“I thought you said you were the one in charge!" Ce'Nedra exclaimed.
I lied." Silk said. "It's a vice I have.”
― David Eddings, quote from Queen of Sorcery
“Exaggerating?" Silk sounded shocked. "You don't mean to say that horses can actually lie, do you?
Hettar shrugged. "Of course. They lie all the time. They're very good at it."
For a moment Silk looked outraged at the thought, and then he suddenly laughed. "Somehow that restores my faith in the order of the universe," he declared.
Wolf looked pained. "Silk," he said pointedly, "you're a very evil man. Did you know that?"
"One does one's best," Silk replied mockingly.”
― David Eddings, quote from Queen of Sorcery
“As long as I know that my motives are good, I'm Seldom very concerned with the opinions of others.
-Mandorallen, Baron of Vo Mandor.”
― David Eddings, quote from Queen of Sorcery
“Dost thou question my word, Sir Knight?" Madorallen returned in an ominously quiet voice. "And wilt thou then come down and put thy doubt to the test? Or is it perhaps that thou wouldst prefer to cringe doglike behind thy parapet and yap at thy betters?"
"Oh, that was very good," Barak said admiringly.”
― David Eddings, quote from Queen of Sorcery
“Young lady," Silk said urbanely, "I think you'd be amazed at how little Polgara's concerned about who you are."
"Polgara?" Ce'Nedra faltered. "The Polgara? I thought you said that she was your sister."
"I lied," Silk confessed. "It's a vice a have.”
― David Eddings, quote from Queen of Sorcery
“Mandorallen turned to Barak. "If it please thee, my Lord," he requested politely, "deliver my challenge as soon as they approach us."
Barak shrugged. "It's your skin," he noted. He eyed the advancing knights and then lifted his voice in a great roar. "Sir Madorallen, Baron of Vo Mandor, desires entertainment," he declaimed. "It would amuse him if each of your parties would select a champion to joust with him. If, however, you are all such cowardly dogs that you have no stomach for such a contest, cease this brawling and stand aside so that your betters may pass."
"Splendidly spoken, my Lord Barak," Madorallen said with admiration.
"I've always had a way with words," Barak replied modestly.”
― David Eddings, quote from Queen of Sorcery
“Someday you'll have to show me how you did that," Asharak was saying. "I found the experience interesting. My horse had hysterics, however."
"My apologies to your horse.”
― David Eddings, quote from Queen of Sorcery
“Whatever happened to him?" Silk asked.
"He went swimming in the Nedrane."
"I didn't know that Thulls swam all that well."
"They don't–particularly not with large rocks tied to their feet.”
― David Eddings, quote from Queen of Sorcery
“Let's kill the big one with the red whiskers then," another suggested. "He looks like he might be troublesome, and he's probably too stupid to know anything useful."
"I want that one," Barak whispered.”
― David Eddings, quote from Queen of Sorcery
“You're going to keep making these mistakes as long as you keep carrying your brain in the same scabbard with your sword, Lelldorin.”
― David Eddings, quote from Queen of Sorcery
“Behold Vo Mimbre," Mandorallen proclaimed with pride, "queen of cities. Upon that rock the tide of Angarak crashed and recoiled and crashed again. Upon this field met they their ruin. The soul and pride of Arendia doth reside within that fortress and the power of the Dark One may not prevail against it."
"We've been here before, Mendorallen," Mister Wolf said sourly.”
― David Eddings, quote from Queen of Sorcery
“If you'd just try, I'm sure you'd be able to fly.”
― David Eddings, quote from Queen of Sorcery
“Silk laughed. "You really should try not to let your knife do all your thinking for you. That's the one quality we find least attractive in our Cherek cousins."
"And we find this compulsion to make clever remarks which seems to overwhelm our Drasnian brothers now and then almost equally unattractive," Barak told him coolly.”
― David Eddings, quote from Queen of Sorcery
“He felt oddly powerless, as if his entire life were in the fingers of two faceless players maneuvering pieces in the same patterns on some vast board in a game that, for all he knew, had lasted for eternity.”
