David Gemmell

David Andrew Gemmell (1 August 1948 – 28 July 2006) was a bestselling British author of heroic fantasy. A former journalist and newspaper editor, Gemmell had his first work of fiction published in 1984. He went on to write over thirty novels. Best known for his debut, Legend, Gemmell's works display violence, yet also explore themes of honour, loyalty and redemption. With over one million copies sold, his work continues to sell worldwide.

Sourced

Stormrider

• 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.
  • Ch. 4
• I think that for the coward every day carries a kind of death.
  • Ch. 4
• Steal a loaf of bread and they hang you, steal a land and they'll make you king.
  • Ch. 5
• 'He didn't want to come, Dweller. He didn't want to get involved. It should have been me who died.' 'Of course he wanted to come. Why else was he here? You didn't force him, Draig. He came because you were his brother and he loved you. He could have left at any time once the pursuit began. He made his own choices. Just as you did. Just as I knew you would.'
  • Ch. 6
• No need for confusion, my dear Mulgrave [...] Beautiful wine and sour vinegar come from exactly the same source. Curiously if one leaves a bottle of wine open for long enough it will become vinegar. Happily in this house wine never survives long enough to go bad.
  • Ch. 7
• ...[A]ll duels followed a pattern. They began with heat and fury, then settled into a contest of wills. With two equally matched opponents there would come a time when the worm of doubt entered the equation. The truly skilled recognized such moments, and fed them. It was at this time that the endgame would begin.
  • Ch. 7
• As men we are all cursed by the violence in our natures. Men like the Moidart — aye, and Winterbourne — revel in that nature. We do not. We struggle to overcome it.
  • Ch. 7
• '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.
  • Ch. 8

Legend, Pt 1: Against the Horde

• War. What was it about the prospect of some bloody enterprises that reduced men to the level of animals?
  • Ch. 1

• A problem shared is a problem doubled.
  • Ch. 1

• A friend in need is a friend to be avoided.
  • Ch. 1

• It's a funny thing about weaknesses....Most people will tell you they know their weaknesses. When asked, they'll tell you, 'Well for one thing, I'm overgenerous.' ... that's what innkeepers are for.
  • Ch. 1

• "Why do they do it?" whispered Horeb. "Their eyes, you mean?" said Rek. "Yes. How can a man put out his own eyes?" "Damned if I know. They say it aids their visions." "Sounds about as sensible as cutting off your staff in order to aid your sex life."
  • Ch. 1

• By nature of definition only the coward is capable of the highest heroism.
  • Ch. 4

• ...the baresark loses all fear; his method is all-out attack, and invariably he takes his opponent with him even if he falls.
  • Ch. 6
• 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. it is far better to have tasted love before dying than to die alone.
  • Ch. 6

• [F]ear is a great ally.
  • Ch. 7

• When your life has been spent in one war after another for forty-five years, you have to be pretty handy to survive.
  • Ch. 7

• A man with wife and daughters has no place losing his temper.
  • Ch. 7

• A man cannot spend his life worrying about the unexpected.
  • Ch. 7

• [A]ll men die. ... A man needs many things in his life to make it bearable. A good woman. Sons and daughters. Comradeship. Warmth. Food and shelter. but above all these things, he needs to be able to know that he is a man. And what is a man? He is someone who rises when life has knocked him down. Someone who raises his fist to heaven when a storm has ruined his crop — and then plants again. And again. A man remains unbroken by the savage twists of fate. That man may never win. But when he sees himself reflected, he can be proud of what he sees. For low he may be in the scheme of things: peasant, serf, or dispossessed. But he is unconquerable. And what is death? an end to trouble. An end to strife and fear. ... Bear this in mind when you decide your future.
  • Ch. 7

• 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.
  • Ch. 7

• A man's strength is ultimately born of his knowledge of his own weakness ...
  • Ch. 7

• How do you decide a battle is lost? Numbers, strategic advantage, positioning? It's all worth a sparrow's fart. It comes down to men who are willing. The largest army will founder if its men are less willing to die than to win.
  • Ch. 9

• I don't give a damn, laddie. Until the actual moment, when they cut me down, I shall still be looking to win. And the gods of war are fickle at best.
  • Ch. 9

• We are not made for life at all, old horse. It is made for us. We live it. We leave it.
  • Ch. 9

• No one can take away the freedom of a man's soul.
  • Ch. 9

• Liberty is only valued when it is threatened, therefore it is the threat that highlights the value. We should be grateful to the Nadir, since they heighten the value of our liberty.
  • Ch. 9

• I'm not laughing at you. [...] I'm laughing at the whole stupid business. We face the biggest threat in our history and they give me a helmet too big,and you a helmet too small, and tell us we can't exchange them. It's too much. Really.
  • Ch. 9

• A man must know his limitations.
  • Ch. 10

• None of us can choose the manner of our passing.
  • Ch. 10

• Everyone makes mistakes. Everyone fails at something.
  • Ch. 10

• 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.
  • Ch. 10

• Be at peace, my friend. One thing I have learnt about Death is that his bark is worse than his bite.
  • Ch. 11

