Janet Morris Quotes & Sayings

One lot apiece, one chance to undo an error or secure a fate. — Janet Morris

You three have done quite enough today: all of you and your feckless, treacherous god. — Janet Morris

To take care of the world seemed, finally, a privilege rather than a burden. The Riddler had led them to life's greatest victory. They had found a home. — Janet Morris

If it was true today, it might be untrue tomorrow. — Janet Morris

I survive. I survived it all then and I'll survive the rest of it. Without your help. — Janet Morris

The Fates are here because of supernal anger, celestial imbalance, and arrogance of men and gods that must be curbed. — Janet Morris

Die never for a god, Nikodemos who should know better - not your soldiers' god, nor any other. — Janet Morris

Everyone prepares for battle in his own way. — Janet Morris

Here Stormbringer spies the Stepsons, the Theban fighters, and the 3rd Commando, attending to their own. In the face of such unflinching determination and unswerving devotion, the hurricane pauses and calms. Its ravings turn to mutters. — Janet Morris

Gather the shards of your courage. Patch together what resolve you can. We'll find this thing - and kill it. — Janet Morris

Life was never simple, happiness never where you thought you'd left it, and right and wrong no more fixed than clouds in the sky. — Janet Morris

It's all the same - no good without evil, no balance ... no maat. If we lose one, we lose the other. It's just life, that's all. — Janet Morris

One to a customer was the rule: one body; one mind; one swing through life. - Tempus — Janet Morris

Revenge is never the best driver for a battle, but a common one. — Janet Morris

I don't want to be any closer to the gods than death will bring me. — Janet Morris

I want to live like a man. — Janet Morris

The two stallions, the silver and the black, represent the equine god (whomsoever horses pray to) in this ritual so ancient that no one knows what god to thank. — Janet Morris

Only from chaos does order come. The angry Fates bring death where they will, when war is king, says Enlil, storm god of the armies, and the tip of his crown rends the clouds above their heads. "Wheresoever I rule, death comes shambling after. So it has always been, is, and will be." — Janet Morris

The heavens listen to what is said on these cobbles. Laws of man and nature come together here. Here you must be firm. Here you must be true. — Janet Morris

If the gods sent you to fight here, then the gods are fools. — Janet Morris

Shed your mortal skin and let me take you beneath the waves. — Janet Morris

Listen close and you can hear, Please, bless us and forgive us, and make us good here and strong here. Let us get along here. Let those we love and left behind be blessed. Let us find the proper path and keep to it. Help us act harmoniously, and find work pleasing in the sight of god and man. — Janet Morris

Tempus would be protected, better shielded from whatever the Stepson thought threatening, if love could heal and save. — Janet Morris

Gods are nothing without their worshipers; they act on the affairs and the passions of men. — Janet Morris

This fight coming is not a battle of weapons, but a battle of wills. — Janet Morris

The Riddler says you make the world better one battle at a time. — Janet Morris

I must decide if you deserve to die. — Janet Morris

Your stuff does not own the home; either control your belongings, or they will control you. — Janet Morris

If cities have souls, Sanctuary's was troubled long before Tempus got here, and will be troubled long after he and his are gone. — Janet Morris

Nature has a surer plan than mortals can devise. — Janet Morris

Each soul has its appointed doom. How is it you dare to raise a mortal boy so high - high enough to flout the gods? Bring godhead where a man may reach out and take it? growls Enlil, and lightning splits a clear blue sky. — Janet Morris

And personally, I've lost my thirst for vengeance. — Janet Morris

Painful things are quickly forgotten. — Janet Morris

All gods are tricksters, and war gods worst of any. — Janet Morris

One man can make another's life so much better. — Janet Morris

Here and now was always where Tempus was, not off somewhere in the realm of Greater Good or Mortal Soul or Eternal Consequence. He'd lost the ability to determine greater good, if there was one; his mortal soul he'd given up on long ago. And as for eternal consequence - he was its embodiment. — Janet Morris

Always take responsibility for your past. It is your only collateral in life. Unless you despise yourself now, you cannot despise yourself then. Everything you did is a part of the process that brought you here. All your past is as alive and real as your so-called 'present.' — Janet Morris

It was his soul's freedom that was in question. And that question was whether freedom was worth the price when it meant shirking the responsibilities of honor. — Janet Morris

Nothing powers hate better than embarrassment. — Janet Morris

I see all sorts of things when I'm clearing my pipes. — Janet Morris

It is upon each soul to recognize its limit. — Janet Morris

There are stranger things here than Thebans know about ... — Janet Morris

Something is going on everywhere, most of which no one understands. — Janet Morris

It is hard to battle anger, for whatever it wants it pays from the soul. — Janet Morris

Let fools believe what fools believe. — Janet Morris

What would the world be without him, and those like him? — Janet Morris

Revenge is fruitless. — Janet Morris

The meaning of life, Nikodemos, is to live life with meaning. The purpose of life is merely to live it, perhaps to give it. — Janet Morris

Survival has its own etiquette. — Janet Morris

Sanctuary is for lovers, not fighters, this season. — Janet Morris

It's in the god's hands. — Janet Morris

Gods have bloody hands. — Janet Morris

Gods colliding, ethos and mythos trying to combine. The Sacred Band caught up in a whirlwind not of any god's devising: he and Niko had wanted to save twenty-three pairs of fated Theban fighters. Now everything feels fated and fighting oversweeps its boundaries of time and place and plane. — Janet Morris

