Ian > Ian's Quotes

“Stupidity is a more dangerous enemy of the good than malice. One may protest against evil; it can be exposed and, if need be, prevented by use of force. Evil always carries within itself the germ of its own subversion in that it leaves behind in human beings at least a sense of unease. Against stupidity we are defenseless. Neither protests nor the use of force accomplish anything here; reasons fall on deaf ears; facts that contradict one’s prejudgment simply need not be believed – in such moments the stupid person even becomes critical – and when facts are irrefutable they are just pushed aside as inconsequential, as incidental. In all this the stupid person, in contrast to the malicious one, is utterly self satisfied and, being easily irritated, becomes dangerous by going on the attack. For that reason, greater caution is called for when dealing with a stupid person than with a malicious one. Never again will we try to persuade the stupid person with reasons, for it is senseless and dangerous.”
― Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison

“Let me tell you this: if you meet a loner, no matter what they tell you, it's not because they enjoy solitude. It's because they have tried to blend into the world before, and people continue to disappoint them.”
― Jodi Picoult, My Sister's Keeper

“If there's a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it.”
― Toni Morrison

“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.”
― Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

“How am I going to make friends with these people if all I can think of is how easy it would be to rob them?”
― Trudi Canavan, The Magicians' Guild

“Christmas ought to be brought up to date,” Maria said. “It ought to have gangsters, and aeroplanes and a lot of automatic pistols.”
― John Masefield, The Box of Delights

“Hindsight must surely be the most useless function of the human brain, torturing yourself over the unalterable past.”
― Peter F. Hamilton, Mindstar Rising

“It is a sad truth that those who crave and seek power, invariably abuse that power once they obtain it.”
― Ian Gregoire, The Exercise of Vital Powers

“What is the point of having all this power if you can’t force people to do what you want?”
― Ian Gregoire, The Exercise of Vital Powers

“Solitude matters, and for some people, it's the air they breathe”
― Susan Cain

“I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.”
― Frank Herbert, Dune

“We are what we are. Nothing more, nothing less. There is good and evil among every kind of people. It's the evil among us who rule now.”
― Anne Bishop, Daughter of the Blood

“Your lands will stretch from sea to sea,’ she said finally. ‘But peace comes at the price of bloodshed. Five battles will buy you peace, four to win and one to lose. Many must die but you yourself are safe from death, except at the hands of your own son.”
― Lian Hearn, Grass for His Pillow

“Hope is the first step on the road to disappointment.”
― C.S. Goto, Dawn of War

“Let me assure you that your fear is misplaced. If you must fear anyone, you should fear me. Nothing and no one in this world can protect you from me if you do not tell me what I want to know.”
― Ian Gregoire, The Apprentice in the Master’s Shadow

“There's a darkness in each of us, afraid to show itself, wrestling with such blunt tools as words and deeds to make itself known to the darkness in another person similarly hidden behind walls of camouflage, disguise, interpretation. Honesty is a knife that we can use to pare away those layers, but one slip, go too deep, and who knows what injuries might be inflicted … The wounds an honest tongue can open sometimes take a lifetime to heal.”
― Mark Lawrence, The Girl and the Stars

“I grow old in the company of youthful ghosts.”
― Josiah Bancroft, The Fall of Babel

“Sometimes I wished I could cut away old memories and let the wind take them. If a sharp knife could pare away the weakness of those days, I would slice until nothing but the hard lessons remained.”
― Mark Lawrence, King of Thorns

“The past is always tense, the future perfect.”
― Zadie Smith

“The surest way to work up a crusade in favor of some good cause is to promise people they will have a chance of maltreating someone. To be able to destroy with good conscience, to be able to behave badly and call your bad behavior 'righteous indignation' — this is the height of psychological luxury, the most delicious of moral treats.”
― Aldous Huxley, Crome Yellow

“Yute told me a great writer once said that fiction was easy—all you have to do is sit in front of a blank page and bleed.” Livira snorted. “Yute said there was a people who took that literally. They wrote everything in blood, which he felt was trying too hard, but perhaps a good way to conserve paper and make sure you get to the point quickly.”
― Mark Lawrence, The Book That Wouldn’t Burn

“There is a pleasure in the pathless woods,
There is a rapture on the lonely shore,
There is society, where none intrudes,
By the deep Sea, and music in its roar:
I love not Man the less, but Nature more,
From these our interviews, in which I steal
From all I may be, or have been before,
To mingle with the Universe, and feel
What I can ne’er express, yet cannot all conceal.”
― Lord Byron, Childe Harold's Pilgrimage

“You are not entitled to your opinion. You are entitled to your informed opinion. No one is entitled to be ignorant.”
― Harlan Ellison

“When you sell someone a book you give them ownership of something without it being taken away from anyone else.”
― Mark Lawrence, Overdue

“Truly, life is the misery we endure between disappointments.”
― Joe Abercrombie, Last Argument of Kings

“When someone shows you who they are believe them the first time.”
― Maya Angelou