Terry Mancour > Quotes

“the Valley of Boval, where the women and the cows were renowned for their udders. ”
― Terry Mancour, Spellmonger

“Once upon a time, in a tiny village called Talry on the bank of the great river Burine, in the Riverlands Barony of Varune, the Duchy of Castal, a Great and Powerful Mage was born unto a common man and his wife. I’ll spare you the suspense.  It was me. ”
― Terry Mancour, Spellmonger

“Always act with confidence and assuredness, even when you don’t possess them yourself,” counseled Asgus, patiently.  “If your men sense doubt in your orders, then they doubt everything else.  ‘Tis better to be wrong decisively, than to be right and indecisive.”  I nodded sagely.  That sounded about right – and”
― Terry Mancour, Warmage

“Learning from our mistakes is the path to wisdom,” I agreed. “No,” chuckled Fondaras.  “Learning from our mistakes is common sense.  Learning from other people’s mistakes is wisdom.”
― Terry Mancour, Footwizard

“To not give your foe the respect that he is due gives him an opening in your defenses that he can exploit.”
― Terry Mancour, Spellmonger

“You burn down an entire town, and don’t even invoke me?” an angry female voice asked from behind me.
“I didn’t think you’d be interested,” I shrugged, bending back to my work.
“It was a huge whopping fire!” she snorted. “I’m a fire goddess! That’s my primal function! Flaming hells, you were using thermite! Thermite!” she repeated. “How would I not be interested?”
“Did no one else invoke you?” I asked, as I continued to work.
“Certainly! Hundreds did! There was a fire elemental rolling around in there for a while! I showed up personally! But did my most famous lay worshipper bother to invoke me, and share the exquisite bliss of thousands of degrees of pure combustible magic? Minalan!” she pleaded. “Are you losing interest in me?”
“Now, now,” I chuckled, “the truth is I was just busy. Astyral was showing off, and I had to give him my full attention. Having a pretty goddess around, making sex noises while she watched the blaze, might have been distracting.”
“I don’t make sex noises!” she declared, defensively. “I . . . I just . . I’m a fire goddess, it’s what I do!” she said, nearly whining.”
― Terry Mancour, Necromancer

“Mostly, it’s a matter of getting other people to do your work for you. Pushing the right idiots into doing the right stupid things at the right time.”
― Terry Mancour, Necromancer

“Theocracies are hell.  A sign of a diseased culture.  For who speaks for the gods but the temples?  And the temples have their own agendas that have little to do with the gods. ”
― Terry Mancour, Spellmonger

“How come I never get invited to the meetings where these things are discussed? I complained.   You’re too busy smiting the foe and saving the world. ”
― Terry Mancour, Warmage

“No matter what else happened, I could count on Alya and the kids surviving this attack. That gave me
confidence.
Me? That was another story. I was about to do something stupid.”
― Terry Mancour, Necromancer

“Alya.  She was talking about Alya.  The ramifications of Penny’s arrival on a personal level suddenly leaped out from hiding and pounced on me, beating me about the head and shoulders.  How does one do this?  Ex-girlfriend, meet new girlfriend – I’m sure you will get along famously.  It was a stickier diplomatic situation than a meeting of the Coronet Council.”
― Terry Mancour, Spellmonger

“I know, ” she said, flatly. “Antimei warned me that you would ‘transform’ me. I was hoping it would be into a frog, or a racquiel, or perhaps a bear -- I’ve always wanted to be a bear! Not a ‘proper young lady’!” she said, bitterly.”
― Terry Mancour, Court Wizard

“I hope I won’t be eternally damned for that, but then again I’ve warranted damnation for so much else that one atrocity, more or less, would do little against the weight of my soul in the afterlife.”
― Terry Mancour, Spellmonger

“I’ve told you how it’s going to be, from now on.  The law is on my side.  The Duke is on my side.  And all these seasoned warriors are on my side.  My side wins. ”
― Terry Mancour, Magelord

“temples can wield great power, for they can motivate the masses to ignore self-preservation in the name of a holy cause.  They have moral power, as well, ideally.  But most are run by petty people with odd ideas about a civil society.”
― Terry Mancour, Spellmonger

“I suppose it’s always a bit of a shock to realize just how important we really are to the people in our lives.  And almost never for the reasons we think.”
― Terry Mancour, Footwizard

“Compared to the great advantage of an endless font of power, a little dark murmuring in my soul was nothing.”
― Terry Mancour, Spellmonger

