David Gemmell Quotes

Love is for fools. It is a surging of blood in the loins ... there is no mystery, and no magic. Find someone else, my boy.

Do not expect help.' 'One should always hope.' 'Then hope for a handsome savage with kindly ways.

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?

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 ...

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

Gentlemen, you are in sorry condition. But war will render you yet more sorry. The soldier will fight in mud and hail, snow and ice, drought and flood. It is rare that a warrior gets to fight in comfort.

... No, I should have died at Bel-Azzar. Nothing has gone right since then.' 'Death comes soon enough to all men. Don't wish for it.

I was on top of the mountain. But there was nothing there. Just clouds. And I found that you can't live on that mountain. But when it throws you off — oh, how you long for it! I would kill to climb it again. I would sell my soul. It is so stupid. [...] I took the standard. And now I can't even become a farmer again. The mountain won't let me.

By my lights, my son, you are a young man. [...] there should be love in your life. Am I at fault in my thinking?'
'Not at fault, Senior Brother. I loved once, and in truth I could love again. But the pain of loss was too much for me. I would rather live alone than suffer for it.'
'Then you are here to hide, Charreos, and it is not a good reason. The gift of life is too great to waste in such a fashion...

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.

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

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

What do you mean, why? Is it not obvious? What is life but a betrayal? We start out young, full of hope. The sun is good; the world awaits us. But every passing year shows how small you are, how insignificant against the power of the seasons. Then you age. Your strength fails, and the world laughs at you through the jeers of younger men. And you die. Alone. Unfulfilled. But sometimes ... sometimes there will come a man who is not insignificant. He can change the world, rob the seasons of their power. He is the sun.

Your face may be gone, but you know who you are.

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