Epic Quotes

“After experiencing a past life as a Native American, I remembered what the Indians believed.”
― John-Paul Cernak, The Odyssey of a Hippie Marijuana Grower

“The enemy of a kind spirit is the pointlessness we face in the shadow of time. ”
― Daniel Cuervonegro, Sins of the Maker

“We carry the weight of our crimes and bear the wings of our kindness.”
― Daniel Cuervonegro, Sins of the Maker

“He walked that night across the beach and back again, Titan running free and barking and playing with the cold waves. He walked with his brother. He walked with his aunt. He walked with his uncle. He walked with that girl he liked, the one he never knew, and her cat. He walked with his father and his mother. He walked with his sister and her husband, and their children. It was all in his head, that endless walk of naked feet against the sand. He walked alone until the water hit against the wall and the drizzle was the sea and the wind and his dream of staying home.”
― Daniel Cuervonegro, Sins of the Maker

“The troops arrived at the wall together and swept into the village, some through the gates and some through the holes blasted by the artillery. Then the slaughter began as they went from hut to hut, winkling out the defenders at bayonet point. The screaming showed the progress of the individual battles across the village until at last it was quiet.”
― Nigel Seed, No Road to Khartoum

“No matter the vastness of it all, the most ordinary life is still the greatest thing out there and therefore, no matter the circumstances, it’s all worth living. ”
― Daniel Cuervonegro, Sins of the Maker

“A soul is half its worth without a friend. That’s the embodiment of hope. Will you remember that, the two of you?”
― Daniel Cuervonegro, Sins of the Maker

“He faced the terror of that second ocean, the largest a man can face. He looked up at the tiny shores of other worlds and its great expanse. He was afraid of it, of the deepness despite the starry fields.”
― Daniel Cuervonegro, Sins of the Maker

“God’s a comfortable certainty. But us humans? I think we’re a step beyond it, an uncertainty, deep and rare and inspiring in all the best and worst ways.”
― Daniel Cuervonegro, Sins of the Maker

“Extraordinary people are not meant to live ordinary lives.”
― Kristina Stangl, The Curse of the Dark Horseman

“Epic is different from life. The present moment might be seen as a blade, cutting the past from the present, severing now from then, but poetry binds the wounds that time inflicts.”
― Adam Nicolson, Why Homer Matters

“youre driving me crazy dude (gotta put a pun in there to be cool, yo!). seriously, step off and stamp this paper or ill show you how i made the devil cry.”
― JRR Tolkien

“PAISX("PiphiAiSΦRTXor") GPL by: Jonathan Roy Mckinney- 11 >< 1111 >< 1, Itemizer × Abstracter << "Circlet + Diadem × Ring" << PiRandom”
― Jonathan Roy Mckinney Gero EagleO2

“Chair de glace et os de jade, pensa Zhu: il incarnait la beauté féminine sous sa forme la plus pure et la plus exquise. Et cependant, on n’aurait pu le confondre avec une femme. Là où les lignes auraient dû être douces et souples, il n’était que dureté: dans le trait droit de sa mâchoire, l’inclinaison arrogante de son menton. Sa démarche et sa posture étaient celles de quelqu’un qui sait, avec un orgueil teinté d’amertume, qu’il n’est pas seulement séparé des autres, mais au-dessus d’eux. La clarté froide du matin privait le paysage de toutes ses couleurs. Leurs souffles formaient des panaches de fumée. “Ainsi, nous nous rencontrons enfin”, dit-il.”
― Shelley Parker-Chan, She Who Became the Sun

“El miedo siempre ha sido un arma letal. Rige el curso de la vida. Probablemente sea el sentimiento más primitivo que existe y el impulsor de todos los dilemas a los que se enfrenta un individuo.”
― Andrea Gutiérrez López y Estefanía Peña Gil, Noira I: Derecho de conquista

“Such was my journey
Leagues across centuries
In one blink of the sun.”
― Steven Erikson, Deadhouse Gates

“So, how’s it lookin’, Detective? Today your lucky day?” “Oh, yeah.” Eddie nodded as he re-read the letter. “Christmas, my birthday, and Valentine’s day combined.”
― JK Franko, Life for Life

“*Slurps violently* YUMMY”
― Jackson Nichols

“Blood & Sand by Stewart Stafford

Enduring to be burned, bound, beaten,
And to die by the sword if necessary;
Verus and Priscus entered the arena,
To stain Colosseum sand with blood.

Emperor Titus drained Nero's lake,
Built the vast Flavian Amphitheatre,
Panacea to the idle citizens of Rome,
Symbol of his beneficence and might.

Priscus, far from his Germanian home,
Fighting within a symbol of Rome's power,
Which ravaged his life and fatherland,
For them to decide if he is free or dies.

Verus, the hulking, bullish Murmillo;
Trained to deliver heavy punishment,
Priscus - lightly-armed, agile Thracian;
Primed to avoid his rival's huge blows.

Titus showed he was Nero's antithesis;
No hoarding of tracts of primo Roma,
In a profligate orgy of narcissistic pride,
Nor taking his own life to escape execution.

Domitian, the brother of Titus, watched in envy,
The emperor-in-waiting who favoured Verus,
And the direct Murmillo style of fighting,
Titus favoured Thracian counter-punching.

