Janet morris quotes

One man, one horse, one holocaust on demand.

Gather the shards of your courage. Patch together what resolve you can. We'll find this thing - and kill it.

The universe forgives those who give until their hearts are aching and their spirits weak, and finds a way to renew all strength and cure all ills, in this world or the next, if a soul can just have faith.

This was what men fought for, what men died for: a chance at life, and to fight on other days - the battle of your choice, of the body, or the heart, or the soul.

Be careful what you pray for.

Use him wisely. Few have been given such a weapon by the gods or Fates before.

I'm going to kill that god of yours, next. Then we'll see what you can do, and what you can't.

There is no mercy in trading life for life. And certainly no righteousness. Mercy, once given, cannot be taken back.

Sometimes a man does what he'd most like to avoid.

Nothing powers hate better than embarrassment.

What we hold sacred is honor, justice, and glory. You need not swear allegiance to our storm god, to serve with us. Fighters are among us from many lands, with many gods and many beliefs. Believe as you will. What is between a man and his god is theirs alone to say.

Death's easy to find. If She wants you, you'll meet Her here as well as anywhere.

Men live, and then they die. It is the quality of the process of living which matters, that and that alone.

Your honor blinds you, Tempus, to what's right and wrong these days.

Look around you. It's an honor to fight beside you. Today we choose to fight. For the freedom to fight on other days. So we remember what's worth fighting for.

Learn when to fear, and how to fear, and how much to fear, before you squander all you have left.

Gods and men honor those who have fought in battle.

I'm reverent from a distance.

No ethos, pursued without thought or mercy, is ethical.

Haste breeds error; error breeds woe.

One man can make another's life so much better.

Revenge is fruitless.

When I write what publishers call 'fantasy' I am writing in what I think is the most important tradition of fiction: starting with Homer and up through Shakespeare and Milton, the most important themes to tackle are those of the mythopoeic domain, tales of the body and mind seen through a temperament and a cosmos divorced from current reality so what is said can be more clear.

The two stallions, the silver and the black, represent the equine god (whomsoever horses pray to) in this ritual so ancient that no one knows what god to thank.

If, as you teach, the universe has no beginning and no end, why should we?

Revenge is never the best driver for a battle, but a common one.

And as for death - we get what we expect.

It was his soul's freedom that was in question. And that question was whether freedom was worth the price when it meant shirking the responsibilities of honor.

Life to you, Riddler, and everlasting glory.

When you give death, you give of your own life - every time.

We fouled up. I did. He got hurt. Badly, maybe. And the god...is not helping him today.

Time is so...fluid where I live

Tempus wanders eternally, bringing death to whomever loves him and being spurned by whomsoever he shall love.

Choose life over death, Niko, when a choice can be made that puts no soul in jeopardy.

As Seth's apprentice, I've learned wisdom of which you've never dreamed.

So well do I love you, I go to my god singing your praises. When I meet my father, I will tell him I fought beside you.

If it was true today, it might be untrue tomorrow.

You three have done quite enough today: all of you and your feckless, treacherous god.

Generosity is never out of season.

The city guardsmen were like the keres, doom-bringers of merciless vengeance.

You've been playing gods-and-witches again, that's clear.

The meaning of life, Nikodemos, is to live life with meaning. The purpose of life is merely to live it, perhaps to give it.

I...keep trying to be perfect. For you. So you'll notice me.

Gods colliding, ethos and mythos trying to combine. The Sacred Band caught up in a whirlwind not of any god's devising: he and Niko had wanted to save twenty-three pairs of fated Theban fighters. Now everything feels fated and fighting oversweeps its boundaries of time and place and plane.

Nothing walks the earth more savage than a mare enraged.

Niko knew death like a sister - she was his true partner in the phenomenal world.

Now the Fates are here on the beach, three shadows blacker than black, walking through the dunes and looking for their own. Just shadows, lamb-white hands beneath black robes spun of tears, glide among the celebrants on this night wherein the spirits of Thebes have found a home, if serendipitously.

Let fools believe what fools believe.

Painful things are quickly forgotten.

You must become like yourself.

What wastrel mankind destroyed takes time for nature to put to rights.

Valor was in Nikodemos, unquestionable, and commitment like trees to stand or night to fall.

The sun is new every day

It's all the same - no good without evil, no balance...no maat. If we lose one, we lose the other. It's just life, that's all.

Men make their own fates - it's personal, not a matter for debate.

All gods are tricksters, and war gods worst of any.

There must be a corps that will battle for righteousness, for there are endless battalions who serve unrighteousness.

Men may not believe you, my son. But you must always say the truth, when the truth holds no danger for you or your loved ones.

Everyone prepares for battle in his own way.

Nature has a surer plan than mortals can devise.

You have crossbows: Shoot early; shoot often.

Love sees all; hate is blind.

If, as Niko asks, you show them mercy, then the gods will be well pleased.

One to a customer was the rule: one body; one mind; one swing through life. - Tempus

These Stepsons tread where mortals don't belong, some of us think. They seek out battle high above their station. Who knows what powers may yet take them and their mystic allies to task, bring them their comeuppance?

Sanctuary is for lovers, not fighters, this season.

Tempus would be protected, better shielded from whatever the Stepson thought threatening, if love could heal and save.

Ask yourselves if the gods are angry, you who have seen Harmony come among us, walk among us, touch us, look kindly upon us. We are the Sacred Band of Thebes. We fight in the forefront, therefore we bleed first. We live, therefore we die.

