Quotes from David Eddings

You're going to stay here and help Daran in every way you can. Don't let him sink into melancholia the way his father has...Now, pull yourself together. Blow your nose and fix your face. Daran's talking to the Rivan Warder right now. I'll take you to where they are, and then I have to leave. You're not even going to stay for the funeral? I've got the funeral in my heart, Pol, the same as you have. No amount of ceremony's going to make it go away. Now go fix your face. You look awful.

The Orb is not of itself evil. Evil is a thing that lies only in the hearts and minds of men--and of Gods, also. --Aldur

Refusing to talk about something wouldn't make it go away. If it was there, it was there, and no amount of verbal acrobatics could make it go away.

It's common knowledge that the church is nothing more than an invention of the priesthood designed to swindle the ordinary people of the empire out of just about everything they own.

most people need to believe in something. There are a few who don't, but they're a bit unusual.

One does one's best - Silk

Do you ever plan to grow up, Veltan?" he asked. "Not if I can avoid it, no.

Your--ah--intervention, shall we say, has simplified things in the palace enormously. We no longer have to worry about Salmissra's whims and peculiar appetites. We rule by committee, and we hardly ever find it necessary to poison each other anymore. No one's tried to poison me for months.

Does bouncing count? -- Silk, The Belgariad

Priests are pretty much the same the world over. They seem to feel that their exclusive contact with God gives them a certain job security.

The queen sighed. What am I going to do with all of you now! You're going to let us continue our journey, Belgarath replied calmly. We'll argue about it, of course, but in the end that's the way it'll turn out. She stared at him. You did ask, after all. I'm sure you feel better now that you know.

Now there's something for you to think about. If you don't know that you can't do something, isn't there a remote possibility that you'll go ahead and do it anyway in absolute defiance of physical law? That might be one of the drawbacks of education. If you don't know that you can't pick yourself up by the scruff of the neck and hold yourself at arm's length, maybe you can.

The priest DID have it coming, though, Lelldorin declared hotly. What priest? The priest of Chaldan at that little chapel who wouldn't marry us because Arianna couldn't give him a document proving she had her family's consent. He was very insulting. Did you break anything? A few of his teeth is about all-- and I stopped hitting him as soon as he agreed to perform the ceremony.

You'll fight with each other, of course, but never go to sleep angry. That was always my mistake.

I wouldn't do that, Silk advised. Thinking about it isn't going to help, and it's only going to make you nervous. Nervouser, Garion corrected. I'm already nervous. Is there such a word as 'nervouser'? Silk asked Belgarath curiously. There is now, Belgarath replied. Garion just invented it. I wish I could invent a word, Silk said admiringly to Garion.

We all live as long as we need to. It just happened that I have something to do that's taken a very long time.

Then you've learned something today. No day in which you learn something is a complete loss.

Don't throw good ideas away until you've considered all of your options.

What am I going to do? asked Ce'Nedra. First you ought to go wash your face, Polgara told her. Some girls can cry without making themselves ugly, but you don't have the right coloring for it. You're an absolute fright. I'd advise you never to cry in public if you can help it.

The men sit around getting fat and arguing with each other about something they call "philosophy" - most of which is pure nonsense.

And how long dost thou expect this dying of thine to persist?' The voice seemed only mildly curious. 'I don't know' I replied through a sudden wave of self pity. 'I've never done it before.

We call this a "bow", Cap'n, and the thing that's sticking out of that fellow's head over on the other side of the trench is called an "arrow". If you put them together just right, they'll do all sorts of nice things to people who aren't nice.

I've seen hopeless wars won before. If you give in to despair before you begin, you'll have no chance at all.

The land, indifferent to human boundaries, flowed on unchanged.