Mercedes Lackey > Quotes

“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

“If only. Those must be the two saddest words in the world.”
― Mercedes Lackey

“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

“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

“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

“You are human and mortal; we are the sum of our weak moments and our strong.”
― Mercedes Lackey, The Black Gryphon

“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

“The great love is gone. There are still little loves - friend to friend, brother to sister, student to teacher. Will you deny yourself comfort at the hearthfire of a cottage because you may no longer sit by the fireplace of a palace? Will you deny yourself to those who reach out to you in hopes of warming themselves at your hearthfire?”
― Mercedes Lackey, Magic's Pawn

“Some must be warriors, that others may live in peace. ”
― Mercedes Lackey, Exile's Honor

“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

“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

“Not forgiving someone hurts you worse than it hurts him...even if he doesn't deserve to be forgiven...Not forgiving someone is like not pulling a thorn out of your foot just because you weren't the one who put it there.”
― Mercedes Lackey, The Wizard of London

“Truth and trust are the means by which civilization holds off barbarism.”
― Mercedes Lackey, Alta

“If I'm walking on thin ice, I might as well dance my way across”
― 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

“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

“This I think I have learned: where there is love, the form does not matter, and the gods are pleased. This I have observed: what occurs in nature, comes by the hand of nature, and if the gods did not approve, it would not be there
~ Moondance k'Treva (Magic's Pawn)”
― Mercedes Lackey

“First commandment: there ain't no such thing as "one true way" and the way you find is only good for you, not anybody else, because your interpretation of what you see and feel and understand as the truth is never going to be the same as anyone else's.
Second commandment: the only answers worth having are the ones you find for yourself.
Third commandment: leave the world better than you found it.
Fourth commandment: if it isn't true, going to do some good, or spread a little love around, don't say it, do it, or think it.
Fifth commandment: there are only three things worth living for; love in all it's manifestations, freedom, and the chance to keep humanity going a little while longer. They're the same things worth dying for. And if you aren't willing to die for the things worth living for, you might as well turn in your membership in the human race.”
― Mercedes Lackey, Burning Water

“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

“In a calm, clear voice, she suggested that the wyrsa in question could do several highly improbable, athletically difficult and possibly biologically impractical things involving its own mother, a few household implements, and a dead fish.”
― Mercedes Lackey, The Silver Gryphon

“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

“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

“The freedom to swing your fist ends at my nose.”
― Mercedes Lackey, Sacred Ground

“. . . 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

“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 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

“I have no place in my life for someone who is sure he can do everything.
--Steelmind”
― Mercedes Lackey, Owlknight

“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

“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

“We're none of us quite so sure of our place in the world that we can't be rocked off our feet by bad times. It's the getting back up again that counts. Not that you fall, but getting back up again counts for more in the long run.”
― Mercedes Lackey, Intrigues

“How DARE the villainous cads be as clever as the heroes.”
― Mercedes Lackey, Reserved for the Cat

“I'm not out to disturb anybody's faith. I happen to be happy and comfortable with a belief system that has a dual deity and operates on a lunar schedule. It suits my needs. If you happen to be happy and comfortable with a belief system that features a single masculine deity and operates on a solar schedule, fine. I don't give a fat damn. What matters is what you do, not who's name you do it in.”
― Mercedes Lackey, Burning Water

“It's only gossip if you repeat it.Until then, it's gathering information.”
― Mercedes Lackey, Intrigues

“A quaint conceit, don't you think?”
― Mercedes Lackey, Magic's Price

“Zen Hugs - the hugs that you would get, if we were there, if we could hug you, but we aren't, and we can't.”
― Mercedes Lackey, The Ship Who Searched

“Assume the attitude of prayer, and in time, the attitude will become prayer.”
― Mercedes Lackey

“... sometimes good people [are] helpless... terrible things happen... to good people... there [are] sad endings as well as happy ones.”
― Mercedes Lackey, The Fairy Godmother

“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

“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

“If you would rise, do so alone.”
― Mercedes Lackey, The Elvenbane

“There’s no such thing as `one, true way’; the only answers worth having are the ones you find for yourself; leave the world better than you found it. Love, freedom, and the chance to do some good — they’re the things worth living and dying for, and if you aren’t willing to die for the things worth living for, you might as well turn in your membership in the human race.”
― Mercedes Lackey, Brightly Burning

“...Though drowned was just as dead as any other way of dying.”
― Mercedes Lackey, Phoenix Transformed

“Inexperience can be overcome, ignorance can be enlightened, but prejudice will destroy you.”
― Mercedes Lackey, The Black Gryphon

“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

“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

“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: Book Three of the Enduring Flame

“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

“...not forgiving someone is like not pulling a thorn out of your foot just because you weren't the one that put it there.”
― Mercedes Lackey, The Wizard of London