Knowledge could be more valuable than gold, more deadly than a dagger.
They call me Baelon the Brave,” the prince told his wife at her bedside, “but I would sooner fight a dozen battles than do what you’ve just done.
The Sphinx is the riddle, not the riddler.
Monsters are entirely mythological, sir, like spirits, werebeasts, and competent bureaucrats.
The seeds of war are oft planted during times of peace.
Sleep is good. Books are better.
A toad grows wings and thinks he’s a bloody dragon.
Sansa cried herself to sleep, Arya brooded silently all day long, and Eddard Stark dreamed of a frozen hell reserved for the Starks of Winterfell.
The sword was not the kingdom, he says.
If instead you feed the wolf and tame him and turn his pups into your guard dogs, they will protect the flocks when the pack comes ravening.
How could it end any other way? The beast was greater than they were, a force of nature. The beast was like the river, eternal. It had no doubts, no thoughts, no dreams or plans.
We are one. Man, horse, lance, we are one beast of blood and wood and iron.
Even a hedge knight has his honor.
You each name yourself king, yet the kingdom bleeds and no one lefts a sword to defend it but my son.
The next morning the sea was calm again, the sun was shining, and the water was so blue and innocent a man might never know that under it my brother floated, dead with all his men.
All Knights must bleed. Blood is the seal of our devotion.
He was a pitiful thing. He had always been a pitiful thing. Why had she never seen that before? There was a hollow place inside her where her fear had been.
You’re awful.” “I’m honest. It’s the world that’s awful.
Honey poured over thunder.
Can you drown in grief? She turned away sharply, angry with her own frailty. She had no time for the luxury of self-pity.