Zalanthan-esque Quote of the Day

[razorback]

"It will make you powerful. But it will also make you weak. Your prowess in combat will be beyond any mortal's, but your weaknesses, your failings will increase as well."

[Delirium]

"If you do not have a tragic backstory, one will be assigned to you."

[MeTekillot]

"The breed had fine, slender hands, but Amos had seen him crack a cunyati shell with two fingers. He was an enigma. As sensual and indolent as any courtesan and yet as deadly as an assassin."
--
"Unfortunately for Malik, we had not yet developed the ability to empathize with the pain and suffering of other people, and his terrified fleeing was pretty much the most fun thing that had ever happened to us."
--
"On the contrary. Death is the ultimate fairness. Rich and poor, young and old, all are equal in death. You would not like to see Drov play favorites."
--
"Are you saying I'm a liar?"
"I'm saying you're an optimist. Same thing basically."
--
"See? Discovering the truth doesn't necessarily lead to a sense of hope. Truth can be full of despair, too! Like right fuckin' now!"
--
"My favorite three questions are, What do I want?, What do I have?, and How can I best use the latter to get the former?"
--
"Not a "crazed murderer", Pa, I'm an assassin! ...Well the "difference" bein' one is a job, and the other's mental sickness!"
--
"Nilaz at the gates. Howling my name. Can't greet you today, I have a fight to win."
--
"A suicide mission? Hm. Yes, a suicide mission will do nicely."
--
"Lay down your weapon and submit to the Highlord's justice! You're surrounded."
"All I'm surrounded by is fear. And dead men."
--

[MeTekillot]

"From deep down in my stomach, with every inch of me, I pure, straight hate. But Highlord's balls do I respect you!"
--
"Finally. A man worth killing."
--
"I keep forgetting that he's smarter than me. He is an exceedingly dangerous man. I may have to kill him...
... or offer him a job."
--
"I'd dearly love to fight you someday. And I mean that with the greatest respect."
--
"I regret that we meet in this way. You and I are of a kind. In a different reality, I could call you friend."
--
"Only one human has survived battle with a mantis hive. She is behind me. You are in front of me. If you value your lives, be somewhere else."
--

[MeTekillot]

"In reality, when you have once devoted your life to your enterprises, you are no longer the equal of other men, or, rather, other men are no longer your equals, and whosoever has taken this resolution, feels his strength and resources doubled."
--
"No mind to think.
No will to break.
No voice to cry suffering."
--

[MeTekillot]

"You think I've crossed a line. There is no line. For the safety of this city, there is no one I will not sacrifice, no monster I will not call friend, no enemy I will not sleep with."
--
"You're all puppets, tangled in strings... There are no strings on me."
--
"A man is his own easiest dupe, for what he wishes to be true he generally believes to be true."
--
"I see only one move ahead, but it is always the correct one."
--
"There is blood on my hands, how long till it lies on my heart?"
--
"Drov tried to cut her string but found the thread had turned to steel."
--
"If there can be no victory, then I will fight forever."
--
"Lord Borsail, what kind of a woman is Captain Talia?"
"Oh, she's just like any other woman, only more so."
--
"YOU'RE NOT BUILT FOR THIS SHIT!"
--
"Everyone sees what you appear to be, few really know what you really are."
--
"In his head there is a voice, wild with laughter, crying, Reject me, try it, lay one hand on me again and you will be pieces, all of you, and your pathetic ruin, nothing but dust. Outwardly he holds to that slight, polite smile."
--
"No, bring your blade to parry. Then across. Try again. No, that's totally wrong! Ten lashes for getting blood on my uniform. Medic!"
--

[MeTekillot]

"Most of this is my blood, don't worry."

