Christopher Paolini famous quotes

Live in the present, remember the past, and fear not the future, for it doesn't exist and never shall. There is only now.
-- Christopher Paolini

#Inspirational #Life #Insperational

Without fear there cannot be courage.
-- Christopher Paolini

#Fear #Bravery #Overcoming Fear

A negative outlook is more of a handicap than any physical injury.
-- Christopher Paolini

#Negative #Injury #Handicaps

Books are my friends, my companions. They make me laugh and cry and find meaning in life.
-- Christopher Paolini

#Book #Laughing #Cry

The sea is emotion incarnate. It loves, hates, and weeps. It defies all attempts to capture it with words and rejects all shackles. No matter what you say about it, there is always that which you can't.
-- Christopher Paolini

#Nature #Hate #Ocean

Books should go where they will be most appreciated, and not sit unread, gathering dust on a forgotten shelf, don't you agree?
-- Christopher Paolini

#Book #Dust #Gathering

Let no man, in whatever rank or superiority, control your mind and tell you what to do
-- Christopher Paolini

#Men #Mind #Superiority

The deeds of the children are a testament to the upbringing they received from their parents.
-- Christopher Paolini

#Inspirational #Children #Kids

I always say, better ask forgiveness than permission.
-- Christopher Paolini

#Forgiveness #Asking For Forgiveness #Permission

Always it is thus with my new students, and especially with the human ones; the mind is the last muscle they train or use, and the one that they regard the least. Ask them about swordplay and they can list every blow from a duel a month old, but ask them to solve a problem or make a coherent statement and... well, I would be lucky to get more than a blank stare in return.
-- Christopher Paolini

#Blow #Mind #Would Be

Perhaps not one religion contains all of the truth of the world. Perhaps every religion contains fragments of the truth, and it is our responsibility to identify those fragments and piece them together.
-- Christopher Paolini

#Responsibility #Religion #Together

It is a better world. A place where we ate responsible for our actions, where we can be kind to one another because we want to and becauseit is the right thing to do instead of being frightened into behaving by the threat of divine punishment.
-- Christopher Paolini

#Punishment #World #Want

Death is part of who we are. It guides us. It shapes us. It drives us to madness. Can you still be human if you have no mortal end
-- Christopher Paolini

#Shapes #Who We Are #Madness

The monsters of the mind are far worse than those that actually exist.
-- Christopher Paolini

#Mind #Monsters

What is the worth of anything we do? The worth is in the act. Your worth halts when you surrender the will to change and experience life
-- Christopher Paolini

#Surrender #Halt

The whole of the world could be deduced from the smallest grain of sand, if one studied it closely enough.
-- Christopher Paolini

#World #Sand #Enough

First, let no one rule your mind or body. Take special care that your thoughts remain unfettered... . Give men your ear, but not your heart. Show respect for those in power, but don't follow them blindly. Judge with logic and reason, but comment not. Consider none your superior whatever their rank or station in life. Treat all fairly, or they will seek revenge. Be careful with your money. Hold fast to your beliefs and others will listen.
-- Christopher Paolini

#Life #Revenge #Heart

It's amazing that a man who is dead can talk to people through these pages. As long as this books survives, his ideas live.
-- Christopher Paolini

#Book #Men #Ideas

People have an annoying habit of remembering things they shouldn't.
-- Christopher Paolini

#People #History #Remember

Magic is the art of thinking, not strength or language.
-- Christopher Paolini

#Art #Thinking #Magic

On the beach, Roran stood alone, watching them go. Then he threw back his head and uttered a long, aching cry, and the night echoed with the sound of his loss.
-- Christopher Paolini

#Beach #Loss #Night

Wise? No, I simply learned to think.
-- Christopher Paolini

#Wise #Wisdom #Thinking

Life is both pain and pleasure. If this is the price you must pay for the hours you enjoy, is it too much?
-- Christopher Paolini

#Pain #Pay #Too Much

Let'sss just kill him," said the shorter Ra'zac. "He has caused us much grief." The taller one ran his finger down his sword. "A good plan. But remember, the king's instructions were to keep them alive." -from Eragon, Chapter Title: The Ra'zac's Revenge.
-- Christopher Paolini

#Kings #Revenge #Grief

It never struck me as interesting that I didn't go to school - we had our own little world. I always thought of kids who were going to regular school as if they're the others, the separate ones.
-- Christopher Paolini

