David Gemmell quotes:

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.

Many fantasy novels - 'Lord of the Rings', for instance, or 'Lavondyss' by Robert Holdstock - are beautifully written. Geoff Ryman's 'The Child Garden' is exquisite and utterly beguiling. Mervyn Peake's 'Gormenghast' trilogy is an astonishing piece of multi-faceted storytelling. So quality of writing does not condemn the genre.

I have discovered in my long life that there are many words and phrases which have more power than any spell of magick. The most well-known of these is, of course, I love you. But by far the most deadly is, if only. For these two words can strip a man's strength, his courage and his confidence. They become the father of regret and anguish and pain.

If we are still discussing its merits tomorrow, I will agree with you," said Diagoras. "Cheer up, laddie. Nobody lives forever." "Oh I expect you will, Druss, Old Horse. It's the mortals around you who always seem to kiss the granite.

There's no shame in fear. But understand this - the coward is ruled by fear, while the hero rides it like a wild stallion.

Societies need heroes. So we travel to places where the revisionists cannot dismantle the great.

How many hopes and dreams are trapped within these bones? How many wonders lie never to be discovered? This is what war is. Desolation, despair and loss. There are no victors.

A warrior feeds his body well; he trains it; works on it. Where he lacks knowledge, he studies. But above all he must believe. He must believe in his strength of will, of purpose, of heart and soul.

But men don't come in just two groups, one of gold and the other of lead. They are a mix of both." "And what about women?" "Pure gold, my girl," Rayvan answered with a chuckle.

I may be stupid, as you say, to believe in honour and friendship and loyalty without price. But these are virtues to be cherished, for without them we are no more than beasts roaming the land.

Life is a struggle, from the agonies of birth to the railing against death. Devour or be devoured. The law of the wild.

The very odd thing about sagas [...] is that they very rarely mention dry mouths and full bladders.

Liberty is only valued when it is threatened, therefore it is the threat that highlights the value. We should be grateful to the Nadir, since they heighten the value of our liberty.

A great man once told me there can be no courage without fear

Hate is the father of all evil.

You know how it is. Boy meets girl, girl wants boy dead. An everyday story, really.

Nothing of real worth can ever be bought. Love, friendship, honour, valour, respect. All these things have to be earned.

This is the real magic of fantasy fiction: it can feed souls and change lives.

War.Such a little word, such a depth of agony. Blood, death, conquest, starvation, plague, and horror.

Everyone makes mistakes. Everyone fails at something.

All men have talents. Some build, some paint, some write, some fight. For me it is different.

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.

You may think life is sweet now, but when death is a heartbeat away then life becomes unbearably desirable. And when you survive, everything you do will be enhanced and filled with greater joy: the sunlight, the breeze, a good wine, a woman's lips, a child's laughter.

She was his north star, the fixed point round which his world turned. For as long as his heart beat, or hers, he believed they would always share a destiny.

Why must I have the Piglet?' 'Because you are the best.' 'I do not understand.' 'Teach him.' 'And who teaches me?' ' As an officer, my lord, you will have many men under your command and not all will be gifted. You must learn to use each man to his best advantage ...

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.

We are tiny flames, Helikaon, and we flicker alone in the great dark for no more than a heartbeat. When we strive for wealth, glory and fame, it is meaningless. The nations we fight for will one day cease to be. Even the mountains we gaze upon will crumble to dust. To truly live we must yearn for that which does not die.

We make choices every day, some of them good, some of them bad. And if we are strong enough, we live with the consequences.

If there is one sound the follows the march of humanity, it is the scream.

What is your name?"Why?"So I can mark your grave...

Love is both wondrous and yet full of peril. Love is a gateway through which hatred - disguised and unrecognized - can pass.

Like light and shadow, love and hate were inseparable. One could not exist without the other.

A cynic by experience, a romantic by inclination and now a hero by necessity.

The truth. Men will blind themselves with hot irons, rather than face it.

I would have offered you a forest of truth, but you wish to speak of a single leaf

No man should ever completely realize his dreams. What else would there then be to live for~?

Trust your instincts, and make judgements on what your heart tells you. The heart will not betray you.

Man is capable of greatness, love, nobility, compassion. Yet never forget that his capacity for evil is infinite. It is a sad truth, boy, that if you sit now and think of the worst tortures that could ever be inflicted on another human being, they will already have been practiced somewhere. If there is one sound that follows the march of humanity, it is the scream.

