Quotes from The World of Ice and Fire: The Untold History of Westeros and the Game of Thrones

“No man can say with certainty what the future may hold. But perhaps, in knowing what has already transpired, we can all do our part to avoid the mistakes of our forebears, to emulate their successes, and to create a world more harmonious for our children and their children, for generations to come.”
― George R.R. Martin, quote from The World of Ice and Fire: The Untold History of Westeros and the Game of Thrones

“IT IS SAID with truth that every building is constructed stone by stone, and the same may be said of knowledge, extracted and compiled by many learned men, each of whom builds upon the works of those who preceded him. What one of them does not know is known to another, and little remains truly unknown if one seeks far enough.”
― George R.R. Martin, quote from The World of Ice and Fire: The Untold History of Westeros and the Game of Thrones

“Glory may be everlasting, yet it is fleeting as well—soon forgotten in the aftermath of even the most famous of victories if they lead to greater disasters.”
― George R.R. Martin, quote from The World of Ice and Fire: The Untold History of Westeros and the Game of Thrones

“When a wolf descends upon your flocks, all you gain by killing him is a short respite, for other wolves will come,”
― George R.R. Martin, quote from The World of Ice and Fire: The Untold History of Westeros and the Game of Thrones

“If instead you feed the wolf and tame him and turn his pups into your guard dogs, they will protect the flocks when the pack comes ravening.”
― George R.R. Martin, quote from The World of Ice and Fire: The Untold History of Westeros and the Game of Thrones

“The battle proved a victory—at least in part—and soon after, his grandfather finally died, and Ser Elmo became Lord of Riverrun. But he did not long enjoy his station; he died on the march forty-nine days later, leaving his young son, Ser Kermit, to succeed him.”
― George R.R. Martin, quote from The World of Ice and Fire: The Untold History of Westeros and the Game of Thrones

“You may dress an ironman in silks and velvets, teach him to read and write and give him books, instruct him in chivalry and courtesy and the mysteries of the Faith,” writes Archmaester Haereg, “but when you look into his eyes, the sea will still be there, cold and grey and cruel.”
― George R.R. Martin, quote from The World of Ice and Fire: The Untold History of Westeros and the Game of Thrones

“and all his smiles belong to her and her alone.”
― George R.R. Martin, quote from The World of Ice and Fire: The Untold History of Westeros and the Game of Thrones

“Too many peoples have traveled back and forth, and too many legends and tales have mingled.”
― George R.R. Martin, quote from The World of Ice and Fire: The Untold History of Westeros and the Game of Thrones

“Of all the queer and fabulous denizens of the Shivering Sea, however, the greatest are the ice dragons. These colossal beasts, many times larger than the dragons of Valyria, are said to be made of living ice, with eyes of pale blue crystal and vast translucent wings through which the moon and stars can be glimpsed as they wheel across the sky. Whereas common dragons (if any dragon can truly be said to be common) breathe flame, ice dragons supposedly breathe cold, a chill so terrible that it can freeze a man solid in half a heartbeat.”
― George R.R. Martin, quote from The World of Ice and Fire: The Untold History of Westeros and the Game of Thrones

“As the next thousand years unfold—and the thousands beyond that—many more will be born, and live, and die. And history will continue to unfold, as strange and complex and compelling as what my humble pen was able to lay before you”
― George R.R. Martin, quote from The World of Ice and Fire: The Untold History of Westeros and the Game of Thrones

“Yet there was one problem: at the age of nine-and-ten, Laenor preferred the company of squires of his own age, and was said never to have known a woman intimately, nor to have any bastards. But to this, Grand Maester Mellos was said to have remarked, “What of it? I am not fond of fish, but when fish is served, I eat it.”
― George R.R. Martin, quote from The World of Ice and Fire: The Untold History of Westeros and the Game of Thrones

“it was another of the Great Bastards: Ser Aegor Rivers, called Bittersteel. Perhaps it was his Bracken blood that made Aegor so choleric and so quick to take offense. Perhaps it was the ignominious fall of the”
― George R.R. Martin, quote from The World of Ice and Fire: The Untold History of Westeros and the Game of Thrones

“Like all tales, it takes on the attributes that make it most appealing to those who tell it.”
― George R.R. Martin, quote from The World of Ice and Fire: The Untold History of Westeros and the Game of Thrones

“The Westeros of Aegon’s youth was divided into seven quarrelsome kingdoms, and there was hardly a time when two or three of these kingdoms were not at war with one another. The vast, cold, stony North was ruled by the Starks of Winterfell. In the deserts of Dorne, the Martell princes held sway. The gold-rich westerlands were ruled by the Lannisters of Casterly Rock, the fertile Reach by the Gardeners of Highgarden. The Vale, the Fingers, and the Mountains of the Moon belonged to House Arryn … but the most belligerent kings of Aegon’s time were the two whose realms lay closest to Dragonstone, Harren the Black and Argilac the Arrogant.”
― George R.R. Martin, quote from The World of Ice and Fire: The Untold History of Westeros and the Game of Thrones

