Quotes from David Gemmell

he who fears to lose will never win.

But war makes heroes. Herakles and Ormenion were warriors, and tey have been made immortal. Father Zeus turned them into stars in the night sky. Oniacus scowled. 'In a drunken rage Herakles clubbed his wife to death, and Ormenion sacrificed his youngest daughter in order that Poseidon might grant fair winds for his attack on Kretos.

The truth is that every invention leads men to say: can I use it to kill, to main, to terrify?

Con te sono ancora il ragazzo di campagna che si è presentato sotto la Grande Quercia con la donna più bella di tutte le terre drenai.» «Non sono mai stata bella» ribatté Rowena «ma mi fa piacere sentirtelo affermare.» «Lo eri... e lo sei» garantì Druss.

But remember this: to have may be taken from you, to have had never.

But the baresark loses all fear; his is all-out attack, and invariably he takes his opponent with him even if he falls.

Fra tutti i dolori che ho conosciuto non ce n'è mai stato nessuno grande come la sofferenza di sapere che esso sarà senza di me, e tuttavia ti ho amata e non cambierei un solo giorno. E se per qualche miracolo mi fosse concesso di tornare al passato e di corteggiarti di nuovo, lo rifarei anche avendo la certezza che tutto finirà ancora nello stesso modo.

Live or die, a man and a woman need love. There is a need in the race. We need to share. To belong.

I've had enough of it already. Shining armour. Dawn parades. Forced marches. Midnight inspections. Penalties for sloppy salutes, uncombed crests, talking after lights out. The man's mad.

For each man there are different perspectives, but at the core they are the same. Never violate a woman, nor harm a child. Do not lie, cheat or steal. These things are for lesser men. Protect the weak against the evil strong. And never allow thoughts of gain to lead you into pursuit of evil.

Kassandra put her arm around her. "One day we will have no bones," the girl said happily, "and our dust will swirl among the stars.

Man alone, it seems, lives all his life in the knowledge of death. And yet there is more to life than merely waiting for death. For life to have meaning, there must be a purpose. A man must pass something on – otherwise he is useless.

This is the real magic of fantasy fiction: it can feed souls and change lives.

A servant brought them food and watered wine, and Parmenion sat and listened as Xenophon told of the March to the Sea and the evils that beset the Greeks. He outlined his strategies and his successes, but also talked of his failures and the reasons for them. The hours passed swiftly and Parmenion felt like a man dying of thirst who has found the Well of All Life. He

By nature of definition only the coward is capable of the highest heroism".

Our modern world, though infinitely more complex than that of ancient Greece, is also far more superficial. Where the Greeks offered simple psychological training, we live in an age of style and spin in which perceptions of good and evil slither and shift with the political view of the moment.

I think that for the coward every day carries a kind of death.

Death haunts everyone and never fails.

If you look at any ancient civilization, they've all used fantasy stories to train the young.

I make little distinction between those who commit evil and those who stand by and do nothing.

The baresark loses all fear; his method is all-out attack, and invariably he takes his opponent with him even if he falls.