You get what you expect. Expect to heal. Expect victory.

We know. We've seen it all before.

Humiliation sets armies marching, empires falling, breaks hearts and minds and souls.

It is upon each soul to recognize its limit.

War is all and king of all

The Riddler says you make the world better one battle at a time.

Wars don't bring lasting peace, only lasting death.

To take care of the world seemed, finally, a privilege rather than a burden. The Riddler had led them to life's greatest victory. They had found a home.

Wisdom, Niko thought as he leaned his cheek against his long-handled rake, cannot be had without price.

There must be love, and understanding, to betray. Most men haven't the wit or the honor for betrayal: not to know it when they see it; not the stomach to apprehend it as they do it. Most men, blind and dumb in their self-centeredness, don't betray: they merely disappoint.

Tempus never left a problem for another to solve. Tempus never let the pain or difficulty of an undertaking persuade him not to pursue a resolution his heart thought was right. Tempus never gave up.

The gods want to bring a better day, and you are their messengers. Trust not in all you see. Trust only in your hearts. And in us, who love you both.

‎For Tempus...was a dozen storm gods' avatar; no army he sanctified could know defeat; no war he fought could not be won. Combat was life to him; he fought like the gods themselves.

I think we're all in Cime's army now. But never mind, the Storm God hasn't forgotten us. Heaven is no farther away than it ever was.

I don't want to be any closer to the gods than death will bring me.

If the gods sent you to fight here, then the gods are fools.

For the gift of life, the only true thanks was in living fully, and facing death with honor.

Life was never simple, happiness never where you thought you'd left it, and right and wrong no more fixed than clouds in the sky.

Gods are nothing without their worshipers; they act on the affairs and the passions of men.

But we're dying here.

Be polite to all, friendly to none. Be professional. Be ready to kill everyone and everything.

Sometimes the cost of winning for all the right reasons is so great that spirits die and hearts grow cold.

He loves the world so much. I agree it would be a shame to take that love away from meadow and tree, stream and sky, and all that lives in nature, and leave them lonely.

Only from chaos does order come. The angry Fates bring death where they will, when war is king, says Enlil, storm god of the armies, and the tip of his crown rends the clouds above their heads. "Wheresoever I rule, death comes shambling after. So it has always been, is, and will be."

‎Old enough to kill means old enough to die

"Mercy is not in favor in my heavens today," says Vashanka, unforgiving and combative, folding vast arms and spearing Harmony with lightning that crackles from his gaze.

These warriors of the Sacred Band were inscrutable; they loved their war and death and picking through the bones of time to sort out right from wrong, good from bad, holy from profane, honor from dishonor.

If you want to write something completely unique, you will probably fail or at best write something without redeeming value. The mind works in certain patterns: the mind organizes facts in story form; it is your commonality with that body of human thought that makes a good book, not its estrangement from the common values that humans share.

I am always yours to call, wherever the sea can reach.

Then what difference does human striving make: mortal struggle, valor, pain? If you live, then live for the test of spirit, for the celebration of the heart. Live to fight on other days. Lose your beloveds one by one. And remember. Exalt the kiss of friend and horse and wind and sun, which venality cannot cheapen nor stupidity belittle.

It is hard to battle anger, for whatever it wants it pays from the soul.

Live to fight on other days.

For Harmony. A chance at life. To fight on other days.

Something is going on everywhere, most of which no one understands.

This is as 'alone' as I'm likely to get with you - you're not half so fetching as your daughter.

I see all sorts of things when I'm clearing my pipes.

I survive. I survived it all then and I'll survive the rest of it. Without your help.

Fight for life itself and everlasting freedom of the human spirit.

Always take responsibility for your past. It is your only collateral in life. Unless you despise yourself now, you cannot despise yourself then. Everything you did is a part of the process that brought you here. All your past is as alive and real as your so-called 'present.'

Gods have bloody hands.

Go carefully, child of mat, where no mercy can be had, and let your faith lead you on.

I see ranks ready for battle, stretching out. Five, six horses across, ranks in formation. Endlessly.

Wisdom, Niko thought as he leaned his cheek against his long-handled rake, cannot be had without price. And that price is blood. The sound of it in your veins. The pound of it in your head. The volume of it in a human body; the sickness when you've spilled it.

Strife brings all things into being on her battlefield. This I know. I have been there many times," says Vashanka, lord of sack and pillage. "I have died before.

Death is a doorway, Niko, that leads to an adventure greater than any you have ever known.

I thought we'd die there, quarrels in our backs, you for what you did and me for bearing witness.

The only unfair fight is the one you lose.

Such hubris could only come from a man's mouth.

The heavens listen to what is said on these cobbles. Laws of man and nature come together here. Here you must be firm. Here you must be true.

"Godling? Demigod?" Lysis nearly howled. "You'd be beaten black and blue in Thebes, and staked out overnight for claims like that. In Sparta, the secret police would ambush you, violate you, skin you alive and use your skull for a drinking cup."

Nothing he knew of, enunciated life like death.

Listen close and you can hear, Please, bless us and forgive us, and make us good here and strong here. Let us get along here. Let those we love and left behind be blessed. Let us find the proper path and keep to it. Help us act harmoniously, and find work pleasing in the sight of god and man.

And personally, I've lost my thirst for vengeance.

Survival has its own etiquette.

Arrows are cheap; you're expensive.

In this new world, this day and forever, then, we are not only Thebans - we are all Stepsons. We are all one Sacred Band. If you will have us. And mine will fight by yours, henceforth, as brothers.