Janet Morris Quotes

Look to the souls of Your own soldiers, God, who labor in Thine awful cause.

Sometimes the cost of winning for all the right reasons is so great that spirits die and hearts grow cold.

The gods want to bring a better day, and you are their messengers. Trust not in all you see. Trust only in your hearts. And in us, who love you both.

And Tempus thought then that nothing was more worthwhile than what was growing in this whitewashed barracks, where he has come to build a force such as men or gods have never seen - a force worth reckoning with, if you were of a mind. And something was of that mind. And something else opposed it. He should have expected that. Battle in the heavens, battle on the earth.

‎For Tempus...was a dozen storm gods' avatar; no army he sanctified could know defeat; no war he fought could not be won. Combat was life to him; he fought like the gods themselves.

If cities have souls, Sanctuary's was troubled long before Tempus got here, and will be troubled long after he and his are gone.

For the gift of life, the only true thanks was in living fully, and facing death with honor.

I think we're all in Cime's army now. But never mind, the Storm God hasn't forgotten us. Heaven is no farther away than it ever was.

Die never for a god, Nikodemos who should know better - not your soldiers' god, nor any other.

You count up your dead, every one. Always. Recall them, each and all - every face, every heart.

Your honor blinds you, Tempus, to what's right and wrong these days.

Stop grieving. Start giving thanks to me. You live to fight on other days.

You get what you expect. Expect to heal. Expect victory.

Such hubris could only come from a man's mouth.

No ethos, pursued without thought or mercy, is ethical.

The meaning of life, Nikodemos, is to live life with meaning. The purpose of life is merely to live it, perhaps to give it.

We know. We've seen it all before.

Tempus wanders eternally, bringing death to whomever loves him and being spurned by whomsoever he shall love.

Choose life over death, Niko, when a choice can be made that puts no soul in jeopardy.

To the death with honor, shoulder to shoulder, and no one gets closer to a Stepson than his partner.

Nothing he knew of, enunciated life like death.

Revenge is fruitless.

Always take responsibility for your past. It is your only collateral in life. Unless you despise yourself now, you cannot despise yourself then. Everything you did is a part of the process that brought you here. All your past is as alive and real as your so-called 'present.'

There must be a corps that will battle for righteousness, for there are endless battalions who serve unrighteousness.

One lot apiece, one chance to undo an error or secure a fate.

"Dreamers and dreaming dead, lots of them from neither here nor there with no chance of getting home again, lost in place and time.

Sacred Bands and elite squadrons aren't what the mercenaries' guild is about. Field them at your peril.

Wisdom, Niko thought as he leaned his cheek against his long-handled rake, cannot be had without price. And that price is blood. The sound of it in your veins. The pound of it in your head. The volume of it in a human body; the sickness when you've spilled it.

Why is it we are always the targets of the angry Fates? Twice as many men of ours met harm as did theirs, since we've come here.

Don't blame yourself, or worry. Neither does a bit of good.

War is all and king of all

Everything that anyone respects is what men naturally excel at: fighting, accruing wealth, playing at power.

It's all the same - no good without evil, no balance...no maat. If we lose one, we lose the other. It's just life, that's all.

I survive. I survived it all then and I'll survive the rest of it. Without your help.

Vengeance is disappointing, always.

Live to fight on other days.

Time to unite the Sacred Bands, Thebans and his people: one unit, one heart, one swing through life.

Men live, and then they die. It is the quality of the process of living which matters, that and that alone.

Be careful what you pray for.

What would the world be without him, and those like him?

To take care of the world seemed, finally, a privilege rather than a burden. The Riddler had led them to life's greatest victory. They had found a home.

And as for death - we get what we expect.

Ask yourselves if the gods are angry, you who have seen Harmony come among us, walk among us, touch us, look kindly upon us. We are the Sacred Band of Thebes. We fight in the forefront, therefore we bleed first. We live, therefore we die.

A wise one determines his own fate.

Niko, you're halfway to where you need to go. It's the most dangerous time. And all the gods and forces have a stake in you, Hero. Or do you want to be just a memory, a cult somewhere, with people sacrificing horses to your name?

Death is a doorway, Niko, that leads to an adventure greater than any you have ever known.

You must become like yourself.

We've the new hard-steel, though why they're all so hot to pay twice the price when men're soft as clay and even wood will pierce the boldest belly, I can't say.