Lcguz > Lcguz's Quotes

“This story began with a single, starving family, hunted and alone on the plains of Mongolia—and ends with Kublai Khan ruling an empire larger than that of Alexander the Great or Julius Caesar. Over just three generations, that is simply the greatest rags-to-riches tale in human history.”
― Conn Iggulden, Conqueror

“Holding anger is a poison...It eats you from inside...We think that by hating someone we hurt them...But hatred is a curved blade...and the harm we do to others...we also do to ourselves.”
― Mitch Albom, The Five People You Meet in Heaven

“The words of his own teachers spiraled in his mind then as he collapsed in the snow. They had told him that holding on to anger was like grasping a hot coal. Only he would be burned by it. Yet as the men scattered and he felt strong arms lift him up, Yao Shu held the hot coal closely and felt only warmth.”
― Conn Iggulden, Bones of the Hills

“...it is a truth of historical fiction that all the characters are long dead; all the lives and stories have ended, and usually not well.”
― Conn Iggulden

“Courage cannot be left like bones in a bag. It must be brought out and shown the light again and again, growing stronger each time. If you think it will keep for the times you need it, you are wrong. It is like any other part of your strength. If you ignore it, the bag will be empty when you need it most.”
― Conn Iggulden, Genghis: Birth of an Empire

“Men respect the silent; they despise the garrulous. - Marius”
― Conn Iggulden, The Gates of Rome

“When you’re older, you will realise the only thing that matters, the only thing, is that you had courage and honour. Lose those things and you won’t die any quicker, but you’ll be less than the dirt on our boots. You’ll still be dust, but you’ll have wasted your short time in the light.”
― Conn Iggulden, Conqueror

“I am the land, the bones of the hills," he said fiercely, "I am the winter. When I am dead, I will come for you all in the coldest nights.”
― Conn Iggulden, Genghis: Birth of an Empire

“We are all fools with our sons. We wipe them and suckle them and all we expect is for them to be grateful to the end of their days.”
― Conn Iggulden, Conqueror

“No man could be a khan to his mother.”
― Conn Iggulden, Genghis: Birth of an Empire

“No worthy goal should come easily, he told himself. Suffering created value.”
― Conn Iggulden, Conqueror

“It's all you can say, when the end comes: 'I did not waste my time.' I think that matters. I think it may be all that matters.”
― Conn Iggulden, Conqueror

“There was no justice in the world, but he had known that ever since the death of his father. The spirits took no part in the lives of men once they had been born. A man either endured what the world sent his way, or was crushed.”
― Conn Iggulden, Genghis: Birth of an Empire

“If a man has gold, he lives with the terror that someone will take it away from him, so he builds walls around it. Then everyone knows where the gold is, so they come and take it. That’s the way it always goes, brother. Fools and gold, together.”
― Conn Iggulden, Khan: Empire of Silver

“When I am gone, I do not want men to say Look at his piles of wealth, his cities, his palaces and fine clothes.” Genghis paused for a moment. “Instead I want them to say Make sure he is truly dead. He is a vicious old man and he conquered half the world.”
― Conn Iggulden, Bones of the Hills

“We are not here to earn riches with a bow. The wolf does not think of fine things, only that his pack is strong and no other wolf dares to cross his path. That is enough.”
― Conn Iggulden, Bones of the Hills

“It is true that only a coward can be brave, as a man who feels no fear has conquered nothing.”
― Conn & David Iggulden, The Dangerous Book of Heroes

“What we make can survive us.”
― Conn Iggulden, Khan: Empire of Silver

“He had a vision of a nation. The incredible martial skills of the Mongol tribes had always been wasted against each other. From nothing, surrounded by enemies, Temujin rose to unite them all. What came next would shake the world.”
― Conn Iggulden, Genghis: Birth of an Empire

“You have a powerful army, Kublai, but the best force is one you do not have to use.”
― Conn Iggulden, Conqueror

“Genghis nodded drunkenly. "Writing," he replied, scornfully. "It traps words."
"It makes them real, lord. It makes them last.”
― Conn Iggulden, Genghis: Lords of the Bow

“Here's why I will be a good person. Because I listen. I cannot talk, so I listen very well. I never deflect the course of the conversation with a comment of my own. People, if you pay attention to them, change the direction of one another's conversations constantly. It's like being a passenger in your car who suddenly grabs the steering wheel and turns you down a side street. For instance, if we met at a party and I wanted to tell you a story about the time I needed to get a soccer ball in my neighbor's yard but his dog chased me and I had to jump into a swimming pool to escape, and I began telling the story, you, hearing the words "soccer" and "neighbor" in the same sentence, might interrupt and mention that your childhood neighbor was Pele, the famous soccer player, and I might be courteous and say, Didn't he play for the Cosmos of New York? Did you grow up in New York? And you might reply that, no, you grew up in Brazil on the streets of Tres Coracoes with Pele, and I might say, I thought you were from Tennessee, and you might say not originally, and then go on to outline your genealogy at length. So my initial conversational gambit - that I had a funny story about being chased by my neighbor's dog - would be totally lost, and only because you had to tell me all about Pele. Learn to listen! I beg of you. Pretend you are a dog like me and listen to other people rather than steal their stories.”
― Garth Stein, The Art of Racing in the Rain

“The true hero is flawed. The true test of a champion is not whether he can triumph, but whether he can overcome obstacles - preferably of his own making - in order to triumph.”
― Garth Stein, The Art of Racing in the Rain

“So much of language is unspoken. So much of language is compromised of looks and gestures and sounds that are not words. People are ignorant of the vast complexity of their own communication.”
― Garth Stein, The Art of Racing in the Rain

“The human language, as precise as it is with its thousands of words, can still be so wonderfully vague.”
― Garth Stein, The Art of Racing in the Rain

“In Mongolia, when a dog dies, he is buried high in the hills so people cannot walk on his grave. The dog’s master whispers in the dog’s ear his wishes that the dog will return as a man in his next life. Then his tail is cut off and put beneath his head, and a piece of meat of fat is cut off and placed in his mouth to sustain his soul for its journey; before he is reincarnated, the dog’s soul is freed to travel the land, to run across the high desert plains for as long as it would like.

I learned that from a program on the National Geographic Channel, so I believe it is true. Not all dogs return as men, they say; only those who are ready.

I am ready.”
― Garth Stein, The Art of Racing in the Rain

“In racing, they say that your car goes where your eyes go. The driver who cannot tear his eyes away from the wall as he spins out of control will meet that wall; the driver who looks down the track as he feels his tires break free will regain control of his vehicle.”
― Garth Stein, The Art of Racing in the Rain

“We had a good run, and now it’s over; what’s wrong with that?”
― Garth Stein, The Art of Racing in the Rain

“The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.”
― Socrates

“Any fool can know. The point is to understand.”
― Albert Einstein