“He who hurries through life hurries to his grave.”

“There were some secrets that should never be spoken, some shames a man should take to his grave.”

“Tyrion Lannister had claimed that most men would rather deny a hard truth than face it, but Jon was done with denials. He was who he was; Jon Snow, bastard and oathbreaker, motherless, friendless, and damned. For the rest of his life-however long that might be-he would be condemned to be an outsider, the silent man standing in the shadows who dares not speak his true name.”

“No one mocked him in his bedchamber, but he would not live his life in bed.”

“But the melancholy of Worlorn's dying forests had seeped into his flesh, and he saw Gwen through tainted eyes, a doll figure in a suit as faded as despair.”

“Ask yourself why Aemon Targaryan was allowed to waste his life upon the Wall when by rights he should have been raised to archmaester. His blood was why. He could not be trusted.”

“Many have served Him of Many Faces through the centuries, but only a few of His servants have been women. Women bring life into the world. We bring the gift of death. No one can do both.”