Harry Turtledove Quotes

If barbarians recognized that they were barbarians, they wouldn’t be so barbarous any more.

Liv worried less about how important other people thought she was and more about things that really mattered.

Sometimes I think I don't know everything that's going on," Ulric Skakki said in tones full of mock self-pity. Count Hamnet reached out and set a consoling hand on his arm. "Don't worry about it. Sometimes I don't think you know what's going on, either.

He didn’t care what she thought, and, in not caring, he felt as if a curse were lifted from his back.

“And if you don’t bet, how do you expect to win?”
Hamnet Thyssen didn’t look at things that way. To him, not betting meant you couldn’t lose. He hadn’t even thought of winning.

From what I’ve seen, people who brag a lot are usually trying to convince themselves even more than other people.

You believe in reincarnation, then?" Eyvind Torfinn asked eagerly. "Have you evidence to support your belief?

Mammoths make me believe in God," Trasimund said… "How could mammoths make themselves? God had to do it." "You could say the same thing about mosquitoes." Eyvind Torfinn punctuated the observation by slapping. "You could even say God liked mosquitoes better than mammoths, because he made so many more of them.

Women are what made me the way I am now. I do not believe the illness is also the cure.

If Earl Eyvind wanted to talk nonsense, he was welcome to, as far as Hamnet was concerned.
If he wanted anyone else to take him seriously when he did…that was another story altogether.

He thought she was the most wonderful woman in the world. Of course he did—she agreed with him.

“By God, you are a hateful man!”
“Anyone who tells you anything you don’t want to hear is a hateful man,” Hamnet answered.

If they had lawyers instead of teeth, they’d be as bad as people.

Hamnet Thyssen wondered if Witigis was a holy man or simply a madman. His vacant features didn’t promise much in the way of brains.

A man who gets angry at the truth will have a hard time in life, don’t you think?