Tad Williams

"Ambitious men never believe others aren’t the same."

"I shall endeavor to turn dross to purest Metal Absolute: in short, to teach you something."

"A king’s son has nothing but inferiors, each one a potential assassin."

"We trolls say: “Make Philosophy your evening guest, but do not let her stay the night.”"

"He who is certain he knows the ending of things when he is only beginning them is either extremely wise or extremely foolish; no matter which is true, he is certainly an unhappy man, for he has put a knife in the heart of wonder."

"The fear was all he had left, but even that was something—he was afraid, so he must be alive! There was darkness, but there was Simon, too! There were not one and the same. Not yet. Not quite..."

"“This fellow,” he indicated the woodsman with a sweep of his stick, “will reliably not become more alive, but he may have friends or family who will be unsettled to find him so extremely dead.”"

"Damn everyone to Hell. And damn the bloody forest. And God, too, for that matter. He looked up fearfully from his chill handful of water, but his silent blasphemy went unpunished."

"“Is this being in love?” he suddenly wondered? It was nothing like the ballads he had heard sung—this was more irritating than uplifting."

"Simon, there are more things you don’t know than there are things that I do know. I despair of the imbalance."

"Not being stupid is important."

"Nothing is without cost. There is a price to all power, and it is not always obvious."