I thought it best to add nothing further, to let the line of his thought lead him to his own conclusions.

I have lived most of my life in soldiers’ camps. I know what they saw. I know how they think. Their confidence sours as sudden as curdled milk.

Avner had lived too long and become too canny to claim the crown of Israel for himself.

Even though he said no store in uncanny things, he was soldier enough to value with whatever weapon came to hand.

When a kingdom rests on it, I always expect difficulty. Then, if there is none, no blame. But if there is, one is prepared.

No one sits, as you do, so close to a king, who does not begin to grasp how the levers of power work, and the cost of the oil that must grease them.

This night he was a king before he was a man. At this time, this troubled me. Later, I would have cause to wish it were always so.

He is able to put aside personal feelings and see the broad strokes. Experience counts in these things.

David ran through concrete advantages. And then set aside the practical. The pragmatist was gone, replaced by the poet and mystic.

If soldiering did not interest him, the soldiers themselves were another matter. He loved to sit with the men and draw out their first-hand stories of past campaigns.

The stories that grow up around a king are strong vines with a fierce grip.

In order to discover who you are within, you need to attune your visionary world deep in your sub-conscience to the outward world and live it.

There are heroes and schmucks in all worlds. The most important thing is whether you are willing to engage in moral struggle against yourself.

Artistic temperament is a disease that afflicts amateurs.

Happiness is like the weather. Sometimes it’s rainy, sometimes it’s sunny, and you gotta just go through and accept what’s there in front of you.

While we do have 50 years of terrific Avengers stories, many of which our writing staff has written, along the way, this has to live in its own world.

If you're so smart, why aren't you rich?

I think every year you have something to prove.

The nature of our intelligence is such that it is stimulated far less by the will to know than by the will to understand.

It's not what enters men's mouth that is evil," said the alchemist. It's what comes out of their mouths that is.

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