I need help finding quotes!

[Hazel]

Hi everyone, I need some help finding the right kinds of quotes for a book I'm working on. The story is a medieval historical fiction set during the time of William Wallace in Scotland. My main character is an English knight who gets captured by the Scots at the Battle of Stirling and taken prisoner. At first he is angry and tries to think of ways to escape, but once he starts to get to know the Scots and Wallace better, he sees that they are fighting for a noble cause: Freedom, while the English are fighting to conquer and oppress. And since Reeve was captured during the battle because his friend deserted him on the field was he was wounded by an English arrow, Reeve decides instead to throw his lot in with the Scots.

So, the kind of quotes I'm looking for are ones about changing sides for the right reason. They could also be about brotherhood (a big theme in this book) disowning family or country for the right reasons, or anything along those lines. I've tried searching my quotationally and the online quotes sites, but I not been able to find what I needed with only the option of one tag or search word, so if anyone knows any good ones off the top of their head, please let me know!

Remember to add the author's name of the quote so I will be able to put it into my story and not plagiarize anyone.

[J.D.]

Hazel wrote:
So, the kind of quotes I'm looking for are ones about changing sides for the right reason. They could also be about brotherhood (a big theme in this book) disowning family or country for the right reasons, or anything along those lines

“If having a soul means being able to feel love and loyalty and gratitude, then animals are better off than a lot of humans.”
― James Herriot

“I don't care a damn about men who are loyal to the people who pay them, to organizations...I don't think even my country means all that much. There are many countries in our blood, aren't there, but only one person. Would the world be in the mess it is if we were loyal to love and not to countries?”
― Graham Greene, Our Man in Havana

“Loyalty is for the dogs. Count me among the cats. And count me twice—once for each of my faces. 
”
― Jarod Kintz, This Book Has No Title

“I always think loyalty's such a tiresome virtue. ”
― Agatha Christie, Peril at End House

“It was a lesson most people learned much earlier; that even friendship could have an undisclosed shelf life. That loyalty and affection, so consuming and powerful, could dissipate like fog.”
― Jennifer Haigh, The Condition

“Loyalty was a great thing, but no lieutenants should be forced to choose between their leader and a circus with elephants”
― Neil Gaiman, Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch

“Be with a leader when he is right, stay with him when he is still right, but, leave him when he is wrong.”
― Abraham Lincoln

“A person who deserves my loyalty receives it.”
― Joyce Maynard, Looking Back: A Chronicle of Growing Up Old in the Sixties

“Loyalty cannot be blueprinted. It cannot be produced on an assembly line. In fact, it cannot be manufactured at all, for its origin is the human heart -- the center of self-respect and human dignity. It is a force which leaps into being only when conditions are exactly right for it -- and it is a force very sensitive to betrayal.”
― Maurice Franks

[[deleted user]]

Walter Scott:

Breathes there the man with soul so dead
Who never to himself hath said,
This is my own, my native land!
Whose heart hath ne’er within him burned,
As home his footsteps he hath turned
From wandering on a foreign strand!
If such there breathe, go, mark him well;
For him no minstrel raptures swell;
High though his titles, proud his name,
Boundless his wealth as wish can claim
Despite those titles, power, and pelf,
The wretch, concentred all in self,
Living, shall forfeit fair renown,
And, doubly dying, shall go down
To the vile dust from whence he sprung,
Unwept, unhonored , and unsung.

If this be treason, make the most of it!
Patrick Henry

[Hazel]

Thanks so much, J.D. Some of those are right on the mark.

@Diana: That excerpt from 'Lay of the Last Minstrel" is actually one of the few quotes I was thinking of. It's one of my absolute favorite bits of Scott's work.

[[deleted user]]

There's also this from a book I'm familiar with:

"We dream sometimes of what we most fear," he said, his hand seeking and closing about the amulet that hung at his breast. "But you must know that Horus does not challenge Set because he is assured of victory, but because it's the right thing to do. He fights because it is wrong to hold back for fear of the cost. If he knew at this moment that he might fall through treachery, he would face Set nevertheless for the sake of honor and of justice."

[Hazel]

I really like that quote, but I don't know if it's exactly what I'm looking for. It's rather hard to explain, all I know is I'll know the kind of thing when I see it ;)

Also, the title of my book is "On a Foreign Field" and if anyone knows a quote with these themes that actually mentions "a foreign field" then extra points to you! =)

[[deleted user]]

That quote comes from a rather interesting book.

I find it's best to make up your own quotes; some day people will be quoting you.

Do you have a quote that expresses the sort of creep that Edward The Hammer was?

[Hazel]

I do have some (rather good) quotes in my novel, but I wanted some that I will put in front of each part (I have five) that express the general idea of what goes on in each. I suppose I could use my own, but I already have a couple picked out and if I was going to do that, I would want to do it with all of them.

Haha, I think there's a several people who have a few things to say about Longshanks ;) Frankly, I can't think of anything that expresses the fullness his tyranny and evilness.

[Amy_Read to My Heart's Content]

Hazel wrote: "Hi everyone, I need some help finding the right kinds of quotes for a book I'm working on. The story is a medieval historical fiction set during the time of William Wallace in Scotland. My main cha..."

What about these?

-We must become the change we wish to see in the world.
- Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi

-To go against the dominant thinking of your friends,
of most of the people you see every day,
is perhaps the most difficult act of heroism you can perform.
- Theodore H. White

-Courage is doing what you're afraid to do. There can be no courage unless you're scared.
- Eddie Rickenbacker

This is where I found these quotes: http://www.lifesayingsquotes.com/chan...

[Hazel]

Thanks Amy those are awesome as well, and an Eddie Rickenbacker quote? I did some research on him a while ago when I was studying WWI pilots, didn't know he said that =)

[Hazel]

This topic is not closed! I just sent off for the proof copy of my book.

I just wanted to thank every one who helped me here, even if I didn't use all the quotes, I loved them all, and I might just use them later =) Slainte!