One of the great things about books is you can afford to do anything.
George R. R. MartinRead
It was a hollow victory they gave me. A crown...it was the girl I prayed them for. Your sister, safe... and mine again as she was meant to be. I ask you, Ned, what good is it to wear a crown?
Interpretation
What this quote means
True victory is not about accolades or power, but about personal relationships and what you hold dear.
This quote reflects on the emptiness of achieving power or status without the meaningful connections we cherish. The speaker suggests that a crown or a title is worthless compared to the safety and well-being of loved ones, emphasizing the idea that true success stems from personal bonds rather than external recognition.
Themes
VictoryCrownLoveFamilyRelationships
In practice
Example use cases
During a leadership seminar discussing the value of personal relationships over power.
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
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
Hannah ArendtRead
The important thing isn't the house. It's the ability to make it. You carry that in your brains and in your hands, wherever you go... It's one thing to carry your life wherever you go. Another thing to always go looking for it somewhere else.
Barbara KingsolverRead
What we observe is not nature itself, but nature exposed to our method of questioning.
Werner HeisenbergRead
Philosophers have argued for centuries about how many angels can dance on the head of a pin, but materialists have known all along that it depends on whether they are jitterbugging or dancing cheek to cheek.
Tom RobbinsRead
As to the gods, I have no means of knowing either that they exist or do not exist.
ProtagorasRead
In this country American means white. Everybody else has to hyphenate.
Toni MorrisonRead