Only the creatures of the earth take from one another, boy. All creatures, but men more than any. Life they take, and liberty, and all that another man may have—sometimes through greed, sometimes through stupidity, but never by any volition but their own. Beware your own race, Bran Davies—they are the only ones who will ever harm you, in the end.
Chapter 6 Bird Rock (pp. 71-72) - The Dark Is Rising (1965-1977) - The Grey King (1975)