‘Fear is a gift. It keeps a man alive.‘
– Jon Shannow, to Kerrill, The Last Guardian
Tag Archives: Stones of Power
‘The trouble is that if you can’t forget, you can’t forgive.‘
– Prasamaccus, to Culain Lach Feragh, Last Sword of Power
‘All life is balanced. Light and dark, weak and strong, good and evil. The harmony of nature. In perpetual darkness all plants would die. In perpetual sunlight they would wither and burn. The balance is everything.‘
– Revelation, to Cotta, Last Sword of Power
‘To judge a man purely by his blood-line is folly. I have known the sons of cowards to be valorous, and sons of thieves who cold be trusted with the treasure of nations. Such treachery is not of the blood, but of the soul.‘
– Parmenion, to Cleander, Dark Prince
‘In a small section of the garden a tiny weed spoke to the blooms that grew there. ‘Why,’ he asjked, ‘does the gardner seek to kill me? Do I not have a right to life? Are my leaves not green, as yours are? Is it too much to ask that I be allowed to grow and see the sun?’ The blooms pondered on this, and decided to ask the gardener to spare the weed. He did so. Day by day the weed grew, stronger and stronger, taller and taller, its leaves covering the other plants, its roots spreading. One by one the flowers died, until a rose was left. It gazed up at the enormous weed and asked: ‘Why do you seek to kill me? Do I not have a right to life? Are my leaves not green, as yours? Is it too much to ask that I be allowed to grow and see the sun?’
‘Yes, it is too much to ask,’ said the weed.”‘
– The Deacon, The Wisdom of the Deacon, Bloodstone
‘You do not understand the world. Men like to think they control it but this is nonsense. Women rule, they always have. They tell a man he is god-like. The man believes them and is in their thrall. For without them to tell him, he becomes merely a man.’
– Prasamaccus, to Laitha, Ghost King
‘You are not an evil man. Do not allow one mistake to poison your feelings of self worth.’
– Derae, to Parmenion, Dark Prince
‘You talk about countering evil, and in essence that is a question of balance. But the scales are not merely linear. A great great amount of evil does not necessarily require an equivalent amount of good to equalise the balance.’
– Pendarric, to Galead, Last Sword of Power
‘These three mysteries the warrior must understand: Life, Harmony and Spirit. The first is life, sometimes called the Greek gift, for it is taken back, day after day. What is it? It is breath, it is laughter, it is joy. The brighter the light, the shorter its existence. But one thing is certain – and the warrior knows this. All lives end. A man can hide in a cave all his days, avoiding war, avoiding pestilence, and still he will one day die. Better the bright flame, the great joy. A man who has never known sorrow can never appreciate joy. So the man who has not faced death can not understand life.
Harmony is the second mystery. The tree knows harmony, and the breeze and the quiet stars. Man rarely finds it. Find it now, here on this lonely hill. Listen to the beating of your heart, feel the air in your lungs, see the glory of the moon. Be at one with the night. Be at one with these stones. Be at one with your sword and yourself. For in harmony is strength, and in strength there is life.
Lastly there is Spirit. Tonight you will want to run… to hide… to escape. But spirit will tell you to stand firm. It is a small voice and easy to shut out. But you will listen. For spirit is all a man has against the Darkness. And only by following the voice of spirit can a man grow strong. Courage, loyalty, friendship and love are all gifts of the spirit.’
– Revelation, to Cormac, Last Sword of Power
‘People say we no longer live in an age of miracles. It is not so. What has been lost is our ability to see them.’
– The Deacon, The Wisdom of the Deacon, Bloodstone