In the world as I have seen it, no man grows rich by kindness.
In life, the monsters win.
If there are gods to listen, they are monstrous gods who torment us for their sport. Who else would make a world like this, so full of bondage, blood, and pain?
If I look back I am lost.[repeated often in the rest of the book]
If a man paints a target on his chest, he should expect that sooner or later someone will loose an arrow at him.
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.
I rose too high, loved too hard, dared too much. I tried to grasp a star, overreached, and fell.
I crossed a thousand leagues to come to you, and lost the best part of me along the way. Don’t tell me to leave.
How much can a crown be worth, when a crow can dine upon a king?
History is a wheel, for the nature of man is fundamentally unchanging. What has happened before will perforce happen again.
He who hurries through life hurries to his grave.
Give me honorable enemies rather than ambitious ones, and I’ll sleep more easily by night.