"If it is stupid but it works, it isn't stupid.
(a Shin'a'in saying)"
— Mercedes Lackey (Owlknight)

"Give your enemy a face, If he is human, do not dehumanize him. Know him and know why he is your enemy. If your enemy is within you, understand what it is and why you are afraid. Put a face on your fear. When you understand it, and it is no longer vague and shapeless, you will find that your fear is no longer so formidable."
— Mercedes Lackey (Brightly Burning)

"'One day,' Orest said, looking at him comically, 'you will say something that is less than practical and sensible, something that is driven by no forethought and nothing but passion, and I will probably collapse with shock.'"
— Mercedes Lackey (Alta)

"Truth and trust are the means by which civilization holds off barbarism."
— Mercedes Lackey (Alta)

"To treat a person like a carpet, it is necessary that one do the walking, and one allow himself to be walked on.
--Shin'a'in saying"
— Mercedes Lackey (Owlflight)

"You are human and mortal; we are the sum of our weak moments and our strong."
— Mercedes Lackey (The Black Gryphon)

"If they projected the fact that they are dangerous any harder, there would be little puddles of "danger" on the floor around them. Look, it's "danger", don't step in it!"
— Mercedes Lackey (The Eagle & the Nightingales)

"It isn't wise to be rude to one's mother. She knows everything about your childhood that is potentially embarassing."
— Mercedes Lackey (Elvenborn)

"Adventure, yeah. I guess that's what you call it when everybody comes back alive."
— Mercedes Lackey (Spirits White as Lightning)

"I have no place in my life for someone who is sure he can do everything.
--Steelmind"
— Mercedes Lackey (Owlknight)

". . . from what he knew about the Creatures of the Dark they wouldn t waste their time laying elaborate traps. They d just eat someone. "
— Mercedes Lackey (The Phoenix Unchained)

"Some must be warriors, that others may live in peace. "
— Mercedes Lackey (Exile's Honor)

"The dragonets found the carpenters to be even more fascinating than the furniture, and followed the poor men from pen to pen, crowding around to watch, tasting the wooden planks, trying to steal the tools. It made for an interesting day for everyone, as the boys tried to keep the dragonets away from the carpenters, and the dragonets tried to get at the carpenters, and the carpenters worked probably a great deal faster than they ever had in their lives, sure that the dragonets would go from tasting the wood to tasting them. "
— Mercedes Lackey (Alta)

"Mister Cameron - I have read the unexpurgated Ovid, the love poems of Sappho, the Decameron in the original, and a great many texts in Greek and Latin histories that were not though fit for proper gentlemen to read, much less proper ladies. I know in precise detail what Caligula did to, and with, his sisters, and I can quote it to you in Latin or in my own translation if you wish. I am interested in historical truth, and truth in history is often unpleasant and distasteful to those of fine sensibility. I frankly doubt that you will produce anything to shock me. "
— Mercedes Lackey (The Fire Rose)

"Honor was never taking the easy way when it was also the wrong one. Never telling a falsehood unless the truth was painful and unnecessary, or a lie was necessary to save others. Never manipulating the truth to serve only yourself. Protecting the weak and helpless; standing fast even when fear made you weak. Keeping your word."
— Mercedes Lackey (Exile's Honor)

"Assume the attitude of prayer, and in time, the attitude will become prayer."
— Mercedes Lackey

"Three things never anger or you'll not live for long;
A wolf with cubs,
A man with power, And a woman's sense of wrong."
— Mercedes Lackey (By the Sword)

"Of three things be wary-
of a feather on a cat,
The shepherd eating mutton,
And a guardsman that is fat. "
— Mercedes Lackey (By the Sword)

"Three things never trust in-
The maiden sworn as pure,
The vows a king has given,
And an ambush that is sure."
— Mercedes Lackey (By the Sword)

"Three things trust and cherish well-
The horse on which you ride,
The beast that guards and watches,
And you shield-mate at your side. "
— Mercedes Lackey (By the Sword)

"Better watch out said a second voice from somewhere under the Beetle. Don't park those two kraut cars too close together; it's springtime, and they might decide to mate. then Charlie'll be stuck with a garage full of little orange safety cones"
— Mercedes Lackey

""Do you know the kind of things that live up there?...things without names 'cause no one who's seen 'em has lived long enough to give them any name besides 'AAAARG!'""
— Mercedes Lackey (The Oathbound)

"Established religion is like established anything else. It's easy. It offers answers you can get prepackaged and predigested, right off the shelf, and the same for everybody. No thinking required, much less hard thinking. Like a board game--you follow the rules, you go to heaven. That's why established religion gets the assholes. They aren't "good" Christians. I rather doubt they ever gave up a thing they valued for any reason or anybody. People like that aren't good anything. What they believe, they believe because it's appropriate; it's what everybody believes because it's the right thing to do--in short, it's easy. Our way isn't easy. We get assholes too, but they usually give up and get out, or get it knocked out of them."
— Mercedes Lackey (Burning Water)

"She just dropped it and ran!!"
— Mercedes Lackey

"Three things see no end-
A flower blighted ere it bloomed,
A message that was wasted,
And a journey that was doomed."
— Mercedes Lackey (By the Sword)

"Three things know a secret-
First; the lady in a dream,
The dog that barks no warning,
And a maid that does not scream."
— Mercedes Lackey (By the Sword)

"If he didn't get out of here - right now - Harrier was either going to break into hysterical laughter or strangle somebody."
— Mercedes Lackey (Phoenix Transformed)

"'You jackass. We're all going to die here. You know that, right?' Harrier said.
'Yeah," Eugens said shakily. '...Guess I might as well die here with you as out on the desert with a bunch of other jackasses.'"
— Mercedes Lackey (Phoenix Transformed)

"She couldn't catch you anyways!"
— Mercedes Lackey

"'Yeah, well, that's what you said the last time it did this, and it was doing it that time too,' Tiercel said waspishly.
'Clear as mud,' Harrier muttered."
— Mercedes Lackey (Phoenix Transformed)

"...Though drowned was just as dead as any other way of dying."
— Mercedes Lackey (Phoenix Transformed)

"[Harrier] locked eyes with Zanattar. He couldn't remember another time in his life when he'd been this angry and hadn't hit something."
— Mercedes Lackey

"Harrier twisted himself sideways on his saddle to stare at him [Tiercel]. 'You had a vision,' he said flaty.
'Yes. No. I don't know. I...Yes. No.'"
— Mercedes Lackey (The Phoenix Transformed)

"'Harrier says the Wild Magic is as annoying as a goat. And the only other Wildmage either of us has ever met kept hitting him with a wooden spoon. Wildmages aren't like, oh - like Kellen and Idalia and Vestakia the Redeemed in The Book of the Light. They're people.' [Tiercel Rolfort]"
— Mercedes Lackey (Phoenix Transformed)

"If you would rise, do so alone.""
— Mercedes Lackey (The Elvenbane)