Blood of Elves

To be neutral does not mean to be indifferent or insensitive. You don't have to kill your feelings. It's enough to kill hatred within yourself.

Mistakes,’ he said with effort, ‘are also important to me. I don’t cross them out of my life, or memory. And I never blame others for them.

Lepiej zaliczać się do niektórych niż do wszystkich.

I know you’re almost forty, look almost thirty, think you’re just over twenty and act as though you’re barely ten.

It’s better to die than to live in the knowledge that you’ve done something that needs forgiveness.

You’ve mistaken the stars reflected on the surface of the lake at night for the heavens.

You can't stop a soldier from being frightened but you can give him motivation to help him overcome that fear. I have no such motivation. I can't have. I'm a witcher: an artificially created mutant. I kill monsters for money. I defend children when their parents pay me to. If Nilfgaardian parents pay me, I'll defend Nilfgaardian children. And even if the world lies in ruin - which does not seem likely to me - I'll carry on killing monsters in the ruins of this world until some monster kills me. That is my fate, my reason, my life and my attitude to the world. And it is not what I chose. It was chosen for me.

Remember,” she repeated, “magic is Chaos, Art and Science. It is a curse, a blessing and progress. It all depends on who uses magic, how they use it, and to what purpose. And magic is everywhere. All around us. Easily accessible.

Intolerance and superstition has always been the domain of the more stupid amongst the common folk and, I conjecture, will never be uprooted, for they are as eternal as stupidity itself. There, where mountains tower today, one day there will be seas; there where today seas surge, will one day be deserts. But stupidity will remain stupidity. Nicodemus de Boot, Meditations on life, Happiness and Prosperity

When you know about something it stops being a nightmare. When you know how to fight something, it stops being so threatening.

You love her that much,' she stated, not asking. 'That much,' he admitted in a whisper after a long moment of silence.

Dear friend…' The Witcher swore quietly, looking at the sharp, angular, even runes drawn with energetic sweeps of the pen, faultlessly reflecting the author’s mood. He felt once again the desire to try to bite his own backside in fury. When he was writing to the sorceress a month ago he had spent two nights in a row contemplating how best to begin. Finally, he had decided on “Dear friend.” Now he had his just deserts. 'Dear friend, your unexpected letter – which I received not quite three years after we last saw each other – has given me much joy. My joy is all the greater as various rumours have been circulating about your sudden and violent death. It is a good thing that you have decided to disclaim them by writing to me; it is a good thing, too, that you are doing so so soon. From your letter it appears that you have lived a peaceful, wonderfully boring life, devoid of all sensation. These days such a life is a real privilege, dear friend, and I am happy that you have managed to achieve it. I was touched by the sudden concern which you deigned to show as to my health, dear friend. I hasten with the news that, yes, I now feel well; the period of indisposition is behind me, I have dealt with the difficulties, the description of which I shall not bore you with. It worries and troubles me very much that the unexpected present you received from Fate brings you worries. Your supposition that this requires professional help is absolutely correct. Although your description of the difficulty – quite understandably – is enigmatic, I am sure I know the Source of the problem. And I agree with your opinion that the help of yet another magician is absolutely necessary. I feel honoured to be the second to whom you turn. What have I done to deserve to be so high on your list? Rest assured, my dear friend; and if you had the intention of supplicating the help of additional magicians, abandon it because there is no need. I leave without delay, and go to the place which you indicated in an oblique yet, to me, understandable way. It goes without saying that I leave in absolute secrecy and with great caution. I will surmise the nature of the trouble on the spot and will do all that is in my power to calm the gushing source. I shall try, in so doing, not to appear any worse than other ladies to whom you have turned, are turning or usually turn with your supplications. I am, after all, your dear friend. Your valuable friendship is too important to me to disappoint you, dear friend. Should you, in the next few years, wish to write to me, do not hesitate for a moment. Your letters invariably give me boundless pleasure. Your friend Yennefer' The letter smelled of lilac and gooseberries. Geralt cursed.

Verily I say unto you, the era of the sword and axe is nigh, the era of the wolf’s blizzard. The Time of the White Chill and the White Light is nigh, the Time of Madness and the Time of Contempt: Tedd Deireádh, the Time of End. The world will die amidst frost and be reborn with the new sun. It will be reborn of the Elder Blood, of Hen Ichaer, of the seed that has been sown. A seed which will not sprout but will burst into flame. Ess’tuath esse! Thus it shall be! Watch for the signs! What signs these shall be, I say unto you: first the earth will flow with the blood of Aen Seidhe, the Blood of Elves… Aen Ithlinnespeath, Ithlinne Aegli aep Aevenien’s prophecy

is always murder, regardless of motive or circumstance. Thus those who murder or who prepare to murder are malefactors and criminals, regardless of who they may be: kings, princes, marshals or judges. None who contemplates and commits violence has the right to consider himself better than an ordinary criminal. Because it is in the nature of all violence to lead inevitably to crime.