[Voular]

"Why does everyone run toward a blood-curdling scream?" mumbled the Senior Wrangler. "It's contrary to all sense."
--
"It's partly true, too, but it isn't all true. People always think something's all true."
--
"They built a wall and a temple on the edge of the Empire garrison town.
They lived and they died, They prayed to their gods,
But the stone gods did not make a sound.
And their empire crumbled Till all that was left
Were the stones the workmen found..."
--
"No man ever steps on the same dune twice, for it's not the same dune and he's not the same man."
--
"Even a god cannot change the past."
--
"She had simply shed the mantle of slavery as easily as she had worn it, making him realize that she had never really worn it at all."
--
"Do you think we can be friends?" I asked.
He stared up at the ceiling. "Probably not, but we can pretend."
--
"I don't do magic. I turn your attention back to last night and the big-ass sword I was carrying. My job is to run and swing."
--
"She's only a girl. What kind of men are you?'
'Dead ones?' asked Drith, who yanked the door open and put her sword through Narses' throat."
--
"Illusions may flatter us, confuse us, or betray us, Drakkonwehr. Or they may be images we cling to when the truth is too difficult to face."
--
"Who can't defend the wealth they have must die, or share with the rover bold."
--
"Dragons were notoriously finicky about whom they ate, and thought it the height of bad manners to be kept waiting by their selected fare."
--
"[...] the whole idea of stealing fantastically dangerous weapons presents the would-be perp with inherent dangers and contradictions: When you are wrestling for possession of a sword, the man with the handle always wins."
--
"The Lion banner sways and falls in the horror-haunted gloom;
A scarlet Dragon rustles by, borne on winds of doom.
In heaps the shining horsemen lie, where the thrusting lances break,
And deep in the haunted mountains, the lost, black gods awake.
Dead hands grope in the shadows, the stars turn pale with fright,
For this is the Dragon's Hour, the triumph of Fear and Night."

[Mr. Fancypants]

[MeTekillot]

"Why are you always smiling?"
"Because it's all so fuckin' hysterical..."
--
"I love you the way a knife loves a heart, the way an elf loves a crowd - the way your mother warned you about, essentially."
--
"This crowd was waiting uncertainly for news that it was going to become a riot."
--
"Can you dig it?"
--
"Are you going to kill me?"
"Now, come on, let's not dwell on horrid things. This is going to be our last conversation, and I'm the one who's going to have to live with that."
--
"I don't fear what hides in the darkness. I fear what hides in the light."
--

[MeTekillot]

"To the selfish, all are selfish."
--
"You have no idea who you're dealing with."
"Yes, I do. Do you?"
--
"What you are, you are by accident of birth; what I am, I am by myself. There are and will be a thousand Lords; there is only one Plainsman."
--
"Someday, someone will best me. But it won't be today, and it won't be you."
--
"Everything that happens, happens for a reason, little one. And that reason is me."
--
"If you think that's enough to kill me, you really don't know what a Rukkian is. Trust me when I say you're gonna find out."
--
"When an insane bitch armed with sixteen knives is rapidly closing on one, my Lord, it is, perhaps, best to do as she instructs. Heave-to, sir, that is my final instruction."
--
"The dark is terrible, surrounds you, and is never empty as it seems. Though monsters lurk, know this: none is hungrier than me."
--
"A Bastard should be able to mollify an infant, plan an invasion, butcher a scrab, pilot a skimmer, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch tar, train a unit, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for the common-blooded."
--
"To become great, one must be able to do more than fight."
--

[Delirium]

"When I reflect on my companions' inner natures I usually wish I controlled one small talent. I wish I could look inside them and unmask the darks and brights that move them. Then I take a quick look into the jungle of my own soul and thank heaven that I cannot. Any man who barely sustains an armistice with himself has no business poking around in an alien soul."
  Glenn Cook, The Black Company

[MeTekillot]

Dominic: You played a good hand, ma'am.
Adelle: I played a very bad hand very well. There is a distinction.
— Dollhouse

[Aesuna]

"When someone leaves your life, those exits are not made equal. Some are beautiful and poetic and satisfying. Others are abrupt and unfair. But most are just unremarkable, unintentional, clumsy."

[MeTekillot]

"She is never more dangerous than when the odds are against her."

