Mercedes Lackey > Quotes

“If I'm walking on thin ice, I might as well dance my way across.”
― Mercedes Lackey

“If only. Those must be the two saddest words in the world.”
― Mercedes Lackey

“If it is stupid but it works, it isn't stupid.
(a Shin'a'in saying)”
― Mercedes Lackey, Owlknight

“Give your enemy a face, If he is human, do not dehumanize him. Know him and know why he is your enemy. If your enemy is within you, understand what it is and why you are afraid. Put a face on your fear. When you understand it, and it is no longer vague and shapeless, you will find that your fear is no longer so formidable.”
― Mercedes Lackey, Brightly Burning

“The great love is gone. There are still little loves - friend to friend, brother to sister, student to teacher. Will you deny yourself comfort at the hearthfire of a cottage because you may no longer sit by the fireplace of a palace? Will you deny yourself to those who reach out to you in hopes of warming themselves at your hearthfire?”
― Mercedes Lackey, Magic's Pawn

“Adventure, yeah. I guess that's what you call it when everybody comes back alive.”
― Mercedes Lackey, Spirits White as Lightning

“It isn't wise to be rude to one's mother. She knows everything about your childhood that is potentially embarassing.”
― Mercedes Lackey, Elvenborn

“Some must be warriors, that others may live in peace. ”
― Mercedes Lackey, Exile's Honor

“Honor was never taking the easy way when it was also the wrong one. Never telling a falsehood unless the truth was painful and unnecessary, or a lie was necessary to save others. Never manipulating the truth to serve only yourself. Protecting the weak and helpless; standing fast even when fear made you weak. Keeping your word.”
― Mercedes Lackey, Exile's Honor

“It's only gossip if you repeat it. Until then, it's gathering information.”
― Mercedes Lackey, Intrigues

“Inexperience can be overcome, ignorance can be enlightened, but prejudice will destroy you.”
― Mercedes Lackey, The Black Gryphon

“You are human and mortal; we are the sum of our weak moments and our strong.”
― Mercedes Lackey, The Black Gryphon

“Three things never anger or you'll not live for long;
A wolf with cubs,
A man with power, And a woman's sense of wrong.”
― Mercedes Lackey, By the Sword

“Not forgiving someone hurts you worse than it hurts him...even if he doesn't deserve to be forgiven...Not forgiving someone is like not pulling a thorn out of your foot just because you weren't the one who put it there.”
― Mercedes Lackey, The Wizard of London

“To treat a person like a carpet, it is necessary that one do the walking, and one allow himself to be walked on.
--Shin'a'in saying”
― Mercedes Lackey, Owlflight

“One day,' Orest said, looking at him comically, 'you will say something that is less than practical and sensible, something that is driven by no forethought and nothing but passion, and I will probably collapse with shock.”
― Mercedes Lackey, Alta

“This I think I have learned: where there is love, the form does not matter, and the gods are pleased. This I have observed: what occurs in nature, comes by the hand of nature, and if the gods did not approve, it would not be there
~ Moondance k'Treva (Magic's Pawn)”
― Mercedes Lackey

“Mister Cameron - I have read the unexpurgated Ovid, the love poems of Sappho, the Decameron in the original, and a great many texts in Greek and Latin histories that were not though fit for proper gentlemen to read, much less proper ladies. I know in precise detail what Caligula did to, and with, his sisters, and I can quote it to you in Latin or in my own translation if you wish. I am interested in historical truth, and truth in history is often unpleasant and distasteful to those of fine sensibility. I frankly doubt that you will produce anything to shock me. ”
― Mercedes Lackey, The Fire Rose

“Truth and trust are the means by which civilization holds off barbarism.”
― Mercedes Lackey, Alta

“Do you know the kind of things that live up there?...things without names 'cause no one who's seen 'em has lived long enough to give them any name besides 'AAAARG!”
― Mercedes Lackey, The Oathbound

“Fanatics can justify practically any atrocity to themselves. The more untenable their position becomes, the harder they hold to it, and the worse the things they are willing to do to support it.”
― Mercedes Lackey, Changes

“First commandment: there ain't no such thing as "one true way" and the way you find is only good for you, not anybody else, because your interpretation of what you see and feel and understand as the truth is never going to be the same as anyone else's.
Second commandment: the only answers worth having are the ones you find for yourself.
Third commandment: leave the world better than you found it.
Fourth commandment: if it isn't true, going to do some good, or spread a little love around, don't say it, do it, or think it.
Fifth commandment: there are only three things worth living for; love in all it's manifestations, freedom, and the chance to keep humanity going a little while longer. They're the same things worth dying for. And if you aren't willing to die for the things worth living for, you might as well turn in your membership in the human race.”
― Mercedes Lackey, Burning Water

“The freedom to swing your fist ends at my nose.”
― Mercedes Lackey, Sacred Ground

“In a calm, clear voice, she suggested that the wyrsa in question could do several highly improbable, athletically difficult and possibly biologically impractical things involving its own mother, a few household implements, and a dead fish.”
― Mercedes Lackey, The Silver Gryphon

“If they projected the fact that they are dangerous any harder, there would be little puddles of "danger" on the floor around them. Look, it's "danger", don't step in it!”
― Mercedes Lackey, The Eagle & the Nightingales

“Established religion is like established anything else. It's easy. It offers answers you can get prepackaged and predigested, right off the shelf, and the same for everybody. No thinking required, much less hard thinking. Like a board game--you follow the rules, you go to heaven. That's why established religion gets the assholes. They aren't "good" Christians. I rather doubt they ever gave up a thing they valued for any reason or anybody. People like that aren't good anything. What they believe, they believe because it's appropriate; it's what everybody believes because it's the right thing to do--in short, it's easy. Our way isn't easy. We get assholes too, but they usually give up and get out, or get it knocked out of them.”
― Mercedes Lackey, Burning Water

“How DARE the villainous cads be as clever as the heroes.”
― Mercedes Lackey, Reserved for the Cat

“Three things trust and cherish well-
The horse on which you ride,
The beast that guards and watches,
And your shield-mate at your side.”
― Mercedes Lackey, By the Sword

“Certainly no one has ever died of an unrequited passion—it's usually the ones that are requited that get people in trouble.”
― Mercedes Lackey, Four & Twenty Blackbirds

“There’s no such thing as `one, true way’; the only answers worth having are the ones you find for yourself; leave the world better than you found it. Love, freedom, and the chance to do some good — they’re the things worth living and dying for, and if you aren’t willing to die for the things worth living for, you might as well turn in your membership in the human race.”
― Mercedes Lackey, Brightly Burning