Margaret Weis Quotes

You cannot hide from danger. Death floats on the air, creeps through the window, comes with the handshake of a stranger. If we stop living because we fear death, then we have already died.
-Raistlin Majere ~ Margaret Weis

I can kill with a single word. I can hurl a ball of fire into the midst of my enemies. I rule a squadron of skeletal warriors, who can destroy by touch alone. I can raise a wall of ice to protect those I serve. The invisible is discernible to my eyes. Ordinary magic spells crumble in my presence ... But I bow in the presence of a master.
Lord Soth to Raistlin Majere ~ Margaret Weis

Alfred shook his balding head slowly, with quiet dignity. "You can't threaten me, Haplo. Sartan magic is different from Patryn magic, but it has the same roots and is just as powerful. I haven't used my magic as much as you've been forced by circumstances to use yours. But I am older than you. And you must concede that magic of any type is strengthened by age and by wisdom. ~ Margaret Weis

Well, I guess we're off, like a herd of mad turtles as my dad used to say. ~ Margaret Weis

Then he heard a familiar voice.
"That's got 'em! Wonderfull spell, Fireball
"
"Fizban!" Tanis groaned. ~ Margaret Weis

Puny human body, my ass! ~ Margaret Weis

Well! I had the most fantastic dream! Trees crying blood. Horrible dead elves going around and killing people! Raistlin wearing black robes! It was the most incredible thing! And you were there, Sturm. Laurana and Flint. And everyone died! Well, almost everyone. Raistlin didn't. And there was a green dragon-'
Tasslehoff stopped. What was wrong with his friends? Their faces were pale, their eyes wide. ~ Margaret Weis

Life like Stew!!! -Gully Dwarf saying (Dragonlance) ~ Margaret Weis

A 'why' is a dangerous thing ... It challenges old, comfortable ways, forces people to think about that they do instead of just mindlessly doing it. (Haplo)
...
I think the danger is not so much in asking the 'why' as in believing you have come up with the only answer. (Alfred) ~ Margaret Weis

Paithin- ... he is orn! mother peytin's son, come to lead us to safety!
zifnab- thats it! orn, favors his mother-
roland- no, he doesnt. look! hes human! wouldnt mother whats- her - name's kid be and elf- wait!
i know! he is one of the lords of thillia! come back to us, like the legend foretold!
zifnab- that too! i dont know why i didnt recognize him. the spitting image of his father! ~ Margaret Weis

Everything happens for a reason. Your brain may not know the reason. Your brain may never figure it out. But your heart knows. Your heart always knows. ~ Margaret Weis

You want the Crown of Power," he told her. "I can help you take it."
"You are mistaken," said Kitiara gravely. "Ariakas is my Emperor. I am his loyal subject."
"And I am the king of the elves," said Raistlin with a sneer. ~ Margaret Weis

Hope is the denial of reality. It is the carrot dangled before the draft horse to keep him plodding along in a vain attempt to reach it."
"Are you saying we shouldn't hope?"
"I'm saying we should remove the carrot and walk forward with our eyes open! ~ Margaret Weis

But he could not help wondering, as he did, that if he was so damn wise, why was his life in such a mess? ~ Margaret Weis

Love and hate are twin babes, born to the same mother, but separated at birth. Pride, misunderstanding, jealousy prod hate, urge it to destroy its sibling. But love, if it is armored with respect, will always prove the stronger. ~ Margaret Weis

Laurana looked blankly at the others. They avoided her eyes. Then Theros came up to her. "I've lived in this world nearly fifty years, young woman," he said gently. "Not long to you elves, I know. But we humans live those years, we don't just let them drift by. And I'll tell you this - that girl loves your brother as truly as I've ever seen woman love man. And he loves her. Such love cannot come to evil. For the sake of their love alone, I'd follow them into a dragon's den. ~ Margaret Weis

Get back, get back! ill turn you into a piglet!
ast a bula- no wait. that turns ME into a piglet!! ~ Margaret Weis