• This world has few redeeming features, and one is the capacity for people to love one another with great, enduring passion.
  • Ch. 12

• There is only one way to survive in war, and that is by being willing to die. You will find soon that swordsmen can be downed by untutored savages who would slice their fingers if asked to carve meat. And why? because the savage is willing. Worse, he may be a baresark.
  • Ch. 12

• I am not going to talk about patriotism, duty, liberty, and the defense of freedom — because that's all dung to a soldier.
  • Ch. 12

• The point is [...] that you never know whether you've lost until you've lost. Anything can happen.
  • Ch. 15

• A man should be free to do what he wants to do, as long as it doesn't hurt others.
  • Ch. 15

• All beauty is sad. For it fades.
  • Ch. 16

• [H]e who fears to lose will never win.
  • Ch. 17

• All men have talents. Some build, some paint, some write, some fight. For me it is different.
  • Ch. 17

• You may think life is sweet now, but when death is a heartbeat away then life becomes unbearably desirable. And when you survive, everything you do will be enhanced and filled with greater joy: the sunlight, the breeze, a good wine, a woman's lips, a child's laughter.
  • Ch. 18

• Life is nothing unless death has been faced down.
  • Ch. 18

• Some of you are probably thinking that you may panic and run. You will not! Others are worried about dying. Some of you will. But all men die. No one ever gets out of this life alive.
  • Ch. 18

• The very odd thing about sagas [...] is that they very rarely mention dry mouths and full bladders.
  • Ch. 22

• In any broth, the scum always rises to the top.
  • Ch. 22

• 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.
  • Ch. 23

• 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.
  • Ch. 23

• This enterprise was doomed, but we do what we can and do what we must. So a young farmer with wife and children decides to go home. Good! He shows a sense that you and I will never understand. They will sing songs about us, but he will ensure that there are people to sing them. He plants. We destroy.
  • Ch. 23
• Only a fool loves war. Or a man who has never seen it. The trouble is that the survivors forget about the horrors and remember only the battle lust. They pass on that memory, and other men hunger for it.
  • Ch. 24

• 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.
  • Ch. 28
• It would be a fine thing if war could be conducted as a game where no lives were lost. At the end of a battle combatants could meet [...] and drink and talk.
  • Ch. 28

• Man alone, it seems, lives all his life in the knowledge of death. And yet there is more to life than merely waiting for death. For life to have meaning, there must be a purpose. A man must pass something on — otherwise he is useless.
  • Ch. 29

• 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.
  • Ch. 31

The King Beyond the Gate

• What do you mean, why? Is it not obvious? What is life but a betrayal? We start out young, full of hope. The sun is good; the world awaits us. But every passing year shows how small you are, how insignificant against the power of the seasons. Then you age. Your strength fails, and the world laughs at you through the jeers of younger men. And you die. Alone. Unfulfilled. But sometimes ... sometimes there will come a man who is not insignificant. He can change the world, rob the seasons of their power. He is the sun.
  • Ch. 23

Quest for Lost Heroes

• 'By my lights, my son, you are a young man. [...] there should be love in your life. Am I at fault in my thinking?' 'Not at fault, Senior Brother. I loved once, and in truth I could love again. But the pain of loss was too much for me. I would rather live alone than suffer for it.' 'Then you are here to hide, Charreos, and it is not a good reason. The gift of life is too great to waste in such a fashion...'
  • Ch. 1
• I was on top of the mountain. But there was nothing there. Just clouds. And I found that you can't live on that mountain. But when it throws you off — oh, how you long for it! I would kill to climb it again. I would sell my soul. It is so stupid. [...] I took the standard. And now I can't even become a farmer again. The mountain won't let me.
  • Ch. 1
• '... No, I should have died at Bel-Azzar. Nothing has gone right since then.' 'Death comes soon enough to all men. Don't wish for it.'
  • Ch. 1
• Gentlemen, you are in sorry condition. But war will render you yet more sorry. The soldier will fight in mud and hail, snow and ice, drought and flood. It is rare that a warrior gets to fight in comfort.
  • Ch. 1
• [...] In real war an officer may have only one chance at succeeding. Consider each problem.
  • Ch. 1
• '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 ...'
  • Ch. 1

• 'I have no wish to argue, Father. Yet it must be said that the monks exist here in peace and security only because of the swords of the defenders. I do not belittle your views — I wish all men shared them. But they do not. ... if all men and women lived as you and I, there would be no children, and no humanity. What then would be the Will of the Source?'
  • Ch. 2
• 'Do not expect help.' 'One should always hope.' 'Then hope for a handsome savage with kindly ways.'
  • Ch. 2
• 'Love is for fools. It is a surging of blood in the loins ... there is no mystery, and no magic. Find someone else, my boy.'
  • Ch. 2

