The Elfstones of Shannara Quotes

“Hurt leads to bitterness, bitterness to anger. Travel too far that road and the way is lost.”
― Terry Brooks, The Elfstones of Shannara

“Evil contained is not evil destroyed.”
― Terry Brooks, The Elfstones of Shannara

“Do not be so quick to accept as truth what is only conjecture.”
― Terry Brooks, The Elfstones of Shannara

“The Elven people believe that preservation of the land and all that lives and grows upon it, plant and animal alike, is a moral responsibility. They have always held this belief foremost in their conduct as creatures of the earth. In the old world, they devoted the whole of their lives to caring for the woodlands and forests in which they lived, cultivating its various forms of vegetation, sheltering the animals that it harbored. Of course, they had little else to concern them in those days, for they were an isolated and reclusive people. All that has changed now, but they still maintain a belief in their moral responsibility for their world. Every Elf is expected to spend a portion of his life giving back to the land something of what he has taken out of it. By that I mean every Elf is expected to devote a part of his life to working with the land–to repairing damage it may have suffered through misuse or neglect, to caring for its animals and other wildlife, to caring for its trees and smaller plants where the need to do so is found.”
― Terry Brooks, The Elfstones of Shannara

“It was not so much a sense of failure that he had experienced as a sense of his own limitations. You cannot do everything you might wish that you could do.”
― Terry Brooks, The Elfstones of Shannara

“Hindsight should have lent clarity to his actions; it did not. Rather, he felt a lingering sense of confusion. Everything seemed to jumble together in his mind--all the disparate incomplete reasoning, all the emotions that intertwined and colored. They would not sort themselves out for him; they would not arrange themselves in a neat orderly fashion. They merely shuffled about like stray sheep and he chased after them hopelessly.”
― Terry Brooks, The Elfstones of Shannara

“Some decisions cannot be made in advance of the time that will demand them. We cannot always anticipate the way in which things will happen and therefore cannot anticipate what we will do. We must accept that.”
― Terry Brooks, The Elfstones of Shannara

“But your responsibilities are sometimes given you without choice, without consent.”
― Terry Brooks, The Elfstones of Shannara

“He shook his head slowly. “Odd. I thought that hearing the truth about everything that has happened would help somehow. But it doesn’t. It doesn’t help at all.”
― Terry Brooks, The Elfstones of Shannara

“Hurt gives way to bitterness, bitterness to anger. Travel too far that road and the way is lost.’ He”
― Terry Brooks, The Elfstones Of Shannara

“We are not always properly equipped to face the difficulties life places in our path.”
― Terry Brooks, The Elfstones of Shannara

“Amberle”
― Terry Brooks, The Elfstones Of Shannara

“You are a son of the house of Shannara; yours is a legacy of strength and courage stronger than the doubt and fear that makes you question your Elven blood.’ He leaned down. ‘Give me your hand.”
― Terry Brooks, The Elfstones Of Shannara

“We are both inadequate in this, Wil Ohmsford. But we must do the best we can with what we are.”
― Terry Brooks, The Elfstones Of Shannara

“Hurt gives way to bitterness, bitterness to anger. Travel too far that road and the way is lost.”
― Terry Brooks, The Elfstones Of Shannara

“We first need to understand who we were before we can understand who we are.”
― Terry Brooks, The Elfstones Of Shannara

“With realization came acceptance, and with acceptance came understanding.”
― Terry Brooks, The Elfstones Of Shannara

“Fear is part of life, but it should be faced openly, never hidden.”
― Terry Brooks, The Elfstones Of Shannara

“Evil contained is not evil destroyed. It nourishes itself, grows within its confinement, swells and rages until it works loose, and then … then it runs free.”
― Terry Brooks, The Elfstones Of Shannara

“He saw little enough of people and little enough was more than enough, and he didn’t look to give them reasons to seek him out.”
― Terry Brooks, The Elfstones of Shannara

“Your home is wherever you make it. Your people are whomever you wish them to be. But your responsibilities are sometimes given you without choice, without consent.”
― Terry Brooks, The Elfstones of Shannara

“Early this morning I went to her, alone, seeking to find a weapon with which we might stand against our enemy. She gave me audience, speaking with the images that are her words, asking why I had come. I told her that the Elves had no magic save my own with which to counter the power of the Demons; I told her that I feared that this alone might not be enough, that I might fail. I told her that I sought something of what she is with which to do battle against the Demons, for she is an anathema to them. “Then she reached down within herself and stripped away this staff which I hold, this limb of her body. Weakened, knowing that she dies, she yet managed to give to me a part of herself with which to aid the Elven people. I did not touch her, did nothing but stand in awe of her strength of will. Feel this wood, King of the Elves—touch it!” He thrust the staff into Eventine’s hands, and they closed about it. The King’s eyes widened in shock. The Druid took the staff from him then and passed it wordlessly to Ander. The Elven Prince started. The wood of the staff was warm, as if the blood of life flowed within. “It lives!” the Druid breathed reverently. “Apart and separate from her, yet still filled with her life! It is the weapon that I sought. It is the talisman that will protect the Elves against the black sorcery of the Demon hordes.”
― Terry Brooks, The Elfstones of Shannara

“For evil left to itself, Valeman, does not simply perish; it thrives. Evil contained is not evil destroyed.”
― Terry Brooks, The Elfstones of Shannara