How do you know they're magic and not some mechanical device of the dwarves?" Tanis asked, sensing that Tas was hiding something.
Tas gulped. He had been hoping Tanis wouldn't ask him that question.
"Uh," Tas stammered, "I---I guess I did sort of happened to, uh, mention them to Raistilin one night when you were all busy doing something else. He told me they might be magic. To find out, he said one of those weird spells of his and they--uh--began to glow. That meant they were enchanted. He asked me what they did and I demonstated and he said they were 'glasses of true seeing.' The dwarven magic-users of old made them to read books written in other languages and--" Tas stopped.
"And?" Tanis pursued.
"And--uh--magic spellbooks." Tas's voice was a whisper.
"And what else did Raistlin say?"
"That if I touched his spellbooks or even looked at them sideways, he'd turn me into a cricket and s-swallow m-me whole," Tasselhoff stammered. He looked up at Tanis with his wide eyed. "I belived him, too."
Tanis shook his head. Trust Raistlin to come up with a threat awful enough to quensh the curiosity of a kender. ~ Margaret Weis

How certain are you that this forest is Darken Wood, Raistin?"
"How certain is one of anything, Half-Elven?" the mage replied. "I am not certain of drawing my next breath. But go ahead. Walk into the wood that no living man has ever walked out. Death is life's one great certainty, Tanis."
The half-elf felt a sudden urge to throw Raistlin off the side of the mountain. ~ Margaret Weis

Est solarus Oth Mithas ~ Margaret Weis, Tracy Hickman

Our lives are measured not by gain but by giving. ~ Margaret Weis

Nothing on Krynn is more dangerous than a bored kender. ~ Margaret Weis

Hope is the denial of reality. ~ Margaret Weis

Hope lives. No matter the mistakes we make, no matter our blunders and misunderstandings, no matter the grief and sorrow and loss, no matter how deep the darkness, hope lives. ~ Margaret Weis

and someday, fat innkeepers will bow to me. ~ Margaret Weis

There comes a time, Laurana, when you've got to risk your life for something you believe in -- something that means more than life itself. ~ Margaret Weis

Over protective? a butler in a grade- B movie? someones jewish mother? you got it ~ Margaret Weis

Said!" Olefsky roared, causing the gron to shy and dance nervously along the path. "Said!" The Bear brought the animal to a halt, turned around. "By my heart and bowels, laddie, who wakes every morning and takes a deep breath and says to the air, 'Air, I love you.' And yet, without air in our lungs, we would be dead within moments. And who says to the water, 'I love you!' and yet without water, we die. And who says to the fire in the winter, 'I love you!' and yet without warmth, we freeze. What is this talk of 'said'? ~ Margaret Weis

For only the humans were endowed with the lust for power so strong that the raw passion of their nature could be easily corrupted. ~ Margaret Weis

It was an old kender proverb - Don't change color to match the walls. Look like you belong and the walls will change color to match you. ~ Margaret Weis

You wouldn't happen to have a pipe and a bit of tobacco about, would-
i heard that!
gandalf enjoyed a good pipe!
why do you think he's called gandalf the gray? it wasn't for the color of his robes ~ Margaret Weis

Words can never fully say what we want them to say, for they fumble, stammer, and break the best porcelain. The best one can hope for is to find along the way someone to share the path, content to walk in silence, for the heart communes best when it does not try to speak. ~ Margaret Weis

Fortunately, our friend Raistlin taught me what to watch - " "Raistlin!" Flint puffed. "That pasty-faced, skinny magician. He's more than half charlatan himself. Always sniveling and whining and poking his nose where it doesn't belong. If it weren't for his twin brother looking after him, someone would've put an end to his magic long ago. ~ Margaret Weis

And he enjoyed listening to Caramon's gossip. Raistlin enjoyed proving to his own satisfaction that his fellow mortals were fools and idiots, while Caramon took immense pleasure in bringing a smile - albeit a sardonic smile - to his twin's lips. ~ Margaret Weis

