David Gemmell Quotes

154 Sourced Quotes

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

David Gemmell
Too many people go through life without pausing to enjoy what they have.

David Gemmell
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.

David Gemmell
I remember a tutor who told me that all the world's hunters have eyes that faced front: lions, hawks, wolves, men... He said man was no different from the tiger. We are nature's killers, and we have great appetites for it... Listen, Rayvan, the beast is in all of us. We do our best in life, but often we are mean, or petty, or needlessly cruel. We don't mean to be, but that's the way we are.

David Gemmell
Our ancestors have fought wars since time. And won them. More than that, we have built societies and held them together. We are the rulers, Gaise. We are the mighty. Remember that tomorrow.

David Gemmell
"We irritated him, he told me. Why did he get himself killed for us?" "Because he was a hero. And that is what heroes do. You understand?"

David Gemmell
It is not hard to change when your biggest problem is whether the weeds prosper in a vegetable patch.

David Gemmell
"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."

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

David Gemmell
"How do you do it? How do you stay so strong?" "I fake it."

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

David Gemmell
Love is both wondrous and yet full of peril. Love is a gateway through which hatred - disguised and unrecognized - can pass.

David Gemmell
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.

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

David Gemmell
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.

David Gemmell
'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.

David Gemmell
Miracles are merely events that happen just when they are needed.

David Gemmell
One hundred only, Lord Earl. But judge us not by our number. Rather, watch the numbers of dead we leave behind.

David Gemmell
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.

David Gemmell
'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.'

David Gemmell
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.

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

David Gemmell
"I had a teacher... He said there were three kinds of people in life: winners, losers and fighters. Winners made him sick with their arrogance, losers made him sick with their whining, and fighters made him sick with their stupidity." "In which category did he put himself?" "He said he had tried all three and nothing suited him." "Well, at least he tried. That's all a man can do, Lake. And we shall try."

David Gemmell
"A lovers' spat," he said. "You know how it is. Boy meets girl, girl wants boy dead. An everyday story, really."

David Gemmell
'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?'

David Gemmell
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.

David Gemmell
Look around you: see the people as they touch and show their love. But don't watch coldly, like an observer. Don't hover outside life—take part in it. There are people waiting to love you. It is not something you should turn down lightly.

David Gemmell
'... 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.'

David Gemmell
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.

David Gemmell
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.

David Gemmell