Sword of Destiny Quotes

“There is never a second opportunity to make a first impression.”
― Andrzej Sapkowski, Sword of Destiny

“What is truth? The negation of lies? Or the statement of a fact? And if the fact is a lie, what then is the truth?”
― Andrzej Sapkowski, Sword of Destiny

“It is easy to kill with a bow, girl. How easy it is to release the bowstring and think, it is not I, it is the arrow. The blood of that boy is not on my hands. The arrow killed him, not I. But the arrow does not dream anything in the night.”
― Andrzej Sapkowski, Miecz przeznaczenia

“Dandelion, staring into the dying embers, sat much longer, alone, quietly strumming his lute. It began with a few bars, from which an elegant, soothing melody emerged. The lyric suited the melody, and came into being simultaneously with it, the words bending into the music, becoming set in it like insects in translucent, golden lumps of amber.
The ballad told of a certain witcher and a certain poet. About how the witcher and the poet met on the seashore, among the crying of seagulls, and how they fell in love at first sight. About how beautiful and powerful was their love. About how nothing - not even death - was able to destroy that love and part them.
Dandelion knew that few would believe the story told by the ballad, but he was not concerned. He knew ballads were not written to be believed, but to move their audience.
Several years later, Dandelion could have changed the contents of the ballad and written about what had really occurred. He did not. For the true story would not have move anyone. Who would have wanted to hear that the Witcher and Little Eye parted and never, ever, saw each other again? About how four years later Little Eye died of the smallpox during an epidemic raging in Vizima? About how he, Dandelion, had carried her out in his arms between corpses being cremated on funeral pyres and buried her far from the city, in the forest, alone and peaceful, and, as she had asked, buried two things with her: her lute and her sky blue pearl. The pearl from which she was never parted.
No, Dandelion stuck with his first version. And he never sang it. Never. To no one.
Right before the dawn, while it was still dark, a hungry, vicious werewolf crept up to their camp, but saw that it was Dandelion, so he listened for a moment and then went on his way.”
― Andrzej Sapkowski, Miecz przeznaczenia

“Because I know that in order to unite two people, destiny is insufficient. Something more is necessary than destiny.”
― Andrzej Sapkowski, Sword of Destiny

“every myth, every fable must have some roots. Something lies among those roots.'
'It does. ... Most often a dream, a wish, a desire, a yearning. Faith that there are no limits to possibility. And occasionally chance.”
― Andrzej Sapkowski, Miecz przeznaczenia

“Doubts. Only evil, sir, never has any. But no one can escape his destiny.”
― Andrzej Sapkowski, Sword of Destiny

“Our world is in equilibrium. The annihilation, the killing, of any creatures that inhabit this world upsets that equilibrium. And a lack of equilibrium brings closer extinction; extinction and the end of the world as we know it.”
― Andrzej Sapkowski, Sword of Destiny

“For me,” mused Dandelion, “a mattress without a young woman isn't a mattress at all. It is incomplete happiness...”
― Andrzej Sapkowski, Miecz przeznaczenia

“She also possessed a very expertly stuffed unicorn, on whose back she liked to make love. Geralt was of the opinion that if there existed a place less suitable for having sex it was probably only the back of a live unicorn.”
― Andrzej Sapkowski, Miecz przeznaczenia

“Well, we’re afeared. And what of it? Do we sit down and weep and tremble? Life must go on. And what will be, will be. What is destined can’t be avoided, in any case.”
― Andrzej Sapkowski, Sword of Destiny

“Do you want to break Roach’s back?’ ‘Is it Roach? Roach was a bay, and she’s a chestnut.’ ‘All of my horses are called Roach.”
― Andrzej Sapkowski, Sword of Destiny

“Now you’re lying, Dandelion.’ ‘Not lying, just embellishing, and there’s a difference.”
― Andrzej Sapkowski, Sword of Destiny

