What's your favourite quote?

[Stephyn Blackwood]

I'm sure the wonderful Admin's will correct me if there's already a thread for this, but I was wondering two things.

1) What are your favourite quotes from other books?

2) What is your favourite quote that You have written?

For 1: (And I promise to use as few Joe Abercrombie quotes as possible )

"So long as men remember the wrongs done to their forebears, no peace shall ever last." - I cannot remember for the life of me the character, but it was from: A Dance With Dragons Part 2 by George RR Martin

"Honour, eh? What the hell is it anyway? Every man thinks it's something different. You can't drink it. You can't **** it. The more you have, the less good it does you, and if you've got none at all you don't miss it. But some men think it's the best thing in the world." - Nicomo Cosca, Before They're Hanged by Joe Abercrombie

"You can never truly hate a man until you've loved him first. And no matter what you do, there's always a bit of that love left over." - Logen Ninefingers, Last Argument of Kings by Joe Abercrombie.

"They say time is a great teacher but unfortunately it kills all it's pupils" - Jorg Ancarth, King of Thorns by Mark Lawrence.

There's were a lot more, and a bunch that I can't remember without trolling through the books to find them... So there

And for 2)

"It's only ever the commanders and the war heroes who get the credit. We grunts are just the background dancers for their great performances."

"Do you know the difference between a Hero and a Villain, my lord? I doubt you do, since I've been branded one. You see, it's all a matter of borders. Which lord you happen to serve. What virtues you were brought up with. Ultimately, we're all villains to somebody."

As you can see, I'm quite fond of quotes about war, and telling a good war story.
(All of which end up as Anti-War stories, because that's what we all should be, no? Anti-War.)

 

[Incanus]

I've always loved one of the quotes from the beginning of Tad Williams' 'Memory, Sorrow and Thorn' series. It is attributed as a Qanuc proverb (I quote from memory):

"He who is certain he knows the ending of things when they are only beginning is either very wise or very foolish, but either way he is surely an unhappy man, for he has put a knife into the heart of wonder."

As for my own, I'm probably not yet quotable. Nothing comes to mind at the moment anyway.

 

[stephenspower]

My favorite quote, or at least the one I've told others the most is, from Hemingway: "The test of any story is how very good the stuff that you, not your editors, omit."

I tend to misquote him, though--editing him, perhaps fittingly--by saying: "The test of a story is how much good stuff you can leave out."

 

[MineOwnKing]

1.) A few favorites:

a.) Seat thyself sultanically among the moons of Saturn, and take high abstracted man alone; and he seems a wonder, a grandeur, and a woe. But from the same point, take mankind in mass, and for the most part, they seem a mob of unnecessary duplicates, both contemporary and hereditary. Herman Melville, Moby Dick.

b.) “There is something fresh and crisp about the first hours of a Caribbean day, a happy anticipation that something is about to happen, maybe just up the street or around the next corner.”
― Hunter S. Thompson, The Rum Diary

c.) “Yes: I am a dreamer. For a dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world.”
- Oscar Wilde


2.)Private arsenal:

Dread steam exhaled from the captain’s labored lungs, spitting fire to his orders. “Harbor no mutiny, men! Get you all back to work or I will render your fat to oil while you still breathe. Words I’ll rhyme to the tune of your begging wails! Get your minds right and rise to honor. Our king goes to war!” - MineOwnKing

 

[CupofJoe]

If you have to look along the shaft of an arrow from the wrong end, if a man has you at his mercy, then hope like hell that man is an evil man. Because the evil like power, power over people, and they want to see you in fear. They want you to know you are going to die. So they'll talk. They'll gloat.
They'll watch you squirm. They'll put off the murder like another man will put off a good cigar.
So hope like hell your captor is an evil man. A good man will kill you with hardly a word.
Men at Arms Terry Pratchett

I am not brave enough to quote myself.

 

[kennyc]

one I recently collected (I love quotes!) ....

"We work in the dark--we do what we can--we give what we have. Our doubt is our passion
and our passion is our task. The rest is the madness of art."
- Henry James

and...

"We are here to laugh at the odds and live our lives so well that Death will tremble to take us."
- Charles Bukowski

"We all have our time machines, don't we. Those that take us back are memories...
And those that carry us forward, are dreams."
- H.G. Wells (English writer H.G. Wells born September 21, 1866)

 

[Androxine Vortex]

These are all mine that i have worked into my book

"The foolish value knowledge over wisdom."
(You can have great understanding, but knowing how to make wise choices is far superior)

"Philosophers, eh? What do they know?"

"Hold fast to your faith young Shepard, for your flocks you draw shall follow."
(Stay true to your faith toward God and don't falter for your sake but also for others because they will see you and you will influence them)

"Search for the truth, not a convenient lie."

 

[kennyc]

"Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light."
- Dylan Thomas born on this date in 1914

 

[kennyc]

"May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face;
the rains fall soft upon your fields
and until we meet again,
may God hold you in the palm of His hand."
- Traditional Irish Blessing

 

[thedarknessrising]

My favorite quote that comes from a book is in my signature below:

“It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to.”

― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

And from my own writing:

"Who said that every life was guided by misery and misfortune? what makes you think that people can't live lives filled with joy? War is common in this land, yes, but that doesn't mean that happiness has been extinguished. Happiness is found everywhere. It is not the same for every person."

 

[M P Goodwin]

At the moment my favourite quote is in my signature below. Will it cause controversy I wonder...or is it old news?

 

[MineOwnKing]

Books might not be threatened by Kindle, but book stores are.

One could compare digital dominance with global warming.

You can ignore scientific evidence and bury your head in FOX news all you want but if you live on an island, it's just a matter of time before you're neck deep in reality.

 

[Miskatonic]

The first paragraph from Lovecraft's The Outsider.

“Wretched is he who looks back upon lone hours in vast and dismal chambers with brown hangings and maddening rows of antique books, or upon awed watches in twilight groves of grotesque, gigantic, and vine-encumbered trees that silently wave twisted branches far aloft. Such a lot the gods gave to me–to me, the dazed, the disappointed; the barren, the broken.”