[MeTekillot]

"What is better? To be born good, or to overcome your evil nature through great effort?"
--
"Kill the boy, and let the man be born."

[Voular]

"The hero decides to give their life to save the day, and because of their sacrifice the good guys win, the survivors all cheer, and everybody lives happily ever after. But the hero never gets to see that ending.  They'll never know if their sacrifice actually made a difference. They'll never know if the day was really saved. In the end they just have to have faith. Ain't that a bitch?"
--
"We live with dignity. We can't die with it."
--
"This is my family. I found it all on my own. It's a little broken but still good. Yeah, still good."
--
"Same thing that always happens, you didn't know me then you fell in love with me and now you know me"
--
"Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement."
--
"Crom, I have never prayed to you before. I have no tongue for it. No one, not even you, will remember if we were good men or bad. Why we fought, or why we died. All that matters is that two stood against many. That's what's important! Valor pleases you, Crom... so grant me one request. Grant me revenge! And if you do not listen, then the HELL with you!"¨
--
"It was passed on by the hook-nosed herdsmen of the grasslands, from the dwellers in tents to the dwellers in the squat stone cities where kings with curled blueblack beards worshipped round-bellied gods with curious rites."
--
"Men spoke of tribal war, of a gathering of vultures in the southeast, and a terrible leader who led his swiftly increasing hordes to victory."
--
"There comes a time, thief, when the jewels cease to sparkle, when the gold loses its luster, when the throne room becomes a prison, and all that is left is a father's love for his child."
--
"All the gods, they cannot sever us. If I were dead and you were still fighting for life, I'd come back from the darkness. Back from the pit of hell to fight at your side."
--
"He was like a tiger among baboons as he leaped, side-stepped and spun, offering an ever-moving target, while his ax wove a shining wheel of death about him."
--
"You cannot escape me!" he roared. "Lead me into a trap and I'll pile the heads of your kinsmen at your feet! Hide from me and I'll tear apart the mountains to find you! I'll follow you to hell!"
--
Arus the watchman grasped his crossbow with shaky hands, and he felt beads of clammy perspiration on his skin as he stared at the unlovely corpse sprawling on the polished floor before him. It is not pleasant to come upon Death in a lonely place at midnight.
--
He grunted with satisfaction. The feel of the hilt cheered him and gave him a glow of confidence. Whatever webs of conspiracy were drawn about him, whatever trickery and treachery ensnared him, this knife was real. The great muscles of his right arm swelled in anticipation of murderous blows.

[MeTekillot]

"Always looking at himself in mirrors to make sure he was sufficiently outrageous."
--
"Mad, bad, and dangerous to know."
--

[MeTekillot]

"But she didn't need to be stronger than him. She only needed to be stronger than the little bones in his neck."
--

[Raptor_Dan]

"Get busy living, or get busy dying."

"When his life was ruined, his family killed, his farm destroyed, Amos knelt down on the ground and yelled up to the sky, "Why Higlord? Why me?" and the thundering voice of Tektolnes answered, 'There's just something about you that pisses me off.'"

[MeTekillot]

"If you want a boy to like you, just look at him and smile a lot, and laugh everything he says, even if it's not funny!"
"That sounds shallow and stupid. Let's try it!"
--

[Halcyon]

"The lower ranks have the privilege of questioning the sanity and competence of their commanders. It's the mortar holding an army together."


"More evil gets done in the name of righteousness than any other way."


"You who come after me, by now realize that I shy off portraying the whole truth about our band of blackguards. You know they are vicious, violent, and ignorant. They are complete barbarians, living out their cruelest fantasies, their behavior tempered only by the presence of a few decent men. I do not often show that side because these men are my brethren, my family, and I was taught young not to speak ill of kin. The old lessons die hardest."

[ShaLeah]

"No oppressive order could permit the oppressed to begin to question: Why?"
― Paulo Freire

[Decadent Decisions]

"I can avoid being seen if I wish. But to disappear entirely, that is a rare gift." - Strider (Aragorn)

[Thomoto]

"I won't fall was his last words."

Splat