Rule the world," Raistlin repeated softly, his eyes burning. "Rule the world? You still don't undestand, do you, my dear sister? Let me make this as plain as I know how." Now it was his turn to stand up. Pressing his thin hands upon the desk, he leaned towards her, like a snake.
"I don't give damn about the world!" he said softly. "I could rule it tomorrow, if I wanted it! I don't. ~ Margaret Weis

Its like you said? i lead my people-" forth!" zifnab carried on enthusiastically! " out of eygpt! out of bondage! across the desert! pillar of fire-" desert?" lenthan looked anxious again. "fire? i thought we were going to the stars!" sorry. wrong script" zifnab said ~ Margaret Weis

The only cartoon I ever liked was 'Fantasia.' ~ Margaret Weis

Limbeck, the august leader of WUPP, did not mind the noise. He took comfort in it, having
listened to it, albeit somewhat muffled, in his mother's womb. The Gegs revered the noise, just as
they revered the Kicksey-Winsey. They knew that if the noise ceased their world would come to
an end. Death was known among the Gegs as the Endless Hear Nothing. ~ Margaret Weis

I wanted to tell her that sometimes, in my long sleep, I dreamt of her ~ Margaret Weis

My waking and sleeping seem mixed together. I'm walking in a dream half the time, and sleeping through reality the other half. ~ Margaret Weis

Be the hero of your own life. Don't let somebody else play that role. (Vasu) ~ Margaret Weis

What is happiness, after all, but the fleeting, transitory butterfly of an emotion that is impossible to catch and hold for long before it flies away. ~ Margaret Weis

I say, did you hear me?" The old man shook a worn walking stick at the oak. "I said move it and I meant it! I was sitting on that rock" -he pointed to a boulder- "enjoying the rising sun on my old bones when you had the nerve to cast a shadow over it and chill me! Move this instant. I say!" The tree did not respond. It also did not move. "I won't take any more of your insolence!" The old man began to beat on the tree with his stick. "Move or I'll - I'll -" "Someone shut that looney in a cage!" Fewmaster Toede shouted, galloping back from the front of the caravan. "Get your hands off me!" the old man shreiked at the draconians who ran up and accosted him. He beat on them feebly with his staff until they took it away from him. "Arrest the tree!" he insisted. "Obstructing sunlight! That's the charge! ~ Margaret Weis

Sometimes, in the still watches of the night, when he lies in bed beside her, Tanis will find himself thinking of me. He will remember my last words, he will be touched by them. I have given them their happiness. And she must live with the knowledge that I will live always in Tanis's heart. What love they might find together, I have poisoned. My revenge upon them both is complete. Now, have you brought what I sent you for? ~ Margaret Weis

Maybe I'm wrong, but it seems to me that I'd much rather be disliked for being me than to be disliked just because I'm a kender. I can do something about me, you see, but I can't do much about being a kender because my mother was a kender and so was my father and that seems to have a lot to do with me being a kender. ~ Margaret Weis

Why you decrepit old mage! You couldn't turn water into ice in the dead of winter! ~ Margaret Weis

No, as I've discovered, hate generally costs a man more than he can afford. ~ Margaret Weis

In Endless Quest books, you start the plot, and the character has to make choices. Then you have to write one choice over here, one choice over there. The author might get one or two choices out. ~ Margaret Weis

All the characters and plots were predetermined. Games make bad plots. ~ Margaret Weis

