David Eddings Quotes

On a number of occasions Althalus even managed to get close enough to him to be able to hear him talking. He actually grew to be rather fond of the chubby little fellow, but that’s not unusual, really. When you get right down to it, a wolf is probably quite fond of deer.

We’re going out to save the world. It’s only right and proper that the people along the way should lend a hand, isn’t it?

Sick, isn't it?" Dhakan replied. "Our glorious, but slightly warped, leader hasn't let him out of her sight since the day he was captured.

"Arums are real soldiers, and I want to hire them to train and advise the lowlanders to fight their own wars—at least this one.”
“You’re asking me to put myself out of business, Althalus,” Albron objected.
“Not really. After we’ve smashed Ghend’s armies, things should go back to normal. The princes of the low countries will still break out in rashes of ambition, and they’ll come here to Arum to hire professionals to do their fighting. It’s a matter of economics, Albron. It’s very expensive to train and maintain any army. Even when there’s no war, you have to keep feeding them. It’s cheaper in the long run to hire Arums.”

There’s a girl who can probably cut glass with her voice from a mile away [...] Andine’s got the kind of voice you can’t really ignore.

When some idiot jumps up and starts shouting, ‘My God’s better than your God,’ I don’t pay very much attention—except to hide my purse.

You want gold, I suppose? she asked in an accusatory tone.
“Oh, gold’s all right, I suppose, but I’d really rather get paid in love. Love can’t be counted, so it’s probably even more valuable than gold.”

What's really going on in Perquaine?"
"A peasant rebellion—at least on the surface."
Albron shook his head mournfully. "The lowlanders just don't understand ordinary people, do they?"
"They haven't got a clue. The aristocrats spend so much time admiring themselves in their mirrors that they don't pay much attention to the commoners. From what I've heard, these rebellions break out every ten years or so. You'd think that after five or six times, the aristocrats might start to realize that they're doing something wrong."
"I certainly hope not. If the lowlanders start behaving like rational human beings, the clans of Arum are going to be out of work.

If you’d keep your nose out of things that don’t concern you, you wouldn’t hear so much that offends you.

You don't carry spears or bows?"
"They'd just get in the way, sir. A sling doesn't weigh hardly anything, and you can find good rocks anywhere."
"I thought the sling was just a child's toy."
"Oh, no, Sergeant Khalor," Althalus told him. "I carried a sling for years myself when I was younger. It kept me eating on a regular basis."
"Could a man kill a horse with one?"
"Easily. The bone between a horse's eyes isn't very thick. I haven't used a sling for a long time, but I'm fairly certain I could drop a horse in midstride from a hundred paces."
"That's a little hard to swallow, Althalus."
"I've taken rabbits at fifty paces — and a horse is quite a bit bigger than a rabbit.

I'll need a few kegs of your gold, though," he added.
Althalus shrugged. "I had a feeling that might crop up."
"'Money makes the mare go,'" Kreuter quoted.
"Wouldn't she settle for oats?"
"She might, but I won't.

Religion’s based on a desire to know what’s going to happen in the future. Astrologers believe that the stars control that.

Why do men always want to tamper with the natural order of things?
“When something breaks, we fix it, that’s all.”
What gave you the absurd idea that [the world]’s broken?
“It’s not the way it was before, Em. To our way of looking at things, that means that it’s broken.”
[...] Change doesn’t necessarily mean improvement, Althalus. Change is just change. “Better” and “worse” are human definitions. The world changes all the time, and no amount of complaining’s going to stop it from changing.

Surely you don't agree with that apostate!"
"I was talking about his skill, not his message, Aleikon ... He's good. There's no question about that.

Class distinctions are an impediment to understanding, Althalus," Bheid told him, "and anything that interferes with understanding should be discarded."
"You might want to give some thought to keeping that particular opinion tucked up under your arm, Bheid," Althalus advised. "It won't make you very popular in certain quarters.