Aware of the patriarchal fraternity's preferences,
The gathering looked on in fascinated awe,
As their champions of champions clashed,
Deciding who was the greatest gladiator of all.

Titus had stated there would be no draw;
One would win, and one would perish,
A rudis freedom staff the survivor's trophy,
Out the Porta Sanavivaria - the Gate of Life.

One well aware of the other, combat began,
Scared eyes locked behind helmeted grilles,
Grunts and sweat behind shield and steel,
Roars and gasps of the clustered chorus.

For hour after hour, they attacked and feinted,
Using all their power, skill and technique,
Nothing could keep them from a stalemate;
The warriors watered and slightly rested.

The search for the coup de grâce went on,
Until both men fell, in dusty exhaustion,
Each raised a finger, in joint submission,
Equals on death's stage yielded in unison.

Titus faced a dilemma; mercy or consistency?
Please the crowd, but make them aware,
Of his Damoclean life-and-death sword,
Over every Roman and slave in the empire.

Titus cleaved the Rudis into a dual solution;
Unable to beat the other, both won and lived,
Limping, scarred heroes of baying masses,
None had ever seen a myth form before them.

It was Romulus fighting Remus in extremis,
Herculean labours of a sticky, lethal afternoon,
In the end, nothing could separate these brothers;
Victors united as Castor and Pollux in Gemini.

For life and limb on Rome's vast stage,
Symbiotic compensation of adulation's rage.

Stewart Stafford, 2023. All rights reserved”
― Stewart Stafford

“When you love someone, you are not just writing a chapter in her story; you are co-authoring an eternal epic!”
― Md Ziaul Haque

“Empires have a tendency to crumble, and sometimes through no fault of their own. Emperors get buried under the rubble.”
― Sarp Duyar, The City of Crescent

“A whisper is sometimes louder than a thunderstorm. Between the lips of the Haseki Sultan rest the storms that sway an empire.”
― Mehmet Onur Kart, The City of Crescent

“Apocalypse isn't an event, it is a frame of mind”
― Jim Butcher, Battle Ground

“One. Mustn’t trust humans too much.
Two. I know what they can be like.
Three. I was one once—”
― Emma Geen, The Many Selves of Katherine North

“Knowledge is a burden, Fear is a prison and Truth is the gift of the brave.”
― Mirna Gabriel, The Gift of Nature (Horoscope

“To hold freedom in my own hands… I must take freedom from the rest of the world. But… I will not take anything from you. You are all free. You are even free to defend the freedom of the rest of the world. And I have the freedom to continue moving forward. So long as we have our own unbreakable convictions… we will collide. Therefore, only one thing remains for us to do. Fight."
"What... then.... Why? Why'd you call us here?"
"So I could speak to you. And tell you there's no need for us to speak. If you wish to stop me from doing this... you will have to stop me from breathing. You are free to try.”
― Hajime Isayama

“I will hold freedom in my hands by taking it from this world. But from you, I will take nothing. You are all free. You are all free to oppose me, and defend the world's freedom. Just as I am free to move forwards. Our convictions can never be reconciled, and our wills will not bend. There is only one way for this to be resolved. Fight.”
― Hajime Isayama

“Sometimes though, circumstances conspire against you and the very best of intentions are blown away by a hostile wind.”
― M J Webb, Realm of Ruin

“Like the dying Roland Akhilleus has his vision (and ours) widened as he makes peace with his soul. At first Roland cannot bear the thought that his sword will fall into another's hands - as in the Iliad the loss of weapons is the ultimate disgrace. Then he reflects that he holds the sword not for his own glory but for that of Charlemagne, finally that the sword, whose pommel contains holy relics, is a symbol of his faith. So Roland dies not cursing his conquerors in heroic style but as a Christian confessing his sins to God. That is the sort of vision an epic poet should have. With Priam kneeling before him Akhilleus too realizes that heroism is not enough. The conclusion of his dictum [A man dies still if he has done nothing, as one who has done much] (9-320) is not that he should do more killing but that he should recognize that all men suffer the same troubles and the same end - that is, that he should shed tears for the nature of things. Accordingly he bows to the will of Zeus, who offers him a new honour (24.110) which victors and defeated can both share.”
― Geoffrey S. Kirk, The Iliad: A Commentary, Volume 3: Books 9-12

“It is surely more likely that the composer of the Odyssey had the end of the Iliad especially in mind, whether or not both poems are by the same author. It is, however, tempting to go a step further, and to see the similarities as due to the fact that when Homer gave the end of the Iliad the form it has, the Odyssey was already taking shape in his mind: i.e. not only is a single poet the composer of both, but their composition actually overlapped to some extent. Thus we find that not only does the Iliad itself form a great and complex ring-structure, whose end echoes and resolves the themes of its beginning, but it is also inseparably linked or dovetailed thematically with the Odyssey, as if the two works could really almost be regarded as one great epic continuum, stretching from the Wrath of Akhilleus to the safe homecoming and triumph of the last of the heroes, Odysseus.”
― Geoffrey S. Kirk, The Iliad: A Commentary: Volume 6: Books 21-24