One of the great things about books is you can afford to do anything.
George R. R. MartinRead
In this world, only winter is certain
Interpretation
The quote suggests that uncertainty is a fundamental aspect of life, with only winter, symbolizing hardship, being guaranteed.
George R. R. Martin's quote reflects the immutable nature of certain truths in life, emphasizing that while many things are uncertain and can change, the inevitability of challenges and hardships, like winter, is a certainty we all must face. This serves as a reminder of the transitory nature of seasons and situations, prompting an acceptance of life's cyclical challenges.
In practice
During a motivational talk about resilience, one could reference this quote to emphasize the inevitability of facing challenges.
One of the great things about books is you can afford to do anything.
I 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.
There is only one god and his name is Death. And there is only one thing we say to Death: βNot today.
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.
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.
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.
We feel free because we lack the very language to articulate our unfreedom.
How then to enforce peace? Not by reason, certainly, nor by education. If a man could not look at the fact of peace and the fact of war and choose the former in preference to the latter, what additional argument could persuade him? What could be more eloquent as a condemnation of war than war itself? What tremendous feat of dialectic could carry with it a tenth the power of a single gutted ship with its ghastly cargo?
Men have called me mad; but the question is not yet settled, whether madness is or is not the loftiest intelligence.
My language is the sum total of myself.
Death is not a tragedy to the one who dies; to have wasted the life before that death, that is the tragedy.
The ideally non-violent state will be an ordered anarchy.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.