• A warrior has only one true friend: himself. So he feeds his body well; he trains it; works on it. Where he lacks skill, he practises. Where he lacks knowledge, he studies. But above all he must believe. He must believe in the strength of will, of purpose, of heart and soul.
  • Ch. 3
• Do not speak badly of yourself, for the warrior that is inside you hears your words and is lessened by them. You are strong and you are brave. There is a nobility of spirit within you. Let it grow — you will do well enough.
  • Ch. 3

• '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.'
  • Ch. 4
• Never let anger, or outrage, or fear affect you. That is easy advice to give, but hard to follow. Men will bait you, they will laugh at you, they will jeer. But it is just noise, Kiall. They will hurt the people you love. They will do anything to make you angry or emotional. But the only way you can make them suffer is to win. And to do that you must remain cool.
  • Ch. 4

• Hold on to your dreams, Kiall. They are more important than you realise.
  • Ch. 5
• Blood always aids blood, my friend.
  • Ch. 6
• There are many forms of cowardice, Chareos. One man can face a score of enemies with a sword, but not a sickness which paralyses him. Another can face death with a smile, yet fear the years of hardship and toil which are living. Are you a coward?
  • Ch. 6

• Every man has his own reason for every deed. Usually it is selfish.
  • Ch. 10
• 'Where will you go from here?' he asked. Chellin shrugged. 'Who knows? North again. Maybe not. I'm tired of this life, Kiall. I may head south, to Drenai land. Buy a farm, raise a family.' 'And have raiders descend on you to steal your daughters?' Chellin nodded and sighed. 'Yes. Like all dreams, it doesn't bear close examination [...]'
  • Ch. 10
• Evil will never be countered while good men do nothing.
  • Ch. 10
• 'Win or lose, we achieve nothing in the world that we understand [...]' 'But then the world does not matter.' 'Indeed it does not [...] It is good to understand that.'
  • Ch. 10

• A man can be aroused to anger as easily as he is aroused to rut. The two emotions are closely linked. Anger and lust. So the warrior is aroused in battle and fights to dominate.
  • Ch. 11
• Never be glad that another man has died. Not ever. [...] It never ends. Never ... ever ... be glad to kill.
  • Ch. 11

• We are full of dreams [...] We long for the unattainable. We believe in the nonsense of fables. There is no pure love; there is lust and there is need.
  • Ch. 12

The Swords of Night and Day

• Self-preservation is a paramount desire in all of us. Good and evil are interchangeable. When the wolves pull down a fawn I don't doubt the doe would consider it an evil act. For the wolves it is a necessity, and they would see the arrival of fresh meat as good.
  • Ch. 5
• "Why am I taking seduction advice from a man whose idea of foreplay is to slam coins on the table and shout: 'Who wants to ride the big horse?'" "Because he knows best, Tinker."
  • Ch. 6
• "What I did understand from the rebirth process was that the rebirth reproduced a physical duplicate of the original. But this is my point. It is physical. What truly makes a man who he is? Is it the strength of his arms, or the courage of his soul? You have your own soul, Harad. You are not Druss. Live your own life."
  • Ch. 8
• We all of us carry the seed of evil in our hearts and souls ... Even the purest, even the most holy. It is part of the human condition, born in us. We cannot root it out. All that we can do — at best — is to prevent it from germinating.
  • Ch. 10
• It is the curse of absolute power, Olek. There is no one to admonish you, no laws save those you make. We like to believe there is something special, even alien, about evil. We like to think that tyrants are different from the rest of us. That they are somehow inhuman. They are not. They are merely unchained, unfettered; free to do as they please.
  • Ch. 10
• In my experience all women deserve someone better.
  • Ch. 10
• We are closest to life when we are vying with death ... The blood runs hot, the air smells sweet, the sky becomes an unbearably beautiful blue. Battle is intoxicating. That is why the ghastly vileness of war has always been so popular.
  • Ch. 11
• We like to think of life as a constant ... Yet it can be ended in a heartbeat."
  • Ch. 14
• "A lovers' spat," he said. "You know how it is. Boy meets girl, girl wants boy dead. An everyday story, really."
  • Ch. 14
• All legends have a base in fact.
  • Ch. 14
• Plan for the worst, expect the best.
  • Ch. 19
• Winning is not everything, Stavut. Men like to think it is. Sometimes it is more important to stand against evil than to worry about beating it ... Evil will always have the worst weapons. Evil will gather the greatest armies. They will burn, and plunder, and kill. But that's not the worst of it. They will try to make us believe that the only way to destroy them is to become like them. That is the true vileness of evil. It is contagious.
  • Ch. 21
• "No golden age to discover now," he whispered. "No end to disease and starvation. No, bright sparkling cities reaching the clouds ... All that I have lived for is gone now. I am so tired." "Then think on this, priest: You stopped the Eternal from finding greater weapons. Your actions here have led to her death. The world is free again." "Free? Of one tyrant perhaps. You think there will be no others?" "No, I do not. But I know there will always be men to stand against them. You grieve because of a pure magic lost. That magic was corrupted by evil. This is how evil thrives. We find an herb that cures disease, and someone will make a poison from it. We forge iron to make a better plow, and someone will make a sharper sword. There can be no power that evil will not corrupt."
  • Ch. 21