Top 70 Anthony Ryan Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “Ignorant people will believe anything if they’re scared enough.”

— Anthony Ryan

2. “If the stars in the sky are not fixed, then nothing is fixed. Nothing is eternal, all is temporary and ever-changing.” She turned away from the stars, meeting his gaze. “Nothing is fixed, my lord. No course is so set it cannot be changed.”

— Anthony Ryan

3. “It is the lessons we learn that change us from boys to men.”

— Anthony Ryan

4. “Trust is more important than fear.”

— Anthony Ryan

5. “What do you think the world is if not just an endless parade of madness? To make war is madness. To seek power is madness.” She laughed louder, throwing her arms wide. “And madness is glorious!”

— Anthony Ryan

6. “We’re soldiers, boy. Soldier’s life is hard, short on pleasure and long on pain.”

— Anthony Ryan

7. “Give them the right lie and they’ll believe it.”

— Anthony Ryan

8. “Love may claim our hearts but lust will always claim our bodies. It is the traitor that lurks in every soul.”

— Anthony Ryan

9. “You hide it well, but I can see it, Lord Verniers. You hate us. We have beaten you to obedience but it’s still there, like dry tinder waiting for a spark.”

— Anthony Ryan

10. “Courage?” I gave a very soft laugh. “I find courage is just another of life’s illusions. In the end, we all do what we must.”

— Anthony Ryan

11. “All knowledge is a threat to someone.” Vaelin.”

— Anthony Ryan

12. “An axe without a blade is just a stick.”

— Anthony Ryan

13. “Choice is a lie. The greatest of lies.”

— Anthony Ryan

14. “I was a slave, but never a fool. This empire is vast beyond imagining and we have killed only a fraction of the force they will bring against us. They will kill us, all of us, for we are slaves and we cannot be allowed even the barest hope of freedom. Without us, they have no empire.”

— Anthony Ryan

15. “My finest student, and also my greatest disappointment.”

— Anthony Ryan

16. “The price of stability is unpreparedness.”

— Anthony Ryan

17. “Cruelty is in all of us,” he said. “But they made it a virtue.”

— Anthony Ryan

18. “What a burden it is to have an intelligent daughter. It goes against nature for wit to be bound up in so much beauty.”

— Anthony Ryan

19. “It’s often said that doubt is the enemy of faith. But I have found the real enemy of faith is truth.”

— Anthony Ryan

20. “All ambition is folly when it fails to be matched by reason.”

— Anthony Ryan

21. “Wise Bear said something in his own language, mouth twisting in disgust as if the words stained his tongue. He caught Vaelin’s enquiring gaze and provided a terse translation, “Cat People.”

— Anthony Ryan

22. “But people are still people, however comfortable their surroundings. They lie, they feud, they betray and however much you give them, they always want more.”

— Anthony Ryan

23. “We found a jewel in the desert,’” I quoted. “’And from it fashioned a charred cinder.”

— Anthony Ryan

24. “What is broken remains so, it is the way of things.”

— Anthony Ryan

25. “War is ever the folly of the ignorant. But I have seen much to convince me some wars must be fought, to the bitterest end if need be.”

— Anthony Ryan

26. “Your realm is an insane place. In Volaria, no-one goes hungry, slaves are no use when they starve. Those freeborn too lazy or lacking in intelligence to turn sufficient profit to feed themselves are made slaves so they can generate wealth for those deserving of freedom, and be fed in return. Here, your people are chained by their freedom, free to starve and beg from the rich. It’s disgusting.”

— Anthony Ryan

27. “Hide an advantage and you double its value.”

— Anthony Ryan

28. “Battle is a hard business, sister. Soft training will make for soft soldiers, who will in turn become soft corpses.”

— Anthony Ryan

29. “Nobility is a lie. A pretence that high standing comes from anything more than money or martial prowess. Any dolt can play the noble, and as you’ll discover in time, daughter, it’s mostly dolts who do.”

— Anthony Ryan

30. “In order to contemplate, one must have something to contemplate. A life without experience provides no chance of contemplation. Those who have not lived cannot mediate om the mysterious of life.”

— Anthony Ryan

31. “War is never good for commerce. Lest your trading in steel o’course.”

— Anthony Ryan

32. “And chivalry – ” Wilhum let out a short, bitter laugh “ – is the worst trick of all, for it fools us with the illusion that war is anything but a chaos of slaughter and suffering.”

— Anthony Ryan

33. “What has happened cannot be changed, and so you cannot touch it. Change is the province of the future.”

— Anthony Ryan

34. “Destruction, it appears,” Nortah went on, a ghost of his old smile on his lips, “is our principal gift to the world, brother.”

— Anthony Ryan

35. “Some memories are best left to wither.”

— Anthony Ryan

36. “My people do, I do not. Gods are a myth, a comforting story for children.” “Such.”

— Anthony Ryan

37. “Beware the seduction of the quick conclusion. Do not indulge in the answer you desire until you know all you need to know.”

— Anthony Ryan

38. “I did wonder if I’d have cause to rue my action. Now I believe it can safely be filed under Necessary Regrets.”

— Anthony Ryan

39. “No, I’m truthful. It’s my weapon.”

— Anthony Ryan

40. “Honour’ is just a word. You can’t eat it or drink it and yet everywhere I go men talk of it endlessly, and they all tell a different tale of what it actually means.”

— Anthony Ryan

41. “Only in war does the madman become sane.”

— Anthony Ryan

42. “It’s always the way with such things, burn a book and the ashes spawn a thousand copies.”

— Anthony Ryan

43. “The promise of power wasn’t enough, he thought. So now she tempts me with knowledge.”

— Anthony Ryan

44. “Is a lie really a lie if it is honestly believed?”

— Anthony Ryan

45. “There have been riots. When word spread of the attacks rumours started about a Denier plot. Soon it was common knowledge a hidden army of Cumbraelins was waiting in the sewers to murder us all in our beds.” He shook his head in disgust. “Ignorant people will believe anything if they’re scared enough.”

— Anthony Ryan

46. “It’s always the way with great men, they can’t see the knives of those who live in their shadow.”

— Anthony Ryan

47. “A fool is any man who doesn’t think he’s a fool. Let me sleep, my lord.”

— Anthony Ryan

48. “In the morning they found that the remnants had been cleared, leaving only a circle of black ash to scar the grass. In the months and years that followed even that would fade.”

— Anthony Ryan

49. “Between lovers, betrayal is always the worst sin.”

— Anthony Ryan

50. “Face after face contorted in hate, men, women, children. Whatever lies had been voiced against me had clearly gained near-universal acceptance. I knew then that, regardless of what transpired here, my home was now lost to me. It wasn’t just that these people would never accept me, more that I would never forgive their gullibility.”

— Anthony Ryan