Top 90 Timothy Zahn Quotes (2024 Update)

1. “For the Jedi, there is no emotion; there is peace.”

— Timothy Zahn

2. “The mind and body are linked together in a meshwork of oxygen, nutrients, hormones, and neuron health. Physical exercise drives that meshwork, stimulating the brain and freeing one’s intellect.”

— Timothy Zahn

3. “It is never wrong to be curious. But it can sometimes be dangerous.”

— Timothy Zahn

4. “You’re not the last of the old Jedi, Luke, you’re the first of the new.”

— Timothy Zahn

5. “The key to a satisfying life is to accept those things that cannot be changed, and make a positive difference with those that can.”

— Timothy Zahn

6. “Learn about art, Captain,” Thrawn said, his voice almost dreamy. “When you understand a species’ art, you understand that species.”

— Timothy Zahn

7. “A great tactician creates plans. A good tactician recognizes the soundness of a plan presented to him. A fair tactician must see the plan succeed before offering approval. Those with no tactical ability at all may never understand or accept it. Nor.”

— Timothy Zahn

8. “If you don’t want to be noticed, you don’t use a Star Destroyer.”

— Timothy Zahn

9. “There is satisfaction in defeating an enemy. But one must never allow oneself to become complacent. There are always more enemies to be identified, faced, and vanquished.”

— Timothy Zahn

10. “You served too long under Lord Vader, Captain. I Have no qualms about accepting a useful idea merely because it wasn’t my own. My position and ego are not at stake here.”

— Timothy Zahn

11. “The scene that made me furious was watching Padme, a woman who just gave birth to two beautiful children, just giving up the will to live.”

— Timothy Zahn

12. “A friend need not be kept either within sight or within reach. A friend must be allowed the freedom to find and follow his own path. If one is fortunate, those paths will for a time join. But if the paths separate, it is comforting to know that a friend still graces the universe with his skills, and his viewpoint, and his presence. For if one is remembered by a friend, one is never truly gone.”

— Timothy Zahn

13. “Pellaeon was a good officer, but he’d never had quite the degree of personal loyalty that Savit liked in his subordinates. Sending him off to the station, away from what was about to happen out here, was simply a prudent thing to do.”

— Timothy Zahn

14. “If the new movies do contradict my books in some way, I can probably come up with some hand-waving story that will explain the apparent discrepancy. If there’s one thing we authors are good at, it’s hand-waving.”

— Timothy Zahn

15. “Uncertainty can be the most difficult and frightening of mental states. If you’re always wondering which way to go, you might freeze up and not go anywhere. If you’re afraid you can’t do something, you might not even try.”

— Timothy Zahn

16. “A writer absolutely has to make his villains clever and competent. It’s no fun – and no challenge – for the heroes to get out of trouble without sweating about it first.”

— Timothy Zahn

17. “I’m talking about the fact that Stardust is doomed,” Savit said. “It may survive five years, or ten, maybe even fifty. But somewhere during its service lifetime, someone will figure out a way to disable or even destroy it.”

— Timothy Zahn

18. “For if one is remembered by a friend, one is never truly gone. –.”

— Timothy Zahn

19. “No one is immune from failure. All have tasted the bitterness of defeat and disappointment. A warrior must not dwell on that failure, but must learn from it and continue on. But.”

— Timothy Zahn

20. “Without trust, there can be no genuine peace. Neither in politics, nor in the quiet individuality of the heart and spirit.”

— Timothy Zahn

21. “History is on the move, Captain. Those who cannot keep up will be left behind, to watch from a distance.”

— Timothy Zahn

22. “Luck is merely an illusion, trusted by the ignorant and chased by the foolish.”

— Timothy Zahn

23. “All beings begin their lives with hopes and aspirations. Among these aspirations is the desire that there will be a straight path to those goals. It is seldom so. Perhaps never.”

— Timothy Zahn

24. “Leadership is a role and a task that should never be aspired to lightly. Neither should loyalty be given without reason.”

— Timothy Zahn

25. “Not every change is a step forward.”

— Timothy Zahn

26. “Thrawn shrugged. “There are two ways to destroy a person, Jorj. Kill him, or ruin his reputation.”