Cats like sleeping and resting on intersections. There are many stories about magical animals but really, apart from the dragon, the cat is the only creature which can absorb the force. No one knows why a cat absorbs it and what it does with it...

Zwyczajem wszystkich szpicli świata unikali patrzenia w oczy i jak wszyscy szpicle świata mieli pospolite i wyblakłe gęby, którym usilnie starali się nadać mądry wyraz, dzięki czemu przypominali umysłowo chore małpy.

If the ability to make use of experience and draw conclusions decided, we would have forgotten what war is a long time ago. But those whose goal is war have never been held back, nor will be, by experience or analogy.

it is well known that if there is anything that makes men thirstier than the acquisition of knowledge it is the full or partial prohibition of drinking.

El romance hablaba de cierto brujo y cierta poetisa. De cómo el brujo y la poetisa se conocieron a la orilla del mar, entre los chillidos de las gaviotas; cómo se enamoraron desde el primer momento. De cuán hermoso y fuerte era su amor. De que nada, ni siquiera la muerte, sería capaz de destruir aquel amor ni de separarlos. Jaskier sabía que pocas personas creerían la historia que contaba el romance, pero no se preocupó por ello. Sabía que los romances no se escriben para que se crea en ellos, sino para emocionar. Algunos años después, Jaskier podría haber cambiado el contenido del romance, haber escrito sobre lo que sucedió en realidad. No lo hizo. La verdadera historia no hubiera emocionado a nadie. ¿Quién querría escuchar que el brujo y Ojazos se separaron y no se volvieron a ver nunca más, ni una sola vez? ¿Que cuatro años más tarde Ojazos murió de viruela durante una epidemia que asoló Wyzima? ¿Que él, Jaskier, la sacó en sus brazos de entre los cadáveres quemados en las hogueras y la enterró lejos de la ciudad, en el bosque, sola y tranquila, y junto con ella, tal y como había pedido, dos cosas: su laúd y su perla celeste? Una perla de la que nunca se separó.

The exception, as ever, was the children. Freed from the constraints of silence which had been enforced during the bard’s performance, the children dashed into the woods with wild cries, and enthusiastically immersed themselves in a game whose rules were incomprehensible to all those who had bidden farewell to the happy years of childhood. Children of elves, dwarves, halflings, gnomes, half-elves, quarter-elves and toddlers of mysterious provenance neither knew

L'intolleranza e la superstizione sono sempre state prerogativa della parte più stupida del volgo e credo che non saranno mai estirpate, perché sono eterne quanto la stupidità stessa. Là dove oggi torreggiano le montagne un giorno ci saranno i mari, là dove oggi si agitano i mari un giorno ci sarà il deserto. Ma la stupidità rimarrà stupidità.

There, where mountains tower today, one day there will be seas; there, where today seas surge, will one day be deserts. But stupidity will remain stupidity.

Shani smiled even more beautifully and Dandilion was once more filled with the desire to finally compose a ballad about girls like her – not too pretty but nonetheless beautiful, girls of whom one dreams at night when those of classical beauty are forgotten after five minutes.

he who fights with the sword dies by the sword.

Ciri accusava con voce stridula Cohen di imbrogliare al gioco. Cohen l'abbracciò e scoppiò a ridere. La maga si rese conto all'improvviso che fino ad ora non aveva mai sentito ridere uno strigo.

Why have you gone so red, crimson as a poppy? You wanted to know, didn’t you? So you’ve got the honest truth and faithful history of a world where he who shatters the skulls of others most efficiently and swells women’s bellies fastest, reigns. And it’s just as hard to compete with you people in murdering as it is in screwing—

Some have brains, so they get a book! Others are feather-brained, so they get a broom!

I’m beside myself with joy. I was worried you were going to ask me another one of your unequal grand questions.’ ‘Why not? I like your unequal grand answers!

Take this and put it to your nose or you’ll be covered in blood! Calmly, calmly, little one, just don’t faint. I’m beside you. I’m beside you… daughter. Hold the handkerchief. I’ll just conjure up some ice…

You don’t have to kill your feelings. It’s enough to kill hatred within yourself.