Raistlin lay on the floor, his skin white, his breathing shallow. Blood trickled from his mouth. Kneeling down, Caramon lifted him in his arms.
"Raistlin?" he whispered. "What happened?"
"That's what happened," Tanis said grimly, pointing.
Caramon glanced up, his gaze coming to rest on the dragon orb - now grown to the size Caramon had seen in Silvanesti. It stood on the stand Raistlin had made for it. Caramon sucked in his breath in horror. Terrible visions of Lorac flooded his mind. Lorac insane, dying ...
"Raist!" he moaned, clutching his brother tightly.
Raistlin's head moved feebly. His eyelids fluttered, and he opened his mouth.
"What?" Caramon bent low, his brother's breath cold upon his skin. "What?"
"Mine ... " Raistlin whispered. "Spells ... of the ancients ... mine ... Mine ... " The mage's head lolled, his words died. But his face was calm, placid, relaxed. His breathing grew regular. ~ Margaret Weis

Power is like the bright and shining silver globe, Your Majesty. You won it and now you hold it easily. You see yourself reflected in its silver surface, you see youth and beauty and adoring crowds. And then, suddenly, the spikes! Your hands impaled upon the silver, shining globe. Not so easy to hold on to now, is it, sire? Not so easy to look on your reflection and see it smeared with blood! But you must hold on to it and endure the pain. ~ Margaret Weis

Why Is It That When You Wash Two Socks You Only End Up With One? Is There Life After Death? and Where Did The Other Sock Go? ~ Margaret Weis

I was, without a sliver of a doubt, a no-good, lazy slacker of a child, and after I discovered literature, I was totally and utterly a no-good, lazy slacker of a child who read books. A lot of books, good and bad, but my favourite - the books I read and reread in my teens - were by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. ~ Ben Peek

Lizards that blend into the rock do so to catch flies. ~ Margaret Weis

Truth wasn't something you went out and found. It was wide and vast and deep and unending, and all you could hope to see was a tiny part of it. And to see that part and to mistake it for the whole was to make of Truth a lie. ~ Margaret Weis

Tas pulled himself up over the porch railing with the skill of a burglar. The kender slipped over to the door and peered up and down the bridge-walk. Seeing no one on it, he motioned to the others. Then he studied the lock and smiled to himself in satisfaction. The kender slid something out of one of his pouches. Within seconds, the door of Tika's house swung open. "Come in," he said, playing host. ~ Margaret Weis

How dare you accuse me of your own failings?" Laurana returned. "I love Elistan. I reverence him. ~ Margaret Weis

Do not go to others for the answers. Look in your own heart, search your own faith. You will either find the answer or come to see that the answer is with the gods themselves, not with man. ~ Margaret Weis

-Elves never make any major decision until they have thought the matter over for at least a year or two, gone round to all their friends and relatives and discussed the problem, done research, read tomes, consulted the sages.
-And what happens then?
- By then they've usually forgotten what it was they meant to do in the first place. ~ Margaret Weis

He would be sad to learn that she had dismissed God long ago, as she would have dismissed an inept servant. ~ Margaret Weis

The cruelest form of torture one can inflict on a kender is to lock him up. Of course, it is also widely believed that the cruelest form of torture one can inflict on any other species is to lock them up with a kender. ~ Margaret Weis

We'd better get going." Caramon glanced around uneasily. "We show up like a jewel in a gypsy dancer's navel. ~ Margaret Weis

Love having another world to think of! ~ Margaret Weis

Blasted doorknob of a kender ~ Margaret Weis

A man with nothing to die for has even less for which to live. ~ Margaret Weis

We each have within ourselves the ability to shape our own destinies. That much we understand. But, more important, each of us has an equal ability to shape the destiny of the universe. Ah, that you find more difficult to believe. But I tell you it is so. You do not have to be the leader of the Council. You do not have to be king or monarch or the head of a clan to have a significant impact on the world around you.
In the vastness of the ocean, is any drop of water greater than another?
No, you answer, and neither has a single drop the ability to cause a tidal wave.
But, I argue, if a single drop falls into the ocean, it creates ripples. And these ripples spread. And perhaps - who knows - these ripples may grow and swell and eventually break foaming upon the shore.
Like a drop in the vast ocean, each of us causes ripples as we move through our lives. The effects of whatever we do - insignificant as it may seem - spread out beyond us. We may never know what far-reaching impact even the simplest action might have on our fellow mortals. Thus we need to be conscious, all of the time, of our place in the ocean, of our place in the world, of our place among our fellow creatures.
For if enough of us join forces, we can swell the tide of events - for good or for evil. ~ Margaret Weis

