A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, #1)

by George R.R. Martin

If you would take a man’s life, you owe it to him to look into his eyes and hear his final words. And if you cannot bear to do that, then perhaps the man does not deserve to die.

A ruler who hides behind paid executioners soon forgets what death is.”

“Can a man still be brave if he’s afraid?” he heard his own voice saying, small and far away. And his father’s voice replied to him. “That is the only time a man can be brave.”