“A man who won't listen can't hear.”

“So be it. I'll wear my iron and hold my tongue. A man who won't listen can't hear.”

“Free folk don't follow names, or little cloth animals sewn on a tunic," the King-Beyond-the-Wall had told him. "They won't dance for coins, they don't care how your style yourself or what that chain of office means or who your grandsire was. They follow strength. They follow the man.”

“The man who fears losing has already lost.”

“He'll be down with the books. My old septon used to say books are dead men talking. Dead men should keep quiet is what I say. No one wants to hear a dead man's yabber.”

“a man who hates music can’t be trusted, I always say.”

“Only a man who's been burned knows what hell is truly like.”