George R.R. Martin

Make no choice, and you have chosen. Failure to decide, because you lack the right, is itself a decision, First Councilor. In abstaining, you vote.

The day my father came to claim me, my mother did not wish for me to go. __he is a girl,' she said, __nd I do not think that she is yours. I had a thousand other men.' He tossed his spear at my feet and gave my mother the back of his hand across the face, so she began to weep. __irl or boy, we fight our battles,' he said, __ut the gods let us choose our weapons.' He pointed to the spear, then to my mother's tears, and I picked up the spear.

Of all the bright cruel lies they tell you, the cruelest is the one called love.

No,_ said Bran. __ haven__. And if I have it doesn__ matter. Sometimes Old Nan would tell the same story she__ told before, but we never minded, if it was a good story. Old stories are like old friends, she used to say. You have to visit them from time to time.

Most of the stories you hear about dragons are fodder for fools.

There are gods and there are true knights too. All the stories can't be lies.

The things we love destroy us every time, lad. Remember that.

Then you do not belong here. Death holds no sweetness in this house. We are not warriors, nor soldiers, nor swaggering bravos puffed up with pride. We do not kill to serve some lord, to fatten our purses, to stroke our vanity. We never give the gift to please ourselves. Nor do we choose the ones we kill. We are but servants of the God of Many Faces.""Valar dohaeris." All men must serve."You know the words, but you are too proud to serve. A servant must be humble and obedient.""I obey. I can be humbler than anyone."That made him chuckle. "You will be the very goddess of humility, I am sure. But can you pay the price?""What price?""The price is you. The price is all you have and all you ever hope to have. We took your eyes and gave them back. Next we will take your ears, and you will walk in silence. You will give us your legs and crawl. You will be no one's daughter, no one's wife, no one's mother. Your name will be a lie, and the very face you wear will not be your own.

A book can be as dangerous as a sword in the right hands, said Haldon.

If every woman had a direwolf, men would be much sweeter.

A man can own a woman, and a man can own a knife, but no man can own both,

A shy smile, strong arms, clever fingers, and two sure swords. What more could any woman want?

Is there any creature on earth as unfortunate as an ugly woman? (wonders Lady Catelyn Stark)

Lem glowered. "Your lion friends ride into some village, take all the food and every coin they find, and call it foraging. the wolves as well, so why not us? no one robbed you, dog. You just been good and foraged.

It was a cruel fate, Yet not so cruel as Mago's will be. I promise you that, by the old gods and the new, by the lamb god and the horse god and every god that lives. I swear by the Mother of Mountains and the Womb of the World. Before I am done with them, Mago and Ko Jhaqo will plead for the mercy they showed Eroeh.

The man who passes the sentence should swing the sword. If you would take a man's life, you owe it to him to look into his eyes and hear his final words. And if you cannot bear to do that, then perhaps the man does not deserve to die.

...the man who passes the sentence should swing the sword.""...a ruler who hides behind paid executioners soon forgets what death is.

So do not waste my time. It is the most precious thing I have, time. It is the most precious thing any of us have.