Cool wind soothed her. She could breathe sweet air. The only heat she felt was the warm, familiar heat from the mage's body. Opening her eyes, she saw that she stood close to him. Raising her head, she gazed up into his face ... and felt a swift, sharp ache in her heart.
Raistlin's thin face glistened with sweat, his eyes reflected the pure, white flame of the burning bodies, his breath came fast and shallow. He seemed lost, unaware of his surroundings. And there was a look of ecstasy on his face, a look of exultation, of triumph.
"I understand," Crysania said to herself, holding onto his hands. "I understand. This is why he cannot love me. He has only one love in this life and that is his magic. To this love he will give everything, for this love he will risk everything! ~ Margaret Weis

Wedding song (reprise)
But you and I, through burning plains,
through darkness of the earth,
affirm the world, its people,
the heavens that gave them birth,
the breath that passes between us,
this new home where we stand,
and all those things made larger by
the vows between woman and man. ~ Margaret Weis

A mage's soul is forged in the crucible of the magic ~ Margaret Weis

I have seen love that, through its willingness to sacrifice everything, brought hope to the world. I have seen love that tried to overcome pride and a lust for power, but failed. The world is darker for its failure, but it is only as a cloud dims the sun. The sun - the love, still remains. Finally I have seen love lost in darkness. Love misplaced, misunderstood, because the lover did not know his - or her - own heart. ~ Margaret Weis

His love for her was a gift he gave her daily, expecting nothing in return. He walked at her side, his love for her a torch to guide her footsteps along the dark path she walked. ~ Margaret Weis

Not given to boasting, which was a waste of breath-only a man who cannot conquer his deficiencies feels the need to convince the world he has none. ~ Margaret Weis

The darkness is killing us. ~ Margaret Weis

For the love of all that is holy, just give me a straight-up, stand-up sword fight! I hate court intrigue and all the closet-hiding, eavesdropping, secret-liaisoning, lying, and manipulating, who's-watching-who-watching-who bastards that bow and scrape and simper as they slip arsenic into your claret. You can't tell your friends from your enemies from one day to the next. - Stephano De Guichen ~ Margaret Weis

The darkness might conquer, but it could never extinguish hope. And though one candle, or many, might flicker and die, new candles would be lit from the old. Thus hope's flame always burns, lighting the darkness until the coming of day. ~ Margaret Weis

Just because a mage wears the black robes does not make him evil. ~ Margaret Weis

Now there was nothing but awful, terrible silence. Sight is a sense outside and apart from the body, an image on the surface of the eye. But sound enters the ears, the head, it lives inside. In sound's absence, silence echoes. ~ Margaret Weis

New roads demand a hoopak," was a popular saying among kenderkind. It was always followed immediately by another of their sayings: "No road is ever old. ~ Margaret Weis

You choose to go voluntarily into the fire. The blaze might well destroy you. But if you survive, every blow of the hammer will serve to shape your being. Every drop of water wrung from you will temper and strengthen your soul. ~ Margaret Weis

A single drop, though it falls into an ocean, will yet cause a ripple ~ Margaret Weis

Well, what do we do now?" Caramon asked, sitting astride his horse and looking both up and down the stream.
" 'You're' the expert on women," Raistlin retorted.
"All right, I made a mistake," Caramon grumbled. "That doesn't help us. It'll be dark soon, and then we'll never find her trail. I haven't heard you come up with any helpful suggestions," he grumbled, glancing at his brother balefully. "Can't you magic up something?"
"I would have 'magicked up' brains for you long time ago, if I could have," Raistlin snapped peevishly. "What would you like me to do?-make her appear out of thin air or look for her in my crystal ball? No, I won't waste my strength. Besides it's not necessary. Have you a map, or did you manage to think that far ahead? ~ Margaret Weis