“Well, what can I say, it’s a base world,’ he finally muttered. ‘But that’s no reason for us all to become despicable.”
― Andrzej Sapkowski, Sword of Destiny

“You've taken everything from me..."
"No," she interrupted. "Me, I take nothing. I only take by the hand. So that no-one must be alone and lost in the fog... Goodbye, Gerald of Rivia. Some other day.”
― Andrzej Sapkowski, Miecz przeznaczenia

“Life is full of hazards, selection also occurs in life, Geralt. Misfortune, sicknesses and wars also select. Defying destiny may be just as hazardous as succumbing to it.”
― Andrzej Sapkowski, Sword of Destiny

“It was a ceremonial supper. For they were going to part in the morning. In the morning each of them was going to go their own way; in search of something they already had. But they did not know they had it, they could not even imagine it. They could not imagine where the roads they were meant to set off on the next morning would lead. Each of them travelling separately.”
― Andrzej Sapkowski, Sword of Destiny

“I like elven legends, they are so captivating. What a pity humans don’t have any legends like that. Perhaps one day they will? Perhaps they’ll create some? But what would human legends deal with? All around, wherever one looks, there’s greyness and dullness. Even things which begin beautifully lead swiftly to boredom and dreariness, to that human ritual, that wearisome rhythm called life.”
― Andrzej Sapkowski, Sword of Destiny

“Witcher,’ Three Jackdaws suddenly said, ‘I want to ask you a question.’
‘Ask it.’
‘Why don’t you turn back?’
The Witcher looked at him in silence for a moment. ‘Do you really want to know?’
‘Yes, I do,’ Three Jackdaws said, turning his face towards Geralt.
‘I’m riding with them because I’m a servile golem. Because I’m a wisp of oakum blown by the wind along the highway. Tell me, where should I go? And for what? At least here some people have gathered with whom I have something to talk about. People who don’t break off their conversations when I approach. People who, though they may not like me, say it to my face, and don’t throw stones from behind a fence. I’m riding with them for the same reason I rode with you to the log drivers’ inn. Because it’s all the same to me. I don’t have a goal to head towards. I don’t have a destination at the end of the road.’
Three Jackdaws cleared his throat. ‘There’s a destination at the end of every road. Everybody has one. Even you, although you like to think you’re somehow different.’
‘Now I’ll ask you a question.’
‘Ask it.’
‘Do you have a destination at the end of the road?’
‘I do.’
‘Lucky for you.’
‘It is not a matter of luck, Geralt. It is a matter of what you believe in and what you serve. No one ought to know that better than… than a witcher.’
‘I keep hearing about goals today,’ Geralt sighed. ‘Niedamir’s aim is to seize Malleore. Eyck of Denesle’s calling is to protect people from dragons. Dorregaray feels obligated to something quite the opposite. Yennefer, by virtue of certain changes which her body was subjected to, cannot fulfil her wishes and is terribly undecided. Dammit, only the Reavers and the dwarves don’t feel a calling, and simply want to line their pockets. Perhaps that’s why I’m so drawn to them?’
‘You aren’t drawn to them, Geralt of Rivia. I’m neither blind nor deaf. It wasn’t at the sound of their name you pulled out that pouch. But I surmise…’
‘There’s no need to surmise,’ the Witcher said, without anger.
‘I apologise.’
‘There’s no need to apologise.”
― Andrzej Sapkowski, Miecz przeznaczenia

“Doubts. Only evil, sir, never has any.”
― Andrzej Sapkowski, Sword of Destiny

“To me, Madam Yennefer, wisdom includes the ability to turn a deaf ear to foolish or insincere advice.”
― Andrzej Sapkowski, Sword of Destiny