We know. We've seen it all before. — Janet Morris

Only so much can be borne from men, so much from gods — Janet Morris

Men are fools who forget what really matters while time goes by. — Janet Morris

I think we're all in Cime's army now. But never mind, the Storm God hasn't forgotten us. Heaven is no farther away than it ever was. — Janet Morris

It's all right. Things as they once were will never be again, but it's all right. — Janet Morris

Proof of war, when it comes, always comes too late. — Janet Morris

If you want to write something completely unique, you will probably fail or at best write something without redeeming value. The mind works in certain patterns: the mind organizes facts in story form; it is your commonality with that body of human thought that makes a good book, not its estrangement from the common values that humans share. — Janet Morris

Men live, and then they die. It is the quality of the process of living which matters, that and that alone. — Janet Morris

War is all and king of all — Janet Morris

Deception is a tactic: use it. Do whatever it takes to win. — Janet Morris

Some nights, valor and cold purpose aren't enough. — Janet Morris

Then what difference does human striving make: mortal struggle, valor, pain? If you live, then live for the test of spirit, for the celebration of the heart. Live to fight on other days. Lose your beloveds one by one. And remember. Exalt the kiss of friend and horse and wind and sun, which venality cannot cheapen nor stupidity belittle. — Janet Morris

One man, one horse, one holocaust on demand. — Janet Morris

But we're dying here. — Janet Morris

Men may not believe you, my son. But you must always say the truth, when the truth holds no danger for you or your loved ones. — Janet Morris

Your honor blinds you, Tempus, to what's right and wrong these days. — Janet Morris

Sometimes a man does what he'd most like to avoid. — Janet Morris

And as for death - we get what we expect. — Janet Morris

If, as you teach, the universe has no beginning and no end, why should we? — Janet Morris

Gods and men honor those who have fought in battle. — Janet Morris

Niko's angular face caught a flicker of firelight and Tempus saw his future there: sharp purpose, discipline, and power in perfect balance; love of man and gods, and mercy transcending all. If war ever wore a more humane face, this one would make it so. — Janet Morris

Survival's the thing, isn't it? — Janet Morris

These warriors of the Sacred Band were inscrutable; they loved their war and death and picking through the bones of time to sort out right from wrong, good from bad, holy from profane, honor from dishonor. — Janet Morris

You get what you expect. Expect to heal. Expect victory. — Janet Morris

Live to fight on other days. — Janet Morris

This is for you. A mage named Randal told me to give it to the Band if you ever came back. 'It surmounts evil,' he told me, 'keeps doom at bay.' — Janet Morris

Niko knew death like a sister - she was his true partner in the phenomenal world. — Janet Morris

To the death with honor, shoulder to shoulder, and no one gets closer to a Stepson than his partner. — Janet Morris

Wisdom, Niko thought as he leaned his cheek against his long-handled rake, cannot be had without price. And that price is blood. The sound of it in your veins. The pound of it in your head. The volume of it in a human body; the sickness when you've spilled it. — Janet Morris

If, as Niko asks, you show them mercy, then the gods will be well pleased. — Janet Morris

War's balance will prevail. — Janet Morris

Something awful is always going to happen, Arton. It's Sanctuary. You're a Stepson. Awful is a big part of your job. — Janet Morris

Time is so ... fluid where I live — Janet Morris

Death's easy to find. If She wants you, you'll meet Her here as well as anywhere. — Janet Morris

In this new world, this day and forever, then, we are not only Thebans - we are all Stepsons. We are all one Sacred Band. If you will have us. And mine will fight by yours, henceforth, as brothers. — Janet Morris

Life to you, Riddler, and everlasting glory. — Janet Morris

Vengeance is disappointing, always. — Janet Morris

Tempus never left a problem for another to solve. Tempus never let the pain or difficulty of an undertaking persuade him not to pursue a resolution his heart thought was right. Tempus never gave up. — Janet Morris

The gods want to bring a better day, and you are their messengers. Trust not in all you see. Trust only in your hearts. And in us, who love you both. — Janet Morris

Strife brings all things into being on her battlefield. This I know. I have been there many times," says Vashanka, lord of sack and pillage. "I have died before. — Janet Morris

Look around you. It's an honor to fight beside you. Today we choose to fight. For the freedom to fight on other days. So we remember what's worth fighting for. — Janet Morris

Wars don't bring lasting peace, only lasting death. — Janet Morris

When you give death, you give of your own life - every time. — Janet Morris

There must be love, and understanding, to betray. Most men haven't the wit or the honor for betrayal: not to know it when they see it; not the stomach to apprehend it as they do it. Most men, blind and dumb in their self-centeredness, don't betray: they merely disappoint. — Janet Morris

I see ranks ready for battle, stretching out. Five, six horses across, ranks in formation. Endlessly. — Janet Morris

Ask yourselves if the gods are angry, you who have seen Harmony come among us, walk among us, touch us, look kindly upon us. We are the Sacred Band of Thebes. We fight in the forefront, therefore we bleed first. We live, therefore we die. — Janet Morris

Every man's in his own hands, with a little help from his brothers. — Janet Morris