― David Eddings, quote from Queen of Sorcery
“As they prepared to mount, Barak's horse, a large, sturdy gray, sighed and threw a reproachful look at Hettar, and the Algar chuckled.
'What's so funny?' Barak demanded suspiciously.
'The horse said something,' Hettar replied. 'Never mind.”
― David Eddings, quote from Queen of Sorcery
“Because they were both young, she was intolerant and he was stubborn.”
― David Eddings, quote from Queen of Sorcery
“His outburst that morning had been directed almost more at himself than at Aunt Pol. He had called her a monster, but it was the monster within himself he hated. The dreadful catalogue of what she had suffered over uncounted years for him and the passion with which she had spoken – evidence of the pain his words had caused her – twisted searingly in his mind. He was ashamed, so ashamed that he could not even bear to look into the faces of his friends.”
― David Eddings, quote from Queen of Sorcery
“Mad with terror, many even leaped into the deadly water of the river. ‘We’re not going to be able to get through that mob, Polgara,’ Barak said.”
― David Eddings, quote from Queen of Sorcery
“But in time the night, as all nights must, came to an end, and the morning dawned clear and bright.”
― David Eddings, quote from Queen of Sorcery
“The land, indifferent to human boundaries, flowed on unchanged.”
― David Eddings, quote from Queen of Sorcery
“As long as I know that my motives are good, however, I’m seldom very concerned with the opinions of others.”
― David Eddings, quote from Queen of Sorcery
“By ostentation and propinquity to the throne, small men are able to avoid facing their own inadequacy.”
― David Eddings, quote from Queen of Sorcery
“Lying is an art. A good lie shouldn’t be embellished so much.”
― David Eddings, quote from Queen of Sorcery
“Disaster area. I've seen some messy offices, Leo, but his absolutely has to win first prize.”
― Kylie Chan, quote from White Tiger
“Worldwide Long Range Solutions Special Interest Group [ ¤ SIG AeR.WLRS 253787890.546]. Space Colonization Subgroup. Open discussion board.
Okay, so imagine we get past the next few rough decades and finally do what we should have back in TwenCen. Say we mine asteroids for platinum, discover the secrets of true nanotechnology, and set Von Neumann "sheep" grazing on the moon to produce boundless wealth. To listen to some of the rest of you, all our problems would then be over. The next step, star travel, and colonization of the galaxy, would be trivial.
But hold on! Even assuming we solve how to maintain long-lasting ecologies in space and get so wealthy the costs of star-flight aren't crippling, you've still got the problem of time.
I mean, most hypothetical designs show likely starships creeping along at no more than ten percent of the speed of light, a whole lot slower than those sci-fi cruisers we see zipping on three-vee. At such speeds it may take five, ten generations to reach a good colony site. Meanwhile, passengers will have to maintain villages and farms and cranky, claustrophobic grandkids, all inside their hollowed-out, spinning worldlets.
What kind of social engineering will that take? Do you know how to design a closed society that'd last so long without flying apart? Oh, I think it can be done. But don't pretend it'll be simple!
Nor will be solving the dilemma of gene pool isolation. In the arks and zoos right now, a lot of rescued species are dying off even though the microecologies are right, simply because too few individuals were included in the original mix. For a healthy gene pool you need diversity, variety, heterozygosity.
One thing's clear, no starship will make it carrying only one racial group. What'll be needed, frankly, are mongrels… people who've bred back and forth with just about everybody and seem to enjoy it.”
― David Brin, quote from Earth
“Perhaps this was what Queens did. Perhaps they held their Kings in the darkness, deep within their castles and allowed them that moment of weakness they could never show to anyone else. Perhaps they gave strength to their Kings, because everyone else only took it from them.”
― David Gaider, quote from The Stolen Throne
“What if you can't, Austin? You can't help everyone."
"At least I'll know I tried.”
― Megan Bostic, quote from Never Eighteen
“While she was light and sunshine, he was nothing but clouds and darkness.”
― Victoria Michaels, quote from Trust in Advertising
BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.
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