Top 100 Gemmell Quotes
#1. My point is there will always be vile men, just as there will always be men of kindness and compassion ... This world is a troubled, savage, place. It would, however, even be more ghastly if only evil men took time to master weapons. - Waylander from the book Hero in the Shadows by David Gemmell
David Gemmell
#2. I've read everything that Isaac Asimov ever wrote, for a start. I'm massively into my fantasy genre, anything by R.A. Salvatore or David Gemmell. I've read every single book those writers have written.
Robert Kazinsky
#3. Gemmell's name guarantees a satisfying story and a thumping good read. I recommend all his heroic creations - 'Druss the axeman,' 'the Jerusalem man,' among others - but my favourite has to be 'Waylander': Clint Eastwood with a crossbow and the same 'Make my day, punk' attitude.
Neal Asher
#4. I read mostly historical fiction - lots of stuff set in ancient Rome and ancient Greece. I also liked sci-fi and fantasy: David Gemmell, Raymond E. Feist. It's a nice escape from the world. As much as I do love real-life stories, they can often make you hurt in a way I'd rather not hurt.
Henry Cavill
#5. The purpose of debates is to explore issues, not end them.
David Gemmell
#6. Do not complain of life's unfairness. It is never fair - at best it is impartial.
David Gemmell
#7. The nature of a coward is to avoid death. If such a man courts peril there can be only two reasons. Either he is not a coward at all or there is no danger.
David Gemmell
#8. Fear is good, for it makes us cautious and aids survival. Not so with terror. It is like slow poison, paralyzing the limbs and blurring the mind ... Never, when in danger, ask yourself, What will they do to me? Instead think, What can I do to prevent them?
David Gemmell
#9. I think that for the coward every day carries a kind of death.
David Gemmell
#10. Alone you're refinding a glittering, a clarity, you're finding your distilled self ... You think of the two types of aloneness you've known recently: this wonderful, sparkly, soul-refreshing type, and the despairing loneliness that sucks the breath from your life.
Nikki Gemmell
#11. You don't dare to think ahead too much, for you don't want this melted under the heat of your attention, don't want it gone from your life.
Nikki Gemmell
#12. Boy," said Druss, his eyes cold, "think well about this venture. For make no mistake, you cannot
stand before me and live. No man ever has." The words were spoken softly, yet no one disbelieved the
old man.
David Gemmell
#13. In my experience all women deserve someone better.
David Gemmell
#14. War.
Such a little word, such a depth of agony. Blood, death, conquest, starvation, plague, and horror.
David Gemmell
#15. I remember an old teacher of mine once saying that behind every dark cloud the sun was just waiting to boil you to death.
David Gemmell
#16. Would ride into fire. For Odysseus that whip was pride.
David Gemmell
#17. Life is sad enough, Magir. Laughter is a thing to be treasured.
David Gemmell
#18. It would be a fine thing if war could be conducted as a game where no lives were lost. At the end of a battle combatants could meet [ ... ] and drink and talk.
David Gemmell
#19. Less of a Galahad than a Lancelot, thought Archer. A flawed knight in a flawed world, unstable yet unyielding.
David Gemmell
#20. Do not speak badly of yourself, for the warrior that is inside you hears your words and is lessened by them.
David Gemmell
#21. Our lives are spent sailing in the mist, hoping for a burst of sunlight that can make sense of who we are.
David Gemmell
#22. Win or lose, we achieve nothing in the world that we understand [ ... ]' 'But then the world does not matter.' 'Indeed it does not [ ... ] It is good to understand that.
David Gemmell
#23. Risks? I have lived with the prospect of assassination for years. What risks? All men die, rich and poor alike. But if I am to die, then let it be while I fight, not like some bullock in a pen waiting for the ax to fall.
David Gemmell
#24. Love is a mystery. We embrace it where we can. Mostly we do not choose whom we love. It just happens. A voice speaks to us, in ways the ears cannot hear. We recognize a beauty the eye does not see. We experience a change in our hearts that no voice can describe.
David Gemmell
#25. If you look at any ancient civilization, they've all used fantasy stories to train the young.
David Gemmell
#26. No one can take away the freedom of a man's soul.
David Gemmell
#27. Never be glad that another man has died. Not ever . [ ... ] It never ends. Never ... ever ... be glad to kill.
