Good,” said Creed. “I always like it when a captain has a plan; makes getting killed a lot less random.
A hunt leader could not show fear, or let it linger in his stomach, for others would sense it soon enough, taste that fear and become possessed by it. They would hesitate when an order was given, and uncertainty would claim their life as readily as the blade of the enemy.
What is life for?′ he asked rhetorically. ‘It’s a way to evolve thought. And what is thought for? It’s a way to be aware, a stage between the physical and the spiritual. And time? it’s a good way to keep things separated.
It takes a man of unusual character to openly confront his own shortcomings. It’s so much more convenient to blame others.
Well, he thought, dwelling on past failures once you’d learned all there was to learn was just heaping futility on failure.
Chumaka ended with a quotation from a play that Jiro favored. “ ‘Small acts partner small houses and small minds’.
Life has shown me all too often it’s a fragile gift. Remember, no one gets out of life alive.
I know, when we are young we cannot entertain the idea another’s feelings can be as deep as our own. Our love is so much loftier, our pain so much more intense.
It’s often said we take offense most in what we see of ourselves in others.
Most of us move through life with little chance to learn much about ourselves. We know some things we like and some things we dislike, we have a few ideas about what makes us happy, and we die in ignorance regarding anything profound within ourselves.
You’ve learned something very young, Prince, something that even older men rarely understand. You’ve learned that fear isn’t a terrible-looking thing but something lovely and seductive.
Then the universe rocks. The very fabric of reality is rent.
Mama shrieked. The first man turned.
But to speed it along, he needs to know that pain will come. The knack is to not engage the pain, not hold on to it like a treasured thing, but to simply let it pass through and wait until it’s gone. It will come less frequently and after a time, be gone.
The pride Kaspar had seen in his father’s eyes, despite the admonishing words about foolish acts, had branded the boy for life. ‘Never be afraid.’ He knew that no matter what, any choice must be made fearlessly, or else all would be lost.
You learn something new every day, if you just stop to pay attention.
My father used to say, “a day spent breathing is a good day.
A shrieking battle cry echoed on the wind, a spine-tingling scream that sounded like the baying of the wolves closing in on their prey.
That was not the professional hatred of one warrior for another in the heat of battle, in which even beneath the hatred there still existed a certain begrudging respect.
Tragic to kill a friend in battle by mistake when there are so many enemies to go around.