15 quotes
Knowledge ceases to be wisdom when one has no method for making sense or use of what one learns.
The Dragon in the Sword (1986)
How true it is when they say there is nothing which makes a man more furious than the discovery that he has deceived himself!
The Dragon in the Sword (1986)
There is nothing more puerile than the mind of a tyrant.
The Dragon in the Sword (1986)
“Women are always underestimated by men,” said Alisaard, a note of satisfaction in her voice, “and this enables them sometimes to gather far more power to themselves than the men suspect.”
The Dragon in the Sword (1986)
Your imagination is notoriously poor. Not everyone holds identical ambitions to your own!
The Dragon in the Sword (1986)
Often people fight hardest of all to preserve a delusion. And they will frequently persecute those who challenge that delusion.
The Dragon in the Sword (1986)
By acting as they would act, we become what they are. And if we are what they are, then there is little point in resisting them!
The Dragon in the Sword (1986)
Indeed, to be a hero, forever at war, is to be in some ways always a child. The true challenge comes in making sense of one’s life, of imbuing it with purpose based on one’s own principles.
The Dragon in the Sword (1986)
Time is at once an agony of the Present, a long torment of the Past and the terrible prospect of countless Futures. Time is also a complex of subtly intersecting realities, of unguessable consequences and undiscoverable causes, of profound tensions and dependencies.
The Dragon in the Sword (1986)
Her smile was all pride. I had seen many like her in the past. She believed herself cleverer than she was because it suited others to let her maintain that delusion.
The Dragon in the Sword (1986)
Let us say that those who do insist on a hearing will be silenced soon enough. There is a monotonous pattern to the rise of tyrants which, I suppose, is reflected in the general pattern of human folly. Depressing though it is, we must accept the fact.
The Dragon in the Sword (1986)
They’re Mabden, of course. They are afraid of the city. Afraid of almost everything. And being permitted no weapons with which they can attack what they fear, they are reduced to what you see. It seems the Mabden can only kill or run away. Their brains are of no use to them.
The Dragon in the Sword (1986)
I looked down at her shriveled corpse. It lay across that of her brother. One had represented the evil of the world, the other the good. Yet both had been defeated by pride, by ambition, by a promise of immortality.
The Dragon in the Sword (1986)
How paltry is the thing they call science. We have something far superior! We have Faith. We have a Force greater than Reason! We have a wisdom beyond mere knowledge. We have the Holy Grail itself. The Chalice of Limitless Power!
The Dragon in the Sword (1986)
“For years my lady made her plans. And when the time came to put them into action, how wonderfully she was able to achieve her ambitions.”
“Only because few rational people can ever begin to understand such a lust for power,” said von Bek feelingly. “There is nothing more puerile than the mind of a tyrant.”
The Dragon in the Sword (1986)