David Gemmell
#28. We are what we are my boy and wolves is what we are
David Gemmell
#29. They dont understand what real treasure is. They see it in gold and copper, and tin. They see in herds of horses or cattle. They gather treasures to themselves, building great storehouses, which they guard ferociously. Then they die. What good is it then?
David Gemmell
#30. Have faith in the wisdom of that we call change
Nikki Gemmell
#31. Makes no sense to me,' said Huntsekker. 'You don't know who is at your door, but you know the thoughts of a man twenty miles away.' 'Life is a mystery,' said Powdermill, with a gold-toothed grin. 'It is that, right enough,' agreed Huntsekker.
David Gemmell
#34. [ ... ] In real war an officer may have only one chance at succeeding. Consider each problem.
David Gemmell
#35. Life can be savored only if you look to the future and leave vengeance to the gods
David Gemmell
#36. I am a stranger. You do not need to lie to me or pretend. Only with friends do you need masks
David Gemmell
#37. So, he feels now, that he doesn't have to try. And you want him more than you ever have before.
Nikki Gemmell
#38. We make choices everyday, some of them good, some of them bad. And - if we are strong enough - we live with the consequences.
David Gemmell
#39. It is easier with strangers, for they touch your life but for an instant. You will not disappoint them, for you owe them nothing; neither do they expect anything. Friends you can hurt, for they expect everything.
David Gemmell
#40. We all have scars [ ... ] Better by far for them to be worn on the outside.
David Gemmell
#41. It is a merchant's nature to quibble over coins. It is how we become rich and buy satin shirts. The problems of who governs this area is one for another day.
David Gemmell
#42. There's no shame in fear. But understand this - the coward is ruled by fear, while the hero rides it like a wild stallion.
David Gemmell
#43. This world has few redeeming features, and one is the capacity for people to love one another with great, enduring passion.
David Gemmell
#44. I am not going to talk about patriotism, duty, liberty, and the defense of freedom because that's all dung to a soldier.
David Gemmell
#45. May all your dreams but one come true, for what is life without a dream?
David Gemmell
#46. Love is both wondrous and yet full of peril. Love is a gateway through which hatred - disguised and unrecognized - can pass.
David Gemmell
#47. [He] starts to talk and stops, feeling his way, as if it's all clogged up rusty inside.
Nikki Gemmell
#48. People without curiosity are like houses without books: there's something unsettling about them.
Nikki Gemmell
#50. Every little bit of good I may do, let me do it now for I may not come this way again.
David Gemmell
#51. A man with wife and daughters has no place losing his temper.
David Gemmell
#52. Live or die, a man and a woman need love. There is a need in the race. We need to share. To belong.
David Gemmell
#53. What is life if a man cannot count on his friends when he has gone mad?
David Gemmell
#54. The baresark loses all fear; his method is all-out attack, and invariably he takes his opponent with him even if he falls.
David Gemmell
#55. Be lucky, Xander, and be brave. You will find that bravery and luck are often bedfellows.
David Gemmell
#56. Listen ... You could spend a lifetime trying to understand the works of evil men. Their joys are not ours. They love to inflict pain, create suffering, cause harm and death. It empowers them, for beneath the skin they are empty and worthless.
David Gemmell
#57. When your life has been spent in one war after another for forty-five years, you have to be pretty handy to survive.
David Gemmell
#58. While men compete in war, there will be warriors. While there are warriors, there will be princes among warriors. Among the princes will be kings, and among the kings an emperor.
David Gemmell
#59. No man should ever completely realize his dreams. What else would there then be to live for?
David Gemmell
#61. None of us can choose the manner of our passing.
David Gemmell
#62. You're living your days at the moment how a sheep grazes, meandering, not engaged with anything much.
Nikki Gemmell
#63. I don't give a damn, laddie. Until the actual moment, when they cut me down, I shall still be looking to win. And the gods of war are fickle at best.
David Gemmell
#64. Life is not so simple. There are many futures. The life of a single person is like a great tree: every branch, every twig, every leaf is a possible future.
David Gemmell
#65. A man should not risk his life for beauty alone, Kiall, for that fades. You might as well risk it for a rose. Think on it.
