Top 500 George R.R. Martin Quotes (2025 Update)
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151. “Start trying to work out who deserves what, and before long you’ll spend the rest of your days weeping for each and every person in the world.”

— George R.R. Martin

152. “What are gods for if not to sit in judgment over men? The Many-Faced God does not weigh men’s souls, however. He gives his gift to the best of men as he gives it to the worst. Elsewise the good would live forever.”

— George R.R. Martin

153. “Perhaps that is the secret. It is not what we do, so much as why we do it.”

— George R.R. Martin

154. “Never draw your sword unless you mean to use it.”

— George R.R. Martin

155. “A fair bargain leaves both sides unhappy.”

— George R.R. Martin

156. “In this world, only winter is certain.”

— George R.R. Martin

157. “Tolkien made the wrong choice when he brought Gandalf back. Screw Gandalf. He had a great death and the characters should have had to go on without him.”

— George R.R. Martin

158. “They hate you because you act like you’re better than they are.”

— George R.R. Martin

159. “Let me tell you something about wolves, child. When the snows fall and the white winds blow, the lone wolf dies, but the pack survives.”

— George R.R. Martin

160. “In the world as I have seen it, no man grows rich by kindness.”

— George R.R. Martin

161. “Nothing burns like the cold.”

— George R.R. Martin

162. “It is one thing to be clever and another to be wise.”

— George R.R. Martin

163. “The Gods give with one hand and take with the other.”

— George R.R. Martin

164. “Sometimes I think everyone is just pretending to be brave, and none of us really are. Maybe pretending is how you get brave, I don’t know.”

— George R.R. Martin

165. “But Tolkien doesn’t ask the question: What was Aragorn’s tax policy?”

— George R.R. Martin

166. “I prefer my history dead. Dead history is writ in ink, the living sort in blood.”

— George R.R. Martin

167. “So they will not love,” the old man answered, “for love is the bane of honor, the death of duty.”

— George R.R. Martin

168. “We all need to be mocked from time to time, lest we take ourselves too seriously.”

— George R.R. Martin

169. “The false light can only lead us deeper into darkness.”

— George R.R. Martin

170. “And when you have it, what then? Some secrets are safer kept hidden. Some secrets are too dangerous to share, even with those you love and trust.”

— George R.R. Martin

171. “We’re all just songs in the end. If we are lucky.”

— George R.R. Martin

172. “I’ve lost a hand, a father, a son, a sister, and a lover, and soon enough I will lose a brother. And yet they keep telling me House Lannister won this war.”

— George R.R. Martin

173. “Fire consumes, but cold preserves.”

— George R.R. Martin

174. “The world is full of cravens who pretended to be heroes.”

— George R.R. Martin

175. “I have been despised by better men than you.”

— George R.R. Martin

176. “Was there ever a war where only one side bled?”

— George R.R. Martin

177. “You’ll find truth in your looking glass, not on the tongues of men.”

— George R.R. Martin

178. “I have won every battle, yet somehow I’m losing the war.”

— George R.R. Martin

179. “Courage and folly are cousins, or so I’ve heard.”

— George R.R. Martin

180. “Reading. That was the sport I was good at.”

— George R.R. Martin

181. “Sometimes there is no happy choice, Sam, only one less grievous than the others. – Jon Snow.”

— George R.R. Martin

182. “Do you want to know the horrible truth? I can’t even remember what she looked like. I only know she was the one thing I ever wanted. Someone took her away from me, and seven kingdoms couldn’t fill the hole she left behind. -Robert Baratheon.”

— George R.R. Martin

183. “When I am writing best, I really am lost in my world. I lose track of the outside world. I have a difficult time balancing between my real world and the artificial world.”

— George R.R. Martin

184. “The gods don’t care about men, no more than kings care about peasants.”

— George R.R. Martin

185. “If you want to conquer the world, you best have dragons.”

— George R.R. Martin

186. “There is an empty place within me where my heart once was.”

— George R.R. Martin

187. “How much can a crown be worth, when a crow can dine upon a king?”

— George R.R. Martin

188. “A lord must learn that sometimes words can accomplish what swords cannot.”

— George R.R. Martin

189. “A sweet face oft hides a sinner’s heart.”

— George R.R. Martin

190. “Even in dreams, you could not fall forever.”

— George R.R. Martin

191. “I swear to you, sitting a throne is a thousand times harder than winning one.”

— George R.R. Martin

192. “You’ve got a bold tongue, little man. One day, someone is like to cut it out and make you eat it.”

— George R.R. Martin

193. “I’ve always preferred writing about grey characters and human characters. Whether they are giants or elves or dwarves, or whatever they are, they’re still human, and the human heart is still in conflict with the self.”

— George R.R. Martin

194. “Show me the path I must walk and do not let me stumble in the dark places that lie ahead.”

— George R.R. Martin

195. “Historical fiction is not history. You’re blending real events and actual historical personages with characters of your own creation.”

— George R.R. Martin

196. “She was Daenerys Stormborn, the Unburnt, Khaleesi and queen, Mother of Dragons, slayer of warlocks, breaker of chains, and there was no one in the world that she could trust.”

— George R.R. Martin

197. “We only make peace with our enemies. That’s why it’s called making peace.”

— George R.R. Martin

198. “Queen you shall be, until there comes another, younger and more beautiful, to cast you down and take all that you hold dear.”

— George R.R. Martin

199. “Give me a good sharp knife and a good sharp cheese and I’m a happy man.”

— George R.R. Martin

200. “The heart lies and the head plays tricks on us, but the eyes see true. Look with your eyes. Hear with your ears. Taste with your mouth. Smell with your nose. Feel with your skin. Then comes the thinking, afterward, and in a way knowing the truth.”

— George R.R. Martin