“Jonak says to say he send congratulations and well-wishes and all the things he ought—he was so pleased with himself for being an uncle he couldn’t sit still to think them out.”

“Jon wanted nothing more. No, he had to tell himself, those days are gone. The realization twisted in his belly like a knife. They had chosen him to rule. The Wall was his, and their lives were his as well. A lord may love the men that he commands, he could hear his lord father saying, but he cannot be a friend to them. One day he may need to sit in judgement on them, or send them forth to die.”

“Man is not satisfied with just being man. He wants to be everything, all creatures, and still remain himself. Man has unfathomable depths to his goodness and his evil, his intelligence and his ignorance--he is a dark region of wells and wishes to drink at them all.'-- O-kolkol”

“Still, he was pleased to know that he could recall so much of the play and passed the rest of the journey pleasantly in reciting lines to himself, being careful not to snort.”

“I knew what he was saying, and I wished to God he was someone else, someone who didn't have to say things out loud.”

“Is he well educated?""Yes, I think so, as far as he's gone," I answered. "Of course he will go on being educated every day of his life, same as father. He says it is all rot about 'finishing' your education. You never do. You learn more important things each day...”