David Gemmell Quotes

Evil will never be countered while good men do nothing.

Women were strange creatures. They fell in love with a man and then sought to change him. Mostly they succeed - to spend the rest of their lives wondering how they could have married such boring conformists.

Our ancestors have fought wars since time. And won them. More than that, we have built societies and held them together. We are the rulers, Gaise. We are the mighty. Remember that tomorrow.

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

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

‘Is the war coming to Eldacre, my lord?’ asked Ramus, as he settled into the chair.
'I fear it is. A more stupid and wasteful business there never was. Fields will not be planted, food will run low, tax revenues will dry up — save from the makers of swords and munitions.'

‘We don’t have time for theological debates, or philosophical discussion on the nature of evil,’ he said. ‘Men have been killing each other for centuries without need to blame skulls or relics.'

A fighting force is like a sword-blade. You can't test it until it has passed through fire.

Your men are brave men, And you have won. I can live with that, Earl of Bronze — a poor man would I be if I could not.

The creature no human could overcome? It was a lesson, Bane. A good man tried to teach it to me many years ago. You cannot overcome hatred with more hatred. Sometimes you have to surrender in order to win. There are only three possibilities when faced with an enemy: run from him, fight him, or make him your friend. The creature in the circle was created to respond. Attack it - and it will come back at you with twice your strength. I ignored it. And it, true to its nature, ignored me.

I have no wish to argue, Father. Yet it must be said that the monks exist here in peace and security only because of the swords of the defenders. I do not belittle your views — I wish all men shared them. But they do not. ... if all men and women lived as you and I, there would be no children, and no humanity. What then would be the Will of the Source?

No one can take away the freedom of a man's soul.

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

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.

Nothing in life is easy, Arvan. But it's what I'm trained for. To lead an army. To bring death and destruction on my enemies [...] A man must stand against evil wherever he finds it and he must use all his talents.