David Gemmell
#66. It is said a man doesn't get old while his mother lives. I think it's true. You are always a child in her eyes. It is irritating in the extreme. But you know, when they have gone, you'd give the earth just to hear them treating you like a child once more.
David Gemmell
#67. A warrior feeds his body well; he trains it; works on it. Where he lacks knowledge, he studies. But above all he must believe. He must believe in his strength of will, of purpose, of heart and soul.
David Gemmell
#68. Your men are brave men, And you have won. I can live with that, Earl of Bronze a poor man would I be if I could not.
David Gemmell
#69. In any broth, the scum always rises to the top.
David Gemmell
#70. A man cannot spend his life worrying about the unexpected.
David Gemmell
#71. Not one of the creatures of blood can escape death. We all face it, and succumb to it. It follows us like a dark shadow. Yet if we live in terror of it, then we do not live at all. Yes we are born alone, and yes we will die alone. But in between, Tae, we live. We know joy.
David Gemmell
#72. A man can overcome his background, even as he can overcome a skilled opponent.
David Gemmell
#73. It is not hard to change when your biggest problem is whether the weeds prosper in a vegetable patch.
David Gemmell
#74. No need for confusion, my dear Mulgrave [ ... ] Beautiful wine and sour vinegar come from exactly the same source. Curiously if one leaves a bottle of wine open for long enough it will become vinegar. Happily in this house wine never survives long enough to go bad.
David Gemmell
#75. There are times, Sember, when I could believe your mother had a secret lover. Looking at you makes me wonder if it was one of my goats.
David Gemmell
#76. Love is in the eyes, and one woman knows when another woman is in love.
David Gemmell
#77. Liberty is only valued when it is threatened, therefore it is the threat that highlights the value. We should be grateful to the Nadir, since they heighten the value of our liberty.
David Gemmell
#78. Everyone makes mistakes. Everyone fails at something.
David Gemmell
#80. Most men just react to circumstances, but thinkers create the circumstances. If
David Gemmell
#81. He'll come because he has to. He'll come because that's what heroes do. They fight for what is right, no matter what the cost. -Galliott (Ravenheart)
Noor A. Jahangir
#82. It is said that the gates of paradise can only be opened by the tears of those left behind. I do not know whether that be true. It should be, I think.
David Gemmell
#83. When healers yearn to kill then hope begins to die ... Evil cannot be overcome by evil.
David Gemmell
#84. By nature of definition only the coward is capable of the highest
heroism
David Gemmell
#85. My enemies can soar into the night like invisible demons, conjure wolf creatures from hell, and read minds. On our side is a god that can lead a man to a ferry!
David Gemmell
#86. No matter how impossible this war, I shall fight to win. Whatever I have to do, I will do.
David Gemmell
#87. This is the real magic of fantasy fiction: it can feed souls and change lives.
David Gemmell
#88. Life is nothing unless death has been faced down.
David Gemmell
#89. Once I was a lamb, playing in a green field. Then the wolves came. Now I am an eagle and I fly in a different universe.
David Gemmell
#90. In every one of us is the total of all we have ever been, the sullen child, the arrogant youth, the suckling babe. Every fear endured in childhood is lodged somewhere in here.' He tapped his temple. 'And every act of heroism or cowardice, generosity or meanness of spirit.
David Gemmell
#91. The tree bark began to move, forming a face of wood.
David Gemmell
#92. If you want to fight evil, you have to climb down in the slime to do so.
David Gemmell
#93. All things are possible, ... Except the passing of regret.
David Gemmell
#94. And I am in love with light. Lock me in the sunshine.
Nikki Gemmell
#95. Nadir we, youth born, axe wielders, blood letters, victors still.
David Gemmell
#96. War. What was it about the prospect of some bloody enterprises that reduced men to the level of animals?
David Gemmell
#98. The point is [ ... ] that you never know whether you've lost until you've lost. Anything can happen.
David Gemmell
#99. Danger lies in the extreme. A man who is always cruel is evil, a man who is always compassionate will be taken advantage of. It is more a question of balance, or harmony, if you will.
David Gemmell
#100. Why now? Why not? Live or die, a man and a woman need love. There is a need in the race. We need to share. To belong. Perhaps you will die before the year is out. But remember this: to have may be taken from you, to have had never. Far better to have tasted love before dying, than to die alone.
David Gemmell
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