Janet Morris
Stop grieving. Start giving thanks to me. You live to fight on other days.Collection: Grief
There are stranger things here than Thebans know about.Collection: Destiny
Proof of war, when it comes, always comes too late.Collection: War
War's balance will prevail.Collection: War
You count up your dead, every one. Always. Recall them, each and all - every face, every heart.Collection: Sleep
Now the Fates are here on the beach, three shadows blacker than black, walking through the dunes and looking for their own. Just shadows, lamb-white hands beneath black robes spun of tears, glide among the celebrants on this night wherein the spirits of Thebes have found a home, if serendipitously.Collection: Beach
Survival has its own etiquette.Collection: Survival
All gods are tricksters, and war gods worst of any.Collection: War
War is all and king of allCollection: Kings
Only from chaos does order come. The angry Fates bring death where they will, when war is king, says Enlil, storm god of the armies, and the tip of his crown rends the clouds above their heads. "Wheresoever I rule, death comes shambling after. So it has always been, is, and will be."Collection: Kings
Painful things are quickly forgotten.Collection: Pain
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.Collection: God
Gods have bloody hands.Collection: God
Use him wisely. Few have been given such a weapon by the gods or Fates before.Collection: God
If, as Niko asks, you show them mercy, then the gods will be well pleased.Collection: God
Gods are nothing without their worshipers; they act on the affairs and the passions of men.Collection: God
The two stallions, the silver and the black, represent the equine god (whomsoever horses pray to) in this ritual so ancient that no one knows what god to thank.Collection: God
Arrows are cheap; you're expensive.Collection: Loyalty
Live to fight on other days.Collection: Fighting
In this new world, this day and forever, then, we are not only Thebans - we are all Stepsons. We are all one Sacred Band. If you will have us. And mine will fight by yours, henceforth, as brothers.Collection: Brother
If you want to write something completely unique, you will probably fail or at best write something without redeeming value. The mind works in certain patterns: the mind organizes facts in story form; it is your commonality with that body of human thought that makes a good book, not its estrangement from the common values that humans share.Collection: Book
Wars don't bring lasting peace, only lasting death.Collection: Peace
For the gift of life, the only true thanks was in living fully, and facing death with honor.Collection: Death
Death is a doorway, Niko, that leads to an adventure greater than any you have ever known.Collection: Death
Death's easy to find. If She wants you, you'll meet Her here as well as anywhere.Collection: Death
Strife brings all things into being on her battlefield. This I know. I have been there many times," says Vashanka, lord of sack and pillage. "I have died before.Collection: Time
Time is so...fluid where I liveCollection: Time
What wastrel mankind destroyed takes time for nature to put to rights.Collection: Time
Revenge is never the best driver for a battle, but a common one.Collection: Revenge
Valor was in Nikodemos, unquestionable, and commitment like trees to stand or night to fall.Collection: Love
The heavens listen to what is said on these cobbles. Laws of man and nature come together here. Here you must be firm. Here you must be true.Collection: Love
The sun is new every dayCollection: Nature
Men live, and then they die. It is the quality of the process of living which matters, that and that alone.Collection: Men
Choose life over death, Niko, when a choice can be made that puts no soul in jeopardy.Collection: Life
Loyalty must be forged - to him, to his: stronger than iron, from experience, from risk - it can't be bought, or taught, or promised before the fact. Allegiance must be earned so it will hold, win or lose.Collection: Loyalty
To the death with honor, shoulder to shoulder, and no one gets closer to a Stepson than his partner.Collection: Death
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?Collection: Loyalty
You're talent, and we're the talent scouts.Collection: Loyalty
No ethos, pursued without thought or mercy, is ethical.Collection: Loyalty
If the gods sent you to fight here, then the gods are fools.Collection: God
Men may not believe you, my son. But you must always say the truth, when the truth holds no danger for you or your loved ones.Collection: Love
If it was true today, it might be untrue tomorrow.Collection: Nature
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.Collection: Loyalty
Something is going on everywhere, most of which no one understands.Collection: Nature
Deception is a tactic: use it. Do whatever it takes to win.Collection: Loyalty
In every age he had ever studied, doomsayers abounded. No millennium is attractive to the man immured in it; enough prophecies have been made in antiquity that one who desires, in any age, to take the position that apocalypse is at hand can easily defend it. He would not join that dour order; he would not worry about anything but Tempus, and the matter awaiting his attention.Collection: Fate
But she has found real love, and love can heal and save.Collection: Love
Old enough to kill means old enough to dieCollection: War
Sacred Bands and elite squadrons aren't what the mercenaries' guild is about. Field them at your peril.Collection: Jealousy