“Theron’s rather inchoate manuscript Strange Stone postulates that both fortress and seat might be the work of a queer, misshapen race of half men sired by creatures of the salt seas upon human women. These Deep Ones, as he names them, are the seed from which our legends of merlings have grown, he argues, whilst their terrible fathers are the truth behind the Drowned God of the ironborn.”
― George R.R. Martin, quote from The World of Ice and Fire: The Untold History of Westeros and the Game of Thrones

“Septon Barth’s claim that the Valyrians came to Westeros because their priests prophesied that the Doom of Man would come out of the land beyond the narrow sea can safely be dismissed as nonsense, as can many of Barth’s queerer beliefs and suppositions.”
― George R.R. Martin, quote from The World of Ice and Fire: The Untold History of Westeros and the Game of Thrones

“every building is constructed stone by stone, and the same may be said of knowledge,”
― George R.R. Martin, quote from The World of Ice and Fire: The Untold History of Westeros and the Game of Thrones

“Later during the Dance, Ser Elmo Tully led the riverlords into battle at Second Tumbleton, but on the side of Queen Rhaenyra rather than King Aegon II, whom his grandsire had favored. The battle proved a victory—at least in part—and soon after, his grandfather finally died, and Ser Elmo became Lord of Riverrun. But he did not long enjoy his station; he died on the march forty-nine days later, leaving his young son, Ser Kermit, to succeed him.”
― George R.R. Martin, quote from The World of Ice and Fire: The Untold History of Westeros and the Game of Thrones

“dark gods beneath the ground in the Frostfangs,”
― George R.R. Martin, quote from The World of Ice and Fire: The Untold History of Westeros and the Game of Thrones

“to wed his eldest daughter, Calla, to Aegor. Bitter his steel may have been, but worse was his tongue. He spilled poison in Daemon’s ear, and with him came the clamoring of other knights and lords with grievances.”
― George R.R. Martin, quote from The World of Ice and Fire: The Untold History of Westeros and the Game of Thrones

“Savage Sam Tarly, whose sword, Heartsbane, was said to be red from hilt to point after the dozens of Dornishmen he cut down in the course of the Vulture Hunt, as the chase after the Vulture King became known.”
― George R.R. Martin, quote from The World of Ice and Fire: The Untold History of Westeros and the Game of Thrones

“Maesters and other scholars alike have puzzled over the greatest of the engimas of Sothoryos, the ancient city of Yeen. A ruin older than time, built of oily black stone, in massive blocks so heavy that it would require a dozen elephants to move them, Yeen has remained a desolation for many thousands of years, yet the jungle that surrounds it on every side has scarce touched it. (“A city so evil that even the jungle will not enter, ” Nymeria is supposed to have said when she laid eyes on it, if the tales are true). Every attempt to rebuild or resettle Yeen has ended in horror.”
― George R.R. Martin, quote from The World of Ice and Fire: The Untold History of Westeros and the Game of Thrones

“When a wolf descends upon your flocks, all you gain by killing him is a short respite, for other wolves will come,” King Garth IX said famously. “If instead you feed the wolf and tame him and turn his pups into your guard dogs, they will protect the flocks when the pack comes ravening.” King”
― George R.R. Martin, quote from The World of Ice and Fire: The Untold History of Westeros and the Game of Thrones

“Vermax left a clutch of eggs somewhere in the depths of Winterfell’s crypts, where the waters of the hot springs run close to the walls, while his rider treated with Cregan Stark at the start of the Dance of the Dragons. As Archmaester Gyldayn notes in his fragmentary history, there is no record that Vermax ever laid so much as a single egg, suggesting the dragon was”
― George R.R. Martin, quote from The World of Ice and Fire: The Untold History of Westeros and the Game of Thrones

“I mean to give the smallfolk peace and food and justice. If that will not suffice to win their love, let Mushroom make a progress. Or perhaps we might send a dancing bear. Someone once told me that the commons love nothing half so much as dancing bears. You may call a halt to this feast tonight as well. Send the lords home to their own keeps and give the food to the hungry. Full bellies and dancing bears shall be my policy. - Aegon III”
― George R.R. Martin, quote from The World of Ice and Fire: The Untold History of Westeros and the Game of Thrones

“When Torgon Greyiron returned at last to the Iron Islands, he declared the”
― George R.R. Martin, quote from The World of Ice and Fire: The Untold History of Westeros and the Game of Thrones

“Ruhm mag ewig währen, doch kann er auch vergänglich sein - schnell sind selbst die größten Siege vergessen, wenn sie noch größere Katastrophen nach sich ziehen.”
― George R.R. Martin, quote from The World of Ice and Fire: The Untold History of Westeros and the Game of Thrones

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