David Gemmell Men Quotations

No one can take away the freedom of a man's soul.

A man's strength is ultimately born of his knowledge of his own weakness ...

I underestimated you, woman." ... "The cry of men down the ages.

Man is capable of greatness, love, nobility, compassion. Yet never forget that his capacity for evil is infinite. It is a sad truth, boy, that if you sit now and think of the worst tortures that could ever be inflicted on another human being, they will already have been practiced somewhere. If there is one sound that follows the march of humanity, it is the scream.

A man should be free to do what he wants to do, as long as it doesn't hurt others.

There is a darkness in you. In all of us, probably. Beasts we keep chained. Ordinary men have to keep the chains strong, for if we let the beast loose then society will turn upon us with fiery vengeance. Kings though...well, who is there to turn upon them? So the chains are made of straw. It is the curse of kings, Helikaon, that they can become monsters. And they invariably do.

Yours is a race whose imagination is limited to its own small appetites. Greed, lust, envy - these are the motivating forces of humankind. What redeems you is that in every man and woman there is a seed that can grow to encompass love, joy and compassion. But this seed is never allowed to prosper in fertile ground. It struggles for life among the rocks of your human soul.

Men don't change. They just learn to disguise the lack of change.

I don't know yet whether I fully believe in fate, but certain things do happen in a man's life that he cannot explain.

I was a man before I was a king, and no true man walks away when a friend needs him.

Why must I have the Piglet?' 'Because you are the best.' 'I do not understand.' 'Teach him.' 'And who teaches me?' ' As an officer, my lord, you will have many men under your command and not all will be gifted. You must learn to use each man to his best advantage ...

All men have talents. Some build, some paint, some write, some fight. For me it is different.

While men compete in war, there will be warriors. While there are warriors, there will be princes among warriors. Among the princes will be kings, and among the kings an emperor.

There is evil in all of us, and it is the mark of a man how he defies the evil within.

The nature of a coward is to avoid death. If such a man courts peril there can be only two reasons. Either he is not a coward at all or there is no danger.

A man must know his limitations.

Evil will never be countered while good men do nothing.

Every man has his own reason for every deed. Usually it is selfish.

Your men are brave men, And you have won. I can live with that, Earl of Bronze a poor man would I be if I could not.

An enemy is like a man's most prized flower. It brings him joy to see it buried in the ground.

A man with wife and daughters has no place losing his temper.

Each man has a breaking point, no matter how strong his spirit. Somewhere, deep inside him, there is a flaw that only the fickle cruelty of fate can find.

Makes no sense to me,' said Huntsekker. 'You don't know who is at your door, but you know the thoughts of a man twenty miles away.' 'Life is a mystery,' said Powdermill, with a gold-toothed grin. 'It is that, right enough,' agreed Huntsekker.

Bow to nothing, son. I make mistakes as well as any man. If you think me wrong, be so good as to damn well say so.

You are getting too old for this." "A man is as old as he feels, woman!" "And how old do you feel?" "About ninety.

A man cannot spend his life worrying about the unexpected.

War. What was it about the prospect of some bloody enterprises that reduced men to the level of animals?

But men don't come in just two groups, one of gold and the other of lead. They are a mix of both." "And what about women?" "Pure gold, my girl," Rayvan answered with a chuckle.

Some people are born ugly. It's not their fault, and I for one have never held it against a man that he is ugly. but others and I count myself among them are born with handsome features. That's a gift that should not be lightly taken away.

a man can overcome his background, even as he can overcome a skilled opponent.

A man should not risk his life for beauty alone, Kiall, for that fades. You might as well risk it for a rose. Think on it.

The truth. Men will blind themselves with hot irons, rather than face it.

Why now? Why not? Live or die, a man and a woman need love. There is a need in the race. We need to share. To belong. Perhaps you will die before the year is out. But remember this: to have may be taken from you, to have had never. Far better to have tasted love before dying, than to die alone.

Never be glad that another man has died. Not ever . [...] It never ends. Never ... ever ... be glad to kill.

What is life if a man cannot count on his friends when he has gone mad?