#School #Kids #Interesting

The poison dart hidden in the raisin tart. ...
-- Christopher Paolini

#Poison #Raisins

A good compromise leaves everyone angry.
-- Christopher Paolini

#Compromise #Angry

Of the affairs of love ... my only advice is to be honest. That's your most powerful tool to unlock a heart or gain forgiveness.
-- Christopher Paolini

#Love #Powerful #Heart

There are decades in the making of the one man of renown; Multitudes that go unnoticed who must wreathe for him a crown.
-- Christopher Paolini

#Men #Crowns #Fame

Moderation is a wiser policy than zealotry
-- Christopher Paolini

#Moderation #Wiser #Policy

Life is pain...anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something
-- Christopher Paolini

#Pain #Life Is #Selling

Ajihad: You are an enigma, Eragon, a quandary that no one knows how to solve.
-- Christopher Paolini

#Eragon #Enigma #Solve

Eragon cried out, and in his desperation he reached for Saphira and the Eldunarí... and without meaning to, he drew from their stories of energy. And with that energy he cast a spell. It was a spell without words... His was a spell of instinct and emotion; language could not contain it.
-- Christopher Paolini

#Energy #Stories #Emotion

A man rarely knows the day and hour when he will die. I could be killed any moment and there's not a blasted thing I can do about it.
-- Christopher Paolini

#Men #Moments #Hours

What will happen will happen and I won't waste my time worrying.
-- Christopher Paolini

#Worry #Waste #Wasting My Time

Pain is pain. It needs no description.
-- Christopher Paolini

#Pain #Needs #Description

To while away the day contemplating evils that might have been is to poison the happiness we already have.
-- Christopher Paolini

#Evil #Poison #Might

Treat all fairly or they will seek revenge.
-- Christopher Paolini

#Revenge #Treats

I am the victor. In the end nothing else matters.
-- Christopher Paolini

#Matter #Ends

For my love, I will wade through an ocean of blood, even if it destroys me
-- Christopher Paolini

#Ocean #Blood #Wade

I have a new name for pain. What's that? The Obliterator. Because when you're in pain, nothing else can exist. Not thought. Not emotion. Only the drive to escape the pain. When it's strong enough, the Obliterator strips us of everything that makes us who we are, until we're reduced to creatures less than animals, creatures with a single desire and goal: escape. A good name, then.
-- Christopher Paolini

#Strong #Pain #Animal

Wind howled throught the night, carrying the scent that would change the world.
-- Christopher Paolini

#Night #Wind #World

When someone refuses to tell me a certain piece of information, it only makes me that much more determined to find out the truth. I hate being ignorant. For me, a question unanswered is like a thorn in my side
-- Christopher Paolini

#Hate #Ignorant #Pieces

As they spread out their blankets, Saphira commented with satisfaction, We are becoming more powerful, Eragon, both of us. Soon no one will be able to stand in our way. Yes, but which way shall we choose? Whichever one we want, she said smugly, settling down for the night.
-- Christopher Paolini

#Powerful #Night #Becoming

Fight if you wish. Deny what is before you if it comforts you. But nothing you do can change your fate.
-- Christopher Paolini

#Fighting #Fate #Wish

I didn't think I would ever meet a noble who wasn't corrupt. Now that I have, I find that I prefer them when they're greedy bastards. (Brom to Eragon)
-- Christopher Paolini

#Thinking #Noble #Eragon

We are about to change history, said Saphira. We’re throwing ourselves off a cliff without knowing how deep the water below is. Ah, but what a glorious flight! (Eragon to Saphira)
-- Christopher Paolini

#Knowing #Water #Cliffs

As a person i couldnt say, although i am well apuainted with tales of his atrocities. every time brom and i crossed paths with him, he was trying to kill us. or ratar, capture, torture, and then killus, none of which are productive to establishing a close relationship" _ Jeod
-- Christopher Paolini

#Trying #Atrocities #Path

Congratulations, you've just been promoted!
-- Christopher Paolini

#Congratulations #Eragon

Regardless of whether I can shift my affections to another - and the heart, as you observed, is a notoriously fickle beast - the question remains: should I?
-- Christopher Paolini

#Heart #Fickle #Affection

It’s better to be sworn to an honest fool than to a lying scholar
-- Christopher Paolini