Only a man who cannot conquer his deficiencies feels the need to convince the world that he has none. ~ Margaret Weis

She wanted everyone kind and affectionate, not passionate and tormenting – everything open, no maggoty secrets and silences, and no arguments with other, darker arguments hidden in them. ~ Margaret Mahy

Very early, I knew that the only object in life was to grow. ~ Margaret Fuller

Over half the world menstruates at one time or another, but you'd never know it. Isn't that strange? ~ Margaret Cho

What really annoys me are the ones who write to say, I am doing your book for my final examinations and could you please tell me what the meaning of it is. I find it just so staggering
that you're supposed to explain the meaning of your book to some total stranger! If I knew what the meanings of my books were, I wouldn't have bothered to write them. ~ Margaret Drabble

Thirty years ago [written 2009], over-regulation, over-taxation, mis-regulation, statism, state corporatism, and economic folly, cosiness and regulatory capture, and a crescent ideological enemy without, who were assisted by enemies – both fifth columnists and useful fools – within, had led to a crisis of confidence in the West, and in all lands that – and amongst all peoples, particularly those who were oppressed in their own lands, who – loved and desired liberty. Of course, thirty years ago, Britain had Margaret Thatcher to turn to. ~ G.M.W. Wemyss

I was tired of her getting away with being so young. ~ Margaret Atwood

SARS was a very important event ... And many countries have learned from SARS ... The SARS event sort of gave them additional impetus and the sense of urgency for them to really revise the International Health Regulations. ~ Margaret Chan

I performed the part of an odd, quiet woman, and performed it to everyone's satisfaction. When others slept, I was awake; when they woke, they found me quietly occupied. I took walks by myself. I read and sewed or sat in the garden with my own self for company. I was not missed. I have never been missed. I had all the manners and necessities of other women of my society, yet I was without society.

... I simply surrendered to that brute unhappiness which had always been close at hand. I no longer made the effort to appear civil, for by then I loathed civilisation from the bottom of my heart. Solitude, after a while, becomes the worst kind of savagery. ~ Margaret Cezair-Thompson

A killing was exactly what he didn't want to make because to make a killing you had to kill, and he lacked the killer instinct. ~ Margaret Atwood

Women suffer more from disappointment than men, because they have more of faith and are naturally more credulous. ~ Margaret Of Valois

Histories of the Kennedy Space Center acknowledge without exaggeration that the obstacle posed by the mosquitoes was so serious that NASA quite literally could not have put a man on the moon by Kennedy's "before the decade is out" deadline without the invention of DDT. In this way, the challenges of spaceflight reveal themselves to be distinctly terrestrial. ~ Margaret Lazarus Dean

A little love. A little sweet. A little unsure. A little lies. That is all the materials to make the greatest story about love ~ Margaret Watson

If you want to photograph a man spinning, give some thought to why he spins. Understanding for a photographer is as important as the equipment he uses. ~ Margaret Bourke-White

Everyone needs to remember that Ebola was not a worst-case scenario. Preparedness for the future means preparedness for a very severe disease that spreads via the airborne route or can be transmitted during the incubation period, before an infected person shows telltale signs of illness. ~ Margaret Chan

You must cultivate poverty of spirit. Blessed are the meek. She didn't go on to say anything about inheriting the earth. ~ Margaret Atwood

When we can lay down our fear and anger and choose responses other than aggression, we create the conditions for bringing out the best in us humans. ~ Margaret J. Wheatley

As we come to the end of ourselves, we open the door to discovering the One who created us anew. The One who can whisper to us who we really are as we pilgrim toward our truest and deepest selves. ~ Margaret Feinberg

Writing of the narrative kind, and perhaps all writing, is motivated deep down, by a fear or and fascination with mortality - by a desire to make the risky trip to the underworld and to bring something or someone back from the dead. ~ Margaret Atwood