Age of Swords Quotes

“It's easier to believe the most outlandish lie that confirms what you suspect than the most obvious truth that denies it.”
― Michael J. Sullivan, Age of Swords

“Although men were strong like rocks, any stone could crack. Women were more like water. They nurtured life and could shape the hardest granite through unrelenting determination.”
― Michael J. Sullivan, Age of Swords

“You were a mistake, you know,” Flood told Frost as they plodded up the hill. “Mother didn’t want you.” Frost shook his head. “We’re twins, you idiot.”
― Michael J. Sullivan, Age of Swords

“Losing leaves a bitter taste that lingers long after the sweetness of victory has been forgotten.”
― Michael J. Sullivan, Age of Swords

“I know nothing about war. But let me tell you what I believe. I think running from responsibility breeds self-loathing and despair. I think people can, and do, rise to the occasion, and even a single person can make an incredible difference. What they need are leaders who believe in them, a belief that gives birth to hope. With hope, people can do remarkable things, amazing things.”
― Michael J. Sullivan, Age of Swords

“you can’t have an adversary without being one.”
― Michael J. Sullivan, Age of Swords

“When something sounds like a giant vomiting up a dwarf, you should not expect sunshine and daisies.”
― Michael J. Sullivan, Age of Swords

“That's the thing about hatred, it can become rancid, and it'll turn into poison if you keep it bottled too long. Hatred will eat through any container and seep into the groundwater of a soul. Revenge is never enough to expel it because it keeps bubbling up anew. What you don't realize–can't really–is that by that time, it's all you are. You don't have the hate in you. The hate is you. When that wine is consumed, you won't ever be able to rid yourself of it. Can't vomit it up or spit it out. It'd be as impossible as escaping yourself.”
― Michael J. Sullivan, Age of Swords

“Troublemakers in times of peace become heroes in times of trouble.”
― Michael J. Sullivan, Age of Swords

“Every life is a journey filled with crossroads. And then there are the bridges, those truly frightening choices that span what always was, from what will forever be. Finding the courage, or stupidity, to cross such bridges changes everything”
― Michael J. Sullivan, Age of Swords

“How many tears must we weep? How loud must we cry? How many farewells must we say, for the dead to hear goodbye?”
― Michael J. Sullivan, Age of Swords

“Courageous hearts weren't banned from the breast of women.”
― Michael J. Sullivan, Age of Swords

“There always seemed to be a better way, except when it came to people. Once broken, people couldn't be repaired.”
― Michael J. Sullivan, Age of Swords

“Some things are simply unimaginable right up until you are looking at them, and even then, you might not believe. Love is that way; so is death.”
― Michael J. Sullivan, Age of Swords

“Roan prepared herself, held her breath, and turned her head. It wasn’t Iver. In the glow of the green light, she saw Persephone, Moya, and Arion sitting near the center of the stone chamber. Everything came back. She wasn’t at home; she was trapped in a foreign land a mile beneath the world in a stone tomb with no water and little food, and there was a demon who would soon break through their barricade and kill them. Oh, thank you, Mari! Thank you! She sighed in relief and relaxed.”
― Michael J. Sullivan, Age of Swords

“It’s never good when a tree screams.”
― Michael J. Sullivan, Age of Swords

“Hatred. Some people get filled with it and explode. If they survive, they move on. Others just let it dribble out over the years, like a leaky bucket. One day they notice the bucket is empty, and they wonder what had been in it in the first place. Still others use hatred as a weapon, going so far as to pass it on to others—an ugly, unwanted gift disguised as a virtuous heirloom.”
― Michael J. Sullivan, Age of Swords

“It’s easier to believe the most outlandish lie that confirms what you suspect than the most obvious truth that denies it”
― Michael J. Sullivan, Age of Swords

“A lot can be determined by the choices we make, even if the action is initiated by self-preservation. Many ... no, most ... of our choices are driven by fear: fear of death, fear of humiliation, fear of loneliness. But it's how we respond to fear that matters. It's what defines us. What makes us who we are. So maybe in your mind you acted selfishly, but I'm alive because of the choice you made. So I'll remember it as an act of kindness and yes, even bravery.”
― Michael J. Sullivan, Age of Swords

“The God Killer is the Coppersword’s favorite son. His secret treasure.”
― Michael J. Sullivan, Age of Swords

“You never know what you are capable of until you are so desperate as to try anything. You might be pleased or disappointed, but always, always surprised. The Book of Brin”
― Michael J. Sullivan, Age of Swords

“It’s easier to believe the most outlandish lie that confirms what you suspect than the most obvious truth that denies”
― Michael J. Sullivan, Age of Swords

“What good is insulting someone if they don’t know you’re doing it?”
― Michael J. Sullivan, Age of Swords

“I’m sow-wee” he said to the night, because he couldn’t say it to the ones he loved.”
― Michael J. Sullivan, Age of Swords

“Suri felt as if she’d spent her whole life on a little hill, content and happy. Then one day she glimpsed the truth, that the hill was actually the nose of a great best. Not easy to sleep after that. Knowing about the cords, realizing she could alter the world, made ignoring the possibilities intolerable. She was wearing a shirt with a loose thread and was dying to pull it—if for no other reason than to make the desire go away, to make it stop distracting her.”
― Michael J. Sullivan, Age of Swords

“Nothing can be wholly good. It’s impossible. Creation gives birth to all things, positive and negative, or what we think of as good and evil. Like all life, the power of creation seeks to exist.”
― Michael J. Sullivan, Age of Swords

“The easier way is to find the path within you. Then you can do anything; you can teach yourself. I can act as a guide by pointing you in the directions that worked for me, but you must take your own journey because no two Artists ever tread the same path. Artists create. That’s what it means to be an Artist, and part of that is creating your own way.”
― Michael J. Sullivan, Age of Swords

“These were his last few seconds of ignorance, his beautiful sunset that separated doubt from a future of certainty, and he wanted to stretch out that time as long as possible.”
― Michael J. Sullivan, Age of Swords

“She looked at the faces surrounding her and realized, perhaps for the first time, that she cared for these people. The friendships had crept up on her, becoming important without her realizing.”
― Michael J. Sullivan, Age of Swords

“The Hawthorn Glen—that happy place of her youth—was empty. The trees were still there, the lake, the meadow, the birds and bees, but the heart had been burned to ash.

Because my home isn’t where I left it.
(…)
Suri’s home was just a place now—a nice place, to be sure—but only a place, and one haunted by the laughter of a once carefree girl and the warmth of an Old Woman..”
― Michael J. Sullivan, Age of Swords