#Honesty #Lying #Fool

I'll fight when needed, revel when there's an occasion, mourn when there is greif and die if my time comes...But I will not let anyone use me against my will.
-- Christopher Paolini

#Fighting #Use #Eragon

m doing my best" "no,this isn't your best. We shall recognize your best when it appears
-- Christopher Paolini

May your swords stay sharp -Brom
-- Christopher Paolini

#May

I'm healthy as an ox. And you?" "To compare myself with a bovine would be both ridiculous and insulting, but I'm fit as ever, if that is what you are asking.
-- Christopher Paolini

#Healthy #Insulting #Bovine

These books are my friends, my companions.
-- Christopher Paolini

#Book #Companion

Not anymore. I'm afraid I've degenerated into a bibliophile." "A what?" asked Eragon. "One who loves books," explained Jeod.
-- Christopher Paolini

#Book #Eragon #Bibliophiles

He who stands like a pilar dies in battle. He who bends like a reed is triumphant!
-- Christopher Paolini

#Battle #Reeds #Triumphant

I agree that it's important to be of a virtuous nature, but I would also contend that if you had to choose between giving a man a noble disposition or teaching him to think clearly, you'd do better to teach him to think clearly. Too many problems in this world are caused by men with noble dispositions and clouded minds.
-- Christopher Paolini

#Teaching #Men #Thinking

I warn you, Eragon, beware of whom you fall in love with, for fate seems to have a morbid interest in our family.
-- Christopher Paolini

#Falling In Love #Fate #Morbid

Leave the dead to the Earth. They are not for us. - Valdr
-- Christopher Paolini

#Earth

Characters are born from necessity.
-- Christopher Paolini

#Character #Born

I cannot prove that gods do not exist. Nor can I prove that the world and everything in it was not created by an entity or entities in the distant past. But I can tell you that in the millennia we elves have studied nature, we have never witnessed an instance where the rules that govern the world have been broken. That is, we have never seen a miracle. Many events have defied our ability to explain, but we are convinced that we failed because we are still woefully ignorant about the universe and not because a deity altered the workings of nature.
-- Christopher Paolini

#Past #Broken #Miracle

It is an overactive imagination that turns men into cowards, not a surfeit of fear, as many believe
-- Christopher Paolini

#Believe #Men #Imagination

Change itself is neither good nor bad, but knowledge is always useful.
-- Christopher Paolini

A person must earn enlightenment, Eragon. It is not handed down to you by others, regardless of how revered they be.
-- Christopher Paolini

#Enlightenment #Eragon #Persons

He inclined his head ever so slightly, displaying with his bearing the supreme confidence, even arrogance, that is the sole providence of cats, dragons, and certain highborn women.
-- Christopher Paolini

#Cat #Dragons #Arrogance

Anger has its place, but it will not serve you here, the way of the warrior is the way of knowing. Of that knowledge requires you to use anger, then you use anger, but you cannot wrest forth knowledge by losing your temper.
-- Christopher Paolini

#Warrior #Knowing #Way

I am not who I was, but I know who I am.
-- Christopher Paolini

#Who I Am

Basically, I would be happy with any profession where I got to be creative and make things.
-- Christopher Paolini

#Creative #Would Be #Be Creative

The sands of time cannot be stopped. Years pass whether we will them or not... but we can remember. What has been lost may yet live in memories.
-- Christopher Paolini

#Memories #Years #May

If I spent my time worrying about what other people would think of my work, I would be too self-conscious to write.
-- Christopher Paolini

#Writing #Thinking #Self

When I saw Fäolin fall, I understood then that the true agony of war isn't being wounded yourself, it's having to watch those you care about being hurt.
-- Christopher Paolini

#Hurt #War #Fall

Haven't had your fill of interesting events?" "Never. They are the spice of life." She held up her half-finished hat. "How do you like it?" "It's nice. The blue is pretty. But what do the runes say?" "Raxacori-Oh, never mind. It wouldn't mean a thing to you anyway. Safe travels to you and Saphira, Eragon. And remember to watch out for earwigs and wild hamsters.  Ferocious things, wild hamsters." 
-- Christopher Paolini

#Nice #Mean #Blue

In my writing, I strive for a lyrical beauty somewhere between Tolkien at his best and Seamus Heaney's translation of Beowulf
-- Christopher Paolini

