C.S. Friedman Quotes & Sayings

How much blood was being made to flow for that last show of elegance? — C.S. Friedman

The Tyr had tried. It had really tried. It must have gone over every element of human psychology, tried desperately to understand the nature of human aesthetic sense ... and then failed, miserably, in every regard. — C.S. Friedman

Tomorrow could not get better if one failed to survive today. — C.S. Friedman

There is no such thing as redemption, my friend. There is right, there is wrong, and there are a million shades of color between the two. Once you've done wrong, it is always with you. You just have to try and be better. — C.S. Friedman

I sold my soul for knowledge of the future, only to have that very pact render me forever ignorant (Gerald Tarrant). — C.S. Friedman

I stood balanced on the brink of madness. Insanity and longevity are a truly terrifying combination; if I gave in now, I might pay the price for centuries to come. — C.S. Friedman

The gods, he knows now, will not help mankind. If they even exist - which he is no longer certain of - it is clear they do not care what happens. Perhaps they will even applaud when the last monuments of the Second Age of Kings crumble to dust, and the men who once worshiped them are reduced to the level of beasts. Perhaps that is what they intended all along. — C.S. Friedman

Let me tell you the tale of a poet who hanged himself with promises ... — C.S. Friedman

What is a child?" he asks her.
The diamond gaze does not flinch. "Creatures that are sold on the street by their parents, to get the coin to make more children." She paused. "Adults sell themselves. — C.S. Friedman

Sometimes the decision is placed in your hands and you just have to go with it, right or wrong, according to what you think is best. — C.S. Friedman

An uninspired ruler works to develop those relationships which will be most to his advantage. A great ruler determines the most desirable relationships and assumes them into being. — C.S. Friedman

We share need, not-human. Yours is straightforward." ... "Mine is less so, but you will serve it. Come. — C.S. Friedman

It is in the nature of man that he is antagonistic toward the others of his sex. Each man sees in another a potential competitor for the limited rewards of male success, and the hostility which arises between them is a part of the natural balance of human life.
It is possible, as in the case of father and son, that a closeness will arise between two men which threatens the functional hostility of each. It is the duty of society to provide an artificial means of encouraging the proper degree of antagonism. — C.S. Friedman

In a world where data is coin of the realm, and transmissions are guarded by no better sentinels than man-made codes and corruptible devices, there is no such thing as a secret. — C.S. Friedman

All about us were people. Perhaps a hundred. Men. Experience had taught me that humans were cruelest when segregated by sex, and the cold feeling in the pit of my stomach became led. What had I let myself in for? — C.S. Friedman

All data leaves a trail. The search for data leaves a trail. The erasure of data leaves a trail. The absence of data, under the right circumstances, can leave the clearest trail of all. — C.S. Friedman

Only in summer-phase is it carnivorous.
If there was an award for understatement, I thought, the Tyr would trounce all competition. — C.S. Friedman

Civilized man longs for the illusion of barbarism. Either his culture fulfills this need by adopting its outer trappings, or he will be seduced by his first contact with a culture that does. — C.S. Friedman

The more complex our security becomes, the more complex our enemy's efforts must be.
The more we seek to shut him out, the better he must learn to become at breaking in.
Each new level of security that we manage becomes no more than a stepping-stone for him who would surpass us, for he bases his next assault upon our best defenses.
It is a ware that can never truly be won ... but one we dare not lose. — C.S. Friedman

Anger of any kind is a dangerous emotion, it eats at the nerves and eventually makes you careless — C.S. Friedman

My identity is without root. — C.S. Friedman

The more I think about it, the more it frightens me."
"So why are you getting involved?"
He shut his eyes. "So I can look at myself in the mirror again. And know that I did my best. — C.S. Friedman

A man does not truly understand his limitations until he has tested them. — C.S. Friedman

Look," she told me. "A good kreda is very hard to find. I invested a lot of time and memory in you. I had no intention of giving all that up, just because you were going to be in a bad mood for a decade or two. — C.S. Friedman