“It can be hard on a man, to face a situation that seems hopeless at the outset,” he continued, steadily.  “But your die was cast, and you have little choice but accept the situation as it is, and not as you wish it would be.  You must act, though every part of you wants to freeze up or flee.  What you do at the beginning is critical.”
― Terry Mancour, Victory Soup

“I tried hard not to think about the horrors of a world where your wife can reach out and call you as easily as if she were constantly standing next to you”
― Terry Mancour, Magelord

“man is not molded from clay . . . he is pounded like hot iron on an anvil.”
― Terry Mancour, Knights Magi

“All life is an unforeseen consequence,” he said, with divine smugness.  “You wanna write that down?  That one’s quotable!”
― Terry Mancour, Necromancer

“It’s my choices that have gotten me here in the first place,” I sighed. “Everyone has to be somewhere,” he shrugged.  “And where we are is always the result of the steps we’ve chosen to take.”
― Terry Mancour, Journeymage

“It’s not a matter of the creature,” explained Master Ulin, passionately.  “It’s a matter of their enneagrammatic remains, and what pathways you wish to exploit for the work.  If an ordinant can transfer the pattern without the use of a benet, eschewing deracination of the living in favor of dissamuring from the enneagrammatic archive of the Grain with a suitably docimased bridewell, then both the ethical and practical issues of flagitation and paracletion are solved at once,” he stated, triumphantly. “I have no idea what he just said,” admitted Master Cormoran, drunkenly.  “But damn, he said it well!” “It’s”
― Terry Mancour, Enchanter

“When a woman encounters a man of that quality,” Penny continued, solemnly, “she dedicates herself to making herself worthy of him.”
― Terry Mancour, High Mage

“So that was it?” she demanded. “All that build-up to rescue a princess, and . . . that was it?”
“Would you prefer trying to fight your way out of the tower, through the ruined city transformed
into a warzone, through the fetid lake and past the dragons, only to escort her over a thousand miles of
treacherous territory back home?”
“Yes, actually,” Noutha said, blinking.
Tyndal stopped short at that. “I guess I’m glad you weren’t in charge of planning, then,” he
decided.”
― Terry Mancour

“When faced with your imminent death, the wise man reaches into the depths of his soul, grabs his sword, and does what is proper.  The gods have a way of treating you like a two-penny whore on payday, but at least you might face the experience with the faintest bit of dignity.”
― Terry Mancour, Spellmonger

“you’ve exceeded expectations for a prince charming pretty much every step of the way.”   “I still have bad habits,” he pointed out. “Leaving my socks on the floor. Waging wholesale slaughter and pillaging innocent worlds. Swearing.”
― Terry Mancour, Prince of Tanith

“Right about here will do,” I decided.  I cast a magelight to illuminate the place.  The first faint glow of dawn was arising along the horizon in the east, but it was still as dark as a miner’s butt.  “When my father heard that I was having a girl, he gave me some advice,” I said, stripping off my mantle.  “As the father of five daughter’s himself, he was full of sage wisdom on the subject of raising girls.” “Are they any different than raising boys?” “Worlds apart,” I nodded.  “But he said there are some things that you can count on with girls,” I continued, philosophically.  “When a young father has a girl, he’s strong.  By the time she grows into a lovely young woman, age takes a toll on a man.  He’s not as strong.  “So . . . when a young woman enters courting age, you might not be as hale as you are now, my friend.  And you will find the nights colder in your bones.” “You . . . you fear I won’t have the strength to show him the door?”  He still looked confused.  And a little drunk.  As big as he is, Arborn is a lightweight when it comes to his cups.   “Oh, no.  When the wrong sort of suitor shows interest in your daughter,” I explained, as I took out the hoxter wand, “then passion can provide the strength you need to contend with the situation.  “But passion fades, when the deed is done.  And then you are left with but your decrepit strength, and a long night of work ahead.”  I manifested two shovels from the hoxter.  “My father told me that the wise father of any daughter has the foresight to dig the hole while he’s still young and strong.  It saves the trouble of a long night, when you are old and weary.” “A hole?  For . . .?” “My father assures me this is effective: for someone who is not impressed by being shown a hole an attentive father dug before he was born and intended for him, at need,” I supplied.  “Mine is behind the stable at the castle.  If a young man is worrisome, I’ll show him the hole, and explain the purpose.  You have three daughters.  That’s three holes.  I’ll help you dig.”
― Terry Mancour, Necromancer

“laconic”
― Terry Mancour, Magelord

“Yes, but he faces a human mage with great power and no idea what he’s doing,” I boasted. “That has sunk islands, before. Entire civilizations.”
― Terry Mancour, Necromancer