#Writing #Lyrical #Strive

I'm afraid I've degenerated into a bibliophile.
-- Christopher Paolini

#Bibliophiles

In El-harím, there lived a man, a man with yellow eyes. To me, he said, "Beware the whispers, for they whisper lies. Do not wrestle with the demons of the dark, Else upon your mind they'll place a mark; Do not listen to the shadows of the deep, Else they haunt you even when you sleep.
-- Christopher Paolini

#Lying #Sleep #Eye

I need no master to punish me in order to behave as I ought. If I did, I would be no more than a child who obeys his father's rules only because he fears the whip, and not because he actually means good.
-- Christopher Paolini

#Children #Father #Mean

The future will be what it will, and fretting about it will only make your fears more likely to come true.
-- Christopher Paolini

#Fear

You must learn to see, what you are looking at
-- Christopher Paolini

Nothing out of the ordinary ever occurs to me when I'm by myself. But you attract duels, ambushes, immortal enemies, obscure creatures such as the Ra'zac, long-lost family members, and mysterious acts of magic as if they were were starving weasels and you were a rabbit that wandered into their den. Saphira
-- Christopher Paolini

#Long #Magic #Enemy

The debate raged on for so long, at last Saphira had interrupted with a roar that shook the walls of the command tent. Then she said, I am sore and tired, and Eragon is doing a poor job of explaining himself. We have better things to do than stand around yammering like jackdaws, no? ... Good now listen to me. It was reflected Eragon, hard to argue with a dragon.
-- Christopher Paolini

#Jobs #Wall #Tired

If any honor existed in war, it was in fighting to protect others from harm
-- Christopher Paolini

#War #Fighting #Honor

To know who you are without any delusions or sympathy is a moment of revelation that no one experiences unscathed.
-- Christopher Paolini

#Moments #Revelations #Delusion

I refuse to repent, and I won't plague myself over what is done and past
-- Christopher Paolini

#Past #Done #Repent

Life is too short to fight every idiot along your way.
-- Christopher Paolini

#Life Is Too Short #Fighting #Way

besides, how can you cheat a cheater?
-- Christopher Paolini

#Cheater #Cheat #Brisingr

All great fighting is the same, Eragon, even as all great warriors are the same. Past a certain point, it does not matter whether you wield a sword, a claw, a tooth or a tail. It is true, you must be capable with your weapon, but anyone with the time, and the inclination can acquire technical proficiency. To achieve greatness, though, that requires artistry. That requires imagination and thoughtfulness, and it is those qualities that the best warriors share, even if, on the surface, they appear completely different.
-- Christopher Paolini

#Fighting #Warrior #Past

Better to see widely than to see too closely and allow some feature of place or situation to catch you unawares. Do you understand?
-- Christopher Paolini

#Situation

Anger is poison. You must purge it from your mind or else it will corrupt your better nature.
-- Christopher Paolini

#Anger #Mind #Poison

If a dragon has already transferred their consciousness to their heart of hearts, then they will die a true death.
-- Christopher Paolini

#Heart #Dragons #Consciousness

Let's drop rocks on them!
-- Christopher Paolini

#Rocks

Ah, pay no heed if your enemies laugh. They'll not be able to once you lop off their heads.
-- Christopher Paolini

#Attitude #Laughing #Enemy

Only if you are afraid of looking foolish, and I would have looked far more foolish if I persisted with an erroneous belief.' Eragon said. Why, little one, you just said something wise!'Saphira teased.
-- Christopher Paolini

#Wise #Littles #Belief

He tapped one of the ivory spikes between his legs and said, 'There be as good a way to lose your manhood as ever I've seen'.
-- Christopher Paolini

#Ivory #Legs #Way

Her sculptured face was as perfect as a painting.
-- Christopher Paolini

#Perfect #Faces #Painting

If anything happens, I'm going to pin you to my back and never let you off." I love you too." - Saphira and Eragon
-- Christopher Paolini

#Love You #Eragon #Pins

From the corner of his eye, Eragon saw Orik hewing Urgal necks with mighty blows of his ax.
-- Christopher Paolini

#Eye #Blow #Saws

With her jaws and talons, Saphira tore through an Urgal.
-- Christopher Paolini

#Talons #Saphira

Eragon looked back at him, confused. "I don't understand." "Of course you don't," said Brom impatiently. "That's why I'm teaching you and not the other way around.
-- Christopher Paolini

#Confused #Teaching #Way