There are times, Sember, when I could believe your mother had a secret lover. Looking at you makes me wonder if it was one of my goats.

It is hard to be angry when one has seen the sun rise,' she said. It seems to be true,' he admitted. 'I wonder why.' Because it makes one feel so small and insignificant. It has been rising forever and will rise forever no matter what we do or do not do. All our problems are as nothing to the sun.

I was a man before I was a king, and no true man walks away when a friend needs him.

Do not complain of life's unfairness. It is never fair - at best it is impartial.

No need for confusion, my dear Mulgrave [...] Beautiful wine and sour vinegar come from exactly the same source. Curiously if one leaves a bottle of wine open for long enough it will become vinegar. Happily in this house wine never survives long enough to go bad.

What is life if a man cannot count on his friends when he has gone mad?

May all your dreams but one come true, for what is life without a dream?

Do not speak badly of yourself, for the warrior that is inside you hears your words and is lessened by them.

I underestimated you, woman." ... "The cry of men down the ages.

Some people have a gift for stupidity, an almost mystic ability to withstand any form of logic.

Fear is an aid to the warrior. It is a small fire burning. It heats the muscles, making us stronger. Panic comes when the fire is out of control, consuming all courage and pride.

We make choices everyday, some of them good, some of them bad. And - if we are strong enough - we live with the consequences.

Steal a loaf of bread and they hang you, steal a land and they'll make you king.

A man should be free to do what he wants to do, as long as it doesn't hurt others.

Not one of the creatures of blood can escape death. We all face it, and succumb to it. It follows us like a dark shadow. Yet if we live in terror of it, then we do not live at all. Yes we are born alone, and yes we will die alone. But in between, Tae, we live. We know joy.

A man's strength is ultimately born of his knowledge of his own weakness ...

Love is a mystery. We embrace it where we can. Mostly we do not choose whom we love. It just happens. A voice speaks to us, in ways the ears cannot hear. We recognize a beauty the eye does not see. We experience a change in our hearts that no voice can describe.

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.

Fear is good, for it makes us cautious and aids survival. Not so with terror. It is like slow poison, paralyzing the limbs and blurring the mind. . . Never, when in danger, ask yourself, What will they do to me? Instead think, What can I do to prevent them?

True. The one certainty about riding, Braygan, is that - at some time - you will fall off. It is a fact. Another fact you might like to consider, in your life of perpetual terror, is that you will die. We are all going to die, some of us young, some of us old, some of us in our sleep, some of us screaming in agony. We cannot stop it, we can only delay it.

Foolish: It's all foolish. Life is a farce a stupid, sickening farce played out by fools.

Heroes are people who face down their fears. It is that simple.

I caught a pebble in the moonlight.

Every little bit of good I may do, let me do it now for I may not come this way again.

Heroes are people who face down their fears. It is that simple. A child afraid of the dark who one day blows out the candle; a women terrified of the pain of childbirth who says, 'It is time to become a mother'. Heroism does not always live on the battlefield.

Evil lives in a pit. If you want to fight it, you must climb down into the slime to do so. White cloaks show the dirt more thank black, and silver tarnishes.

Yours is a race whose imagination is limited to its own small appetites. Greed, lust, envy - these are the motivating forces of humankind. What redeems you is that in every man and woman there is a seed that can grow to encompass love, joy and compassion. But this seed is never allowed to prosper in fertile ground. It struggles for life among the rocks of your human soul.

Be at peace, my friend. One thing I have learnt about Death is that his bark is worse than his bite.

I make little distinction betwee those who commit evil and those who stand by and do nothing.

In my experience all women deserve someone better.

To be truthful i am not entirely sure what people mean when they talk of happiness. There are moments of joy and laughter, the comfort of friendship, but enduring happiness? If it exists i have not found it

Never violate a woman, nor harm a child. Do not lie, cheat or steal. These things are for lesser men. Protect the weak against the evil strong. And never allow thoughts of gain to lead you into the persuit of evil.

There is a darkness in you. In all of us, probably. Beasts we keep chained. Ordinary men have to keep the chains strong, for if we let the beast loose then society will turn upon us with fiery vengeance. Kings though...well, who is there to turn upon them? So the chains are made of straw. It is the curse of kings, Helikaon, that they can become monsters. And they invariably do.

