

Our unity will always be a greater force with mixed ideals than if we demand that others change for us, to what we believe.

If your heart, mind, and actions are selfish, they will ultimately divide you, others, or entire [establishments]. When motivation is pure and selfless, it will result in helping bring others together.

Like tiny gods, all that we say and do holds a power so great that any one of us in any given moment can be responsible for the birth of a new civilization or the collapse of our own.

Sometimes the heart can hear what the ears do not.

Never judge a woman by her age.

It is unwise to waste in thought what could be earned and secured in action.

If you choose to keep your true face secret, then the people who know you by one mask, must never meet those who know you by another.

In the grand scheme of life, nobody grows old keeping their soul unblemished.

What's the use in prolonging life if you don't do anything with it?

Memories are meant to serve you, not enslave you.

There is stability in walking an uncertain path, because you never allow yourself to be misled by what you think you know.

Time doesn't always heal all wounds.

Our knees get dusty from time to time, but when they touch the ground, we must never allow the dust to convince us that our submission in that moment is the acceptance of our defeat for an entire lifetime.

Never give up on the possibilities or accept what is when you can see it for what it could be.

You must always focus on and pursue the good, but when that darkness surges up from within, you need to know how to handle it, use it, and release it wisely, not just deny its presence or acceptability as you suppress it within you.

Let your fear drive you to evolve into greatness.

Sometimes you can grow more in a shorter amount of time with the right company than years of soul-searching alone, or by living the same patterns you've lived for your entire life.

What separates us into engineers and robots, puppeteers and puppets, kings and pawns, is not the status we hold at any given time among others - status is irrelevant; it is the level of ever-present awareness we have of a grey-matter tailor's tools [of flattery, persuasion, and cunning.]

Anything you dream [can] be yours simply because you've focused on the steps you could take instead of the distance to get there.

What seems like a flaw is merely our higher consciousness telling us we're not looking at it in the right light yet.

We all need to humble ourselves from time to time and expose ourselves to new perspectives and ideas, even those of the non-experts, or else our growth potential gets weighed down with the ignorance of ego and habit.

The more a mind thinks upon something, the deeper it will take root and affect all subsequent and related thought.

Perspective alone can make an experience positive or negative, but regardless of which you let it become, it can only have as much power over your outlook on life as you give it.

Without purpose and meaning in our lives, we banish ourselves to wander this plane of existence with self-destructive tendencies until the bell tolls and our breath capsizes in our lungs, snatching our chance to redeem ourselves forever.

What we don't often realize is that the rebirth and collapse of grand things do not begin with grand things at all, like the things we see, but with the small, like the things we are - in the things we do - in the things we say.

Even the tallest trees always begin as a seed.

Seek counsel; though we are all skilled and experienced in many ways, no one can experience all that life has to offer in the limited time we are given in this world.

A man is no more than breath until his breath fashions the words that others cannot forget.

If we are to be truly free, that freedom will come through cooperation and tolerance with one another.

The values most important to us are always the most easily exploitable.

Where there is desire, the means to fulfill it are endless.

If someone was going to kill someone dear to you, and you could stop that person by killing them instead, would you kill them, knowing it was an effective way to save your loved one?

Things happen, and nothing is for sure, but you just have to keep going, believing that one day, you'll find something that is.

When you give people a choice, they believe they have power.

Words give inspiration, nothing more. You want redemption? The very thing you seek inspiration for? Fight for it like your life depended on it, because it always does.

People are more willing to change based on their perceived insecurities than by an attack on their beliefs.

It is the crimson tongue that paints the world others think they see.

Sometimes it's best to trade an ideal for something more practical that you can guarantee.

The amount of gold someone has is never the issue, but rather the love of it and the want of more for personal gain that consumes the hearts of many good people.

The path of destiny is not always paved smooth with gold.

Always think at least two steps ahead [in everything, with everyone].

The most inefficient and self-harming thing a person can do is go out looking for love. Let it find you when the time is right and you're out doing what you love to do. Only then will you find it in its truest form.

We are united by something greater and more valuable than our beliefs alone: the freedom to have those beliefs, and believe what we want without persecution - we must protect that at all costs.

A man shouldn't bite the hand that feeds him, even if another holds out a golden spoon to him as reward after his betrayal.

Your biggest dreams can become reality, not by brute-forcing the end-goal, but breaking it down into smaller, more manageable parts. If your goal takes years, breaking it down into months and days will let you improve your lot little bits at a time.

Admiration provides no saving grace for the inconvenient.