— Timothy Zahn

27. “You asked what I hoped to gain by meeting you on the bridge, Admiral?” Thrawn asked softly. Savit looked back at Thrawn. The blue face was still calm, but the glowing eyes seemed to have taken on a new intensity. “So tell me,” he invited. “It’s very simple,” Thrawn said. “I wished for a better view of the coming battle.”

— Timothy Zahn

28. “There are things in the universe that are simply and purely evil. A warrior does not seek to understand them, or to compromise with them. He seeks only to obliterate them.”

— Timothy Zahn

29. “Concentration, focus, long-term thinking – those are the qualities that separate a warrior from a mere flailing fighter.”

— Timothy Zahn

30. “One whose path has taken a new turn is often initially disoriented. But as time passes, and the path continues steadily in its new direction, there is a tendency to believe that it will remain so forever, with no further turns.”

— Timothy Zahn

31. “One may learn a great deal about a people by the stories they tell of others.”

— Timothy Zahn

32. “Failure to act always brings consequences. But sometimes, those consequences can be turned to one’s advantage.”

— Timothy Zahn

33. “A friend need not be kept either within sight or within reach. A friend must be allowed the freedom to find and follow his own path. If.”

— Timothy Zahn

34. “I rule the Empire now. Not some long-dead Emperor; certainly not you. the only treason is defiance of my orders.”

— Timothy Zahn

35. “Grand Admiral Thrawn could perhaps have breathed the remaining sparks into an Imperial Victory. But Grand Admiral Thrawn was gone.”

— Timothy Zahn

36. “There are few traps that cannot be turned against their designers.”

— Timothy Zahn

37. “One is born with a unique set of talents and abilities. One must choose which of those talents to nurture, which to set aside for a time, which to ignore completely. Sometimes.”

— Timothy Zahn

38. “Still, even when false, legends can be most informative.”

— Timothy Zahn

39. “Some people will not respond to reason. Others refuse to consider alternatives to their normal pattern of behavior. In such cases, an unexpected breaking of one’s own patterns can be an effective tool.”

— Timothy Zahn

40. “And for the first time in five years, Pellaeon finally knew in the deepest level of his being that the old Empire was gone. The new Empire, with Grand Admiral Thrawn at its head, had been born.”

— Timothy Zahn

41. “Mourning the loss of a friend and teacher was both fitting and honorable, but to dwell unnecessarily on that loss was to give the past too much power over the present.”

— Timothy Zahn

42. “For a change, lady luck seemed to be smiling on me. Then again, maybe the fickle wench was just lulling me into a false sense of security while she reached for a rock.”

— Timothy Zahn

43. “The past is the past,” Vader said. “The present and future are all that matter.”

— Timothy Zahn

44. “Thrawn smiled – a smile that sent a shiver up Pellaeon’s back. “Why, the only puzzle worth solving, of course,” the Grand Admiral said softly. “The complete, total, and utter destruction of the Rebellion.”

— Timothy Zahn

45. “I have no vision of any future, maitrakh. Not yours; not even mine. I was just thinking about children. Trying to imagine what it’s like to try to raise them. Wondering how much of their character a family can mold, and how much is innate in the children themselves.” She hesitated. “Wondering if the evil in a family’s history can be erased, or whether it always passes itself on to each new generation.”

— Timothy Zahn

46. “Fine,” Vanto said. The musculature of his throat relaxes partially, but not fully. “Personally, I’d be a lot more concerned about him, but that’s up to you. But I’m still the bottom man on the roster. Why do you even care about me?” “You are my translator. You hold my words in your hand, and their meanings. A misjudged translation will confuse or anger. A deliberate error could lead to death.”

— Timothy Zahn

47. “One whose path has taken a new turn is often initially disoriented.”

— Timothy Zahn

48. “I did not refer to the legends themselves,” Thrawn said, turning his glowing eyes on her. “But what is remembered says a great deal about those doing the remembering.”

— Timothy Zahn

49. “You happened to me,” she told him, her voice more fatigued than embittered. “You came out of a grubby sixth-rate farm on a tenth-rate planet, and destroyed my life.” – Mara Jade.”

— Timothy Zahn

50. “No, truth never gained anyone anything. All it did was anger those who preferred lies and confusion and backspinning in the hope of making themselves look better.”

— Timothy Zahn