One of the great things about books is you can afford to do anything.
George R. R. MartinRead
Why is it always the innocents who suffer most, when you high lords play your game of thrones?
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote reflects on the paradox of power and the consequences of conflict, particularly how innocent people often bear the brunt of turmoil caused by those in power.
In this quote, George R. R. Martin highlights the tragic reality that during power struggles and conflicts, it is often the innocent bystanders who suffer the most. The phrase 'high lords' suggests those who wield power and make decisions without considering the collateral damage they inflict on those who are vulnerable. This serves as a comment on the moral implications of political gamesmanship and the need for empathy towards those who are affected by the decisions of the powerful.
Themes
InnocenceSufferingPowerConflictPolitics
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a discussion about the effects of war on civilians.
More from George R. R. Martin
All quotes βI hate outlines. I have a broad sense of where the story is going; I know the end, I know the end of the principal characters, and I know the major turning points and events from the books, the climaxes for each book, but I don't necessarily know each twist and turn along the way. That's something I discover in the course of writing and that's what makes writing enjoyable. I think if I outlined comprehensively and stuck to the outline the actual writing would be boring.
George R. R. MartinRead
There is only one god and his name is Death. And there is only one thing we say to Death: βNot today.
George R. R. MartinRead
I did not do it. Yet now I wish I had.β He turned to face the hall, that sea of pale faces. βI wish I had enough poison for you all. You make me sorry that I am not the monster you would have me be, yet there it is. I am innocent, but I will get no justice here.
George R. R. MartinRead
But a voice inside her whispered, There are no heroes, and she remembered what Lord Petyr had said to her, here in this very hall. 'Life is not a song, sweetling,' he'd told her, 'You may learn that one day to your sorrow.' In life, the monsters win, she told herself.
George R. R. MartinRead
I write from this tight third-person viewpoint, where each chapter is seen through the eyes of one individual character. When I'm writing that character, I become that character and identify with that character.
George R. R. MartinRead
Similar quotes
Sentimentality is unearned emotion.
James JoyceRead
It is one of the triumphs of the human that he can know a thing and still not believe it.
John SteinbeckRead
Everything I wrote about wasn't about me, but about the people listening.
Chuck BerryRead
Whereas there can be but one Baptism, they think they can Baptize; they have abandoned the fountain of life, yet promise the life and grace of the waters of salvation. It is not cleansing which men find there, but soiling; their sins are not washed away, but only added to. That being "born again" does not bring forth sons to God but to the Devil. Born of a lie, they cannot inherit the things which Truth has promised; begotten by the faithless, they are deprived of the grace of faith.
CyprianRead
Is it worth it to be born if you cannot remember it later? And, technically speaking, had I ever been born? Other people, of course, said that I was. As far as I know, I was born in late April, at sixty years of age, in a hospital room.
Umberto EcoRead
For where is the man that has incontestable evidence of the truth of all that he holds, or of the falsehood of all he condemns; or can say that he has examined to the bottom all his own, or other men's opinions? The necessity of believing without knowledge, nay often upon very slight grounds, in this fleeting state of action and blindness we are in, should make us more busy and careful to inform ourselves than constrain others.
John LockeRead