“Children are a battle of a different sort. ... A battle without banners or warhorns but no less fierce.”

“No singer would ever make a song about that battle. No maester would ever write down an account for one of the Reader's beloved books. No banners flew, no warhorns moaned, no great lord called his men about him to hear his final ringing words. They fought in the predawn gloom, shadow against shadow, stumbling over roots and rocks, with mud and rotting leaves beneath their feet.”

“We’re in the vanguard of a nameless battle, a battle without arms or bloodshed or glory: we’re in the vanguard of waiting.”

“There's no reality without battles and no future without fights.”

“One hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the most skillful, subduing the other's military without battle is the most skillful.”

“Human consciousness at present is a sort of battlefield. And you know what Tolstoy tells us about battles in War and Peace. Nobody really knows what is going on during a battle...”