To Green Angel Tower Quotes

“A man who will not listen carefully to advice honestly given is a fool. Of course, a man who blindly takes any advice he receives is a bigger fool.”
― Tad Williams, To Green Angel Tower

“Even the king's Erkynguard might have wished to be elsewhere, rather than here on this killing ground where duty brought them and loyalty prisoned them. Only the mercenaries were here by choice. To Simon, the minds of men who would come to this of their own will were suddenly as incomprehensible as the thoughts of spiders or lizards—less so, even, for the small creatures of the earth almost always fled from danger. These were madmen, Simon realized, and that was the direst problem of the world: that madmen should be strong and unafraid, so that they could force their will on the weak and peace-loving. If God allowed such madness to be, Simon could not help thinking, then He was an old god who had lost His grip.”
― Tad Williams, To Green Angel Tower

“Good stories will tell you that facing the lie is the worst terror of all. And there is no talisman or magic sword that is half so potent a weapon as truth”
― Tad Williams, To Green Angel Tower

“To fight a war, you must believe it can accomplish something. We fight this one to save John’s kingdom, or perhaps even to save all of mankind... but isn’t that what we always think? That all wars are useless—except the one we’re fighting now?”
― Tad Williams, To Green Angel Tower

“Fight and live, fight and die, God waits for all.”
― Tad Williams, To Green Angel Tower

“Thank you for your news, Princess. It is none of it happy, but only a fool desires cheerful ignorance and I try not to be a fool. That is my heaviest burden.”
― Tad Williams, To Green Angel Tower

“But a mouse can be brave. Small as they are, though, they learn it is wiser not to challenge the cat.”
― Tad Williams, To Green Angel Tower, Part 1

“Welcome, Simon, to the world of those who are every day condemned to thinking and wondering and never ever knowing with certainness.”
― Tad Williams, To Green Angel Tower

“Just for once, Binabik, I want you to tell me there is an answer for something. I’m tired of thinking so much.” The troll laughed. “The punishment for being born . . . no, perhaps that is too much to be calling that. The punishment for being truly alive—that is fair to say. Welcome, Simon, to the world of those who are every day condemned to thinking and wondering and never ever knowing with certainness.”
― Tad Williams, To Green Angel Tower

“Of all the songs we Zida'ya sing," she (Aditu) murmured, "the closest to our hearts are those which tell of things lost."
"Perhaps that is because none of us can show something's value until it is gone," said Josua.”
― Tad Williams, To Green Angel Tower, Part 1

“He shouldn't have had to die."

"Nobody should have to die," Miriamele said slowly. "Especially while they're still alive.”
― Tad Williams, To Green Angel Tower

“It is, in fact, a kind of magic—perhaps the strongest of all,” Morgenes continued. “Study that, if you wish to understand power, young Simon. Don’t fill your head with nattering about spells and incantations. Understand how lies shape us, shape kingdoms.” “But that’s not magic,” Simon protested, lured into the discussion despite himself. “That doesn’t do anything. Real magic lets you . . . I don’t know. Fly. Make bags of gold out of a pile of turnips. Like in the stories.” “But the stories themselves are often lies, Simon. The bad ones are.” The doctor cleaned his spectacles on the wide sleeve of his robe. “Good stories will tell you that facing the lie is the worst terror of all. And there is no talisman or magic sword that is half so potent a weapon as truth.”
― Tad Williams, To Green Angel Tower

“We tell lies when we are afraid,” said Morgenes. The old man took a stone from his pocket and tossed it into the moat. There was a flirt of sunlight on the ripples as the stone disappeared. “Afraid of what we don’t know, afraid of what others will think, afraid of what will be found out about us. But every time we tell a lie, the thing that we fear grows stronger.”
― Tad Williams, To Green Angel Tower

“I can respect the Seat without loving the man.”
― Tad Williams, To Green Angel Tower

“Was that the way of the world, that everyone longed to go back to some place or some time that was lost?”
― Tad Williams, To Green Angel Tower

“Perhaps that is because none of us can know something’s true value until it is gone,”
― Tad Williams, To Green Angel Tower

“When he could force his trembling limbs to move, he crawled toward it and discovered that it was the tip of one of his torches, the only part of the burning brand that had not been buried in the great fall of earth.”
― Tad Williams, To Green Angel Tower

“Why was she so kind to him sometimes, so hateful at others? He”
― Tad Williams, To Green Angel Tower

“The forested shore vanished once more into the cloaking mist, like a dream receding before the light and noises of morning.”
― Tad Williams, To Green Angel Tower

“Why is it that men think they are brave and women are weak? Women see more blood and pain than men ever do, unless men are fighting—and that is foolish blood.”
― Tad Williams, To Green Angel Tower

“For long weeks the smokes and steams and vapors had crept from vents in the mountain’s side. Now they wreathed Stormspike’s crown, spinning in the awesome winds that circled the mountain, gathering and darkening as though they sucked the very substance of ultimate night from between the stars.”
― Tad Williams, To Green Angel Tower

“For a moment it seemed to soar up beyond the range of mortal ears, so that only a ghost of its fullness remained and her skull was full of echoes that piped like bats; then, a moment later, it descended just as swiftly, swooping down so rumblingly deep that it might be singing the slow and stony language of the ocean’s floor.”
― Tad Williams, To Green Angel Tower

“If we were to win, and I took my father’s throne, one day I would have to send my son off to do something I could not do—something dangerous and glorious. That is the way of kings and their sons. And I would never sleep again, waiting to hear that he had been killed.”
― Tad Williams, To Green Angel Tower

“Because a new season has passed, or because a recognition has been given, still it is not changing a person very much on the inside.”
― Tad Williams, To Green Angel Tower

“As solemn music played, vying with the harsh wind to be heard, the thought came to many of those who watched that although Sesuad’ra’s defenders had won an improbable and heroic victory, they had paid dearly for it. The fact that they had defeated only the tiniest portion of the forces arrayed against them, and had lost nearly half their number in doing so, made the winter-shrouded hillcrest seem an even colder and lonelier place.”
― Tad Williams, To Green Angel Tower

“I . . . should have known . . . that my . . . torment was not yet finished, my guilt not forgiven.”
― Tad Williams, To Green Angel Tower

“But every time we tell a lie, the thing that we fear grows stronger.”
― Tad Williams, To Green Angel Tower

“Why is it that men think they are brave and women are weak? Women see more blood and pain than men ever do, unless men are fighting - and that is foolish blood.”
― Tad Williams, To Green Angel Tower, Part 1

“That is what I hate about ruling and royalty, Simon. It is living, breathing people with whom a prince plays the games of statecraft.”
― Tad Williams, To Green Angel Tower, Part 1

“And you, a king’s daughter, who willingly gave herself to me—who brought me to her bed? Are you so high and pure?” She”
― Tad Williams, To Green Angel Tower, Part 1