It would be a fine thing if war could be conducted as a game where no lives were lost. At the end of a battle combatants could meet [...] and drink and talk.

Nothing in life is sure, my son. Except the promise of death.

There is evil in all of us, and it is the mark of a man how he defies the evil within.

It is easier with strangers, for they touch your life but for an instant. You will not disappoint them, for you owe them nothing; neither do they expect anything. Friends you can hurt, for they expect everything.

This world has few redeeming features, and one is the capacity for people to love one another with great, enduring passion.

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.

Men don't change. They just learn to disguise the lack of change.

Plan for the worst, expect the best.

Most wars are fought for greed, but we are luckier here we fight for our lives and the lives of the people we love.

Old age is not as honorable as death, but most people seek it.

Miracles are merely events that happen just when they are needed.

The night has a capacity for terror that the day can never match.

Most of the heroes we remember we remember only because they won. To win you must be ruthless. Single-minded ... which was why he had no friends just admirers.

By nature of definition only the coward is capable of the highest heroism

[H]e who fears to lose will never win.

I am not going to talk about patriotism, duty, liberty, and the defense of freedom because that's all dung to a soldier.

When your life has been spent in one war after another for forty-five years, you have to be pretty handy to survive.

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.

Kings are chosen by the Source, so it is said ... Therefore those who fight for the king can be said to be godly. Is that not cause enough?

The nature of a coward is to avoid death. If such a man courts peril there can be only two reasons. Either he is not a coward at all or there is no danger.

It is a merchant's nature to quibble over coins. It is how we become rich and buy satin shirts. The problems of who governs this area is one for another day.

Blood always aids blood, my friend.

Evil will never be countered while good men do nothing.

Every man has his own reason for every deed. Usually it is selfish.

Come back and stand with us, lad. We will all go down together that's what makes us who we are.

I think that for the coward every day carries a kind of death.

I am a stranger. You do not need to lie to me or pretend. Only with friends do you need masks..

Death haunts everyone and never fails.

[...] In real war an officer may have only one chance at succeeding. Consider each problem.

Win or lose, we achieve nothing in the world that we understand [...]' 'But then the world does not matter.' 'Indeed it does not [...] It is good to understand that.

Never be glad that another man has died. Not ever . [...] It never ends. Never ... ever ... be glad to kill.

Makes no sense to me,' said Huntsekker. 'You don't know who is at your door, but you know the thoughts of a man twenty miles away.' 'Life is a mystery,' said Powdermill, with a gold-toothed grin. 'It is that, right enough,' agreed Huntsekker.

If you want to fight evil, you have to climb down in the slime to do so.

An enemy is like a man's most prized flower. It brings him joy to see it buried in the ground.

If you look at any ancient civilization, they've all used fantasy stories to train the young.

One day the enemy will cross the Great Green. They will bring war and tragedy to these eastern lands. Such is the nature of vile men. Yet we cannot live in dread of them. We cannot hide behind these high walls, our hearts trembling. For that is not life. We must accept the needs and the duties of each day, and face them one at a time.

Our souls are but leaves in a storm, and only the gods know where we will come to rest.

... Life can be savored only if you look to the future and leave vengeance to the gods

Life is not so simple. There are many futures. The life of a single person is like a great tree: every branch, every twig, every leaf is a possible future.

The purpose of debates is to explore issues, not end them.

Why now? Why not? Live or die, a man and a woman need love. There is a need in the race. We need to share. To belong. Perhaps you will die before the year is out. But remember this: to have may be taken from you, to have had never. Far better to have tasted love before dying, than to die alone.

They dont understand what real treasure is. They see it in gold and copper, and tin. They see in herds of horses or cattle. They gather treasures to themselves, building great storehouses, which they guard ferociously. Then they die. What good is it then?

You do not convince me. You rationalize your actions and because the result is favorable you become right.

What will you do now?' I think I will become a monk and devote my entire life to prayer and good works.' No,' said Rek. 'I mean, what will you do today?' Ah! Today I'll get drunk and go whoring,' said Bowman.

When healers yearn to kill then hope begins to die ... Evil cannot be overcome by evil.

I think maybe it is better to believe than not to believe. But I couldn't tell you why.

Life is sad enough, Magir. Laughter is a thing to be treasured.

No matter how impossible this war, I shall fight to win. Whatever I have to do, I will do.

It is not hard to change when your biggest problem is whether the weeds prosper in a vegetable patch.