“Oh, Geralt,’ he heard Ciri’s voice. ‘How delightful it is here… Pity you can’t see. There are so many flowers. And birds. Can you hear them singing? Oh, there’s so many of them. Heaps. Oh, and squirrels. Careful, we’re going to cross a stream, over a stone bridge. Don’t fall in. Oh, so many little fishes! Hundreds. They’re swimming in the water, you know. So many little animals, oh my. There can’t be so many anywhere else.’ ‘There can’t,’ he muttered. ‘Nowhere else. This is Brokilon.’ ‘What?’ ‘Brokilon. The Last Place.’ ‘I don’t understand.’ ‘No one understands. No one wants to understand.”
― Andrzej Sapkowski, Sword of Destiny

“You, the Elder Folk, like to say that hatred is alien to you, that it is a feeling known only to humans. But it is not true. You know what hatred is and are capable of hating, you merely evince it a little differently, more wisely and less savagely. But because of that it may be more cruel.”
― Andrzej Sapkowski, Sword of Destiny

“[...]What were you doing? Good or bad?'
'I don't know,' said Geralt with effort. 'I don't know, Yurga. Sometimes it seems to me that I know. And sometimes I have doubts. Would you like your son to have doubts like that?'
'Why not?' the merchant said gravely. 'He might as well. For it's a human and a good thing.'
'What?'
'Doubts. Only evil, sir, never has any. But no one can escape his destiny.”
― Andrzej Sapkowski, Miecz przeznaczenia

“A little sacrifice, he thought, just a little sacrifice. For this will calm her, a hug, a kiss, calm caresses. She doesn’t want anything more. And even if she did, what of it? For a little sacrifice, a very little sacrifice, is beautiful and worth… Were she to want more… It would calm her. A quiet, calm, gentle act of love. And I… Why, it doesn’t matter, because Essi smells of verbena, not lilac and gooseberry, doesn’t have cool, electrifying skin. Essi’s hair is not a black tornado of gleaming curls, Essi’s eyes are gorgeous, soft, warm and cornflower blue; they don’t blaze with a cold, unemotional, deep violet. Essi will fall asleep afterwards, turn her head away, open her mouth slightly, Essi will not smile in triumph. For Essi… Essi is not Yennefer.”
― Andrzej Sapkowski, Sword of Destiny

“Only in fables survives what cannot survive in nature. Only myths and fables do not know the limits of possibility.’ Three”
― Andrzej Sapkowski, Sword of Destiny

“Don’t mention it,’ the sorcerer patted the neck of his horse, which had been scared by all the yelling from Yarpen and his dwarves. ‘To me, Witcher, calling killing a vocation is loathsome, low and nonsensical. Our world is in equilibrium. The annihilation, the killing, of any creatures that inhabit this world upsets that equilibrium. And a lack of equilibrium brings closer extinction; extinction and the end of the world as we know it.’ ‘A druidic theory,’ Geralt pronounced. ‘I know it. An old hierophant expounded it to me once, back in Rivia. Two days after our conversation he was torn apart by wererats. It was impossible to prove any upset in equilibrium.”
― Andrzej Sapkowski, Sword of Destiny

“For there are some… things… which there is no way of obtaining, even by magic. And there are gifts which may not be accepted, if one is unable to… reciprocate them… with something equally precious. Otherwise such a gift will slip through the fingers, melt like a shard of ice gripped in the hand. Then only regret, the sense of loss and hurt will remain…”
― Andrzej Sapkowski, Sword of Destiny

“Do you know what your problem is, Geralt? You think you're different. You flaunt your otherness, what you consider abnormal. You aggressively impose that abnormality on others, not understanding that for people who think clear-headedly you're the most normal man under the sun, and they all wish that everybody was so normal.”
― Andrzej Sapkowski, Miecz przeznaczenia

“No, Dandelion stuck with his first version. And he never sang it. Never. To no one. Right before the dawn, while it was still dark, a hungry, vicious werewolf crept up to their camp, but saw that it was Dandelion, so he listened for a moment and then went on his way.”
― Andrzej Sapkowski, Sword of Destiny