Favourite quote

[mcdodc]

What do you reckon are your favourite quotes from sci-fi/fantasy novels? I'm particularly looking for David Gemmell and Tolkien quotes but any book will do.

 

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy]

The Litany Against Fear from Frank Herbert's Dune is the first thing that sprang to mind:

"Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little death that brings total
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obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through
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me. And when it has gone past me I will turn to see fear's path. Where the fear
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has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain."
​

 

[dwndrgn]

There's one bit from, I think, a Terry Brooks Shannara novel where someone answers the question of how he can be a thief and a killer and still be a good man. I don't own a copy so I can't look it up right now. The character was possibly Panamon Creel and it was in the original trilogy, probably in the first book. I felt it was a good way to put things in perspective. I wish I could remember it.

 

[mzarynn]

Thank you Knivesout! I have not read Dune in a long time and had forgotten about that quote. It really is a great one.


Okay, I didn't actually read this quote... it's in the Spiderman movie... but I like it anyway.

"With great power comes great responsibility."

 

[fallenstar]

Mine is in the movie of Lord of the Rings

All we needs to decide, is what to do with the time that has given to us.

The Dune one is good too, I liked it as well.

 

[mcdodc]

I like that LOTR one as well. Is it in the book?

I found this David Gemmell quote from Bloodstone on another site - it reminds me of the Dune one:

'Nothing that lives is without fear. It is a gift against recklessness, a servant against complacency in the face of danger. But like all servants it makes a bad master. Fear is a small fire in the belly to warm a man in the coldness of conflict. Let loose, it becomes an inferno within the halls which no fortress can withstand.'

 

[SDNess]

"Far over misty mountains cold

To dungeons deep and caverns old

We must away, ere break of day,

To find our long-forgotten gold."


Guess which book...heh.

 

[nemogbr]

Rings of Power


Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky,
Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone,
Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die,
One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne,
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.

One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,
One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie

I like the litany of fear and glad that someone posted it, but this little ditty shows Tolkien's talent.

 

[riffraff]

can anyone remeber the slogan about the drug in brave new world? I haven't got a copy but the slogan amused me.

 

[TomMazanec]

I chose a quote from A Canticle for Liebowitz for my signature on a Voynich Manuscript forum...if it is authentic it is priceless if it is a hoax it’s exquisite.

 

[BAYLOR]

"The optimist proclaims that we live in the best of all possible worlds; and the pessimist fears that this is true "

James Branch Cabell From his novel The Silver Stallion.

 

[Dave Vicks]

"Get thee to a nunnery" William Shakespeare

 

[BigBadBob141]

Phillip Marlow describing a gangster in one of Raymond Chandler's books, " He was as inconspicuous as a tarantula on a piece of angel food", for some reason this has always stuck with me!

 

[Toby Frost]

Chandler has lots of terrific descriptions.

It's better expressed in the film than the book, but I often think of Theoden's comment in The Two Towers: "What can men do against such reckless hate?"

 

[Stephen Palmer]

That is a particularly strong line in LOTR. I thought Bernard Hill delivered it brilliantly in the film.

 

[Rodders]

Iain M. Banks, The Player of Games

“A guilty system recognizes no innocents.”

“The ship told you a guilty system recognises no innocents. I’d say it does. It recognises the innocence of a young child, for example, and you saw how they treated that. In a sense it even recognises the “sanctity” of the body… but only to violate it. Once again, Gurgeh, it all boils down to ownership, possession; about taking and having.”

“It was rude, insulting and frequently infuriating, but it made such a refreshing change from the awful politeness of most people.”

“Common misconception that; that fun is relaxing. If it is, you’re not doing it right.”

“It was not so difficult to understand the warped view the Azadians had of what they called "human nature" - the phrase they used whenever they had to justify something inhuman and unnatural”

 

[Dave Vicks]

"Frodo lives"
Graffiti on walls.

 

[dask]

"It seemed judicious to enlarge the facts to fit the probabilities." Mark Twain, The Invalid's Story

 

[Don]

Cruelty's easy. It's for the conforming weak. Kindness is hard. It's the preserve of true strength.

The essense of this quote originates with The Destructives by De Abaitua. It's paraphrased to give it more oomph.

can anyone remeber the slogan about the drug in brave new world? I haven't got a copy but the slogan amused me.

Brave New World's soma quotes

 

[Randy M.]

Phillip Marlow describing a gangster in one of Raymond Chandler's books, " He was as inconspicuous as a tarantula on a piece of angel food", for some reason this has always stuck with me!

"She was a blonde -- a blonde to make the Bishop kick out the stained glass window." -- Chandler; from memory and so suspect

"No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality; even larks and katydids are supposed, by some, to dream. Hill House, not sane, ..." -- Shirley Jackson. I had to look it up to get it right. I remember the gist of what comes before the semi-colon but what comes after stays with me and I'll find myself remembering it at odd moments. Who are the "some" who suppose that? Don't care. The lilt of the phrasing and the stark declaration stick in my memory.

Randy M.