Riot Headline Book Riot’s 2024 Read Harder Challenge
Science Fiction/Fantasy

50 Game Of Thrones Quotes To Suit Your Every (Dark) Need

This content contains affiliate links. When you buy through these links, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Namera Tanjeem

Staff Writer

Namera is currently an English student at the University of Cambridge who loves romance novels, Harry Potter, true crime stories, and cats. You can find her over at her blog, The Literary Invertebrate. She can be contacted by email at namera.tanjeem@outlook.com.

With the news that Season 8 of Game of Thrones (coming April 2019) will be the last, it’s time to look back on all the things – both from the books and the show – which will stick with us. Below are a selection of Game of Thrones quotes on the usual topics (death, power, danger) but also on knowledge and, perhaps a little surprisingly, love. (I kind of ship Jaime and Cersei… pleasedonthateme.)

50 great GAME OF THRONES quotes for every one of your dark needs. quotes | GAME OF THRONES quotes | quotes from GAME OF THRONES | quote lists

Game of Thrones Quotes About Power

“Once you’ve accepted your flaws, no one can use them against you.” – A Game of Thrones

“Power resides only where men believe it resides…. [It is] a shadow on the wall, yet shadows can kill. And ofttimes a very small man can cast a very large shadow.” – A Clash of Kings

“Crowns do queer things to the heads beneath them.” – A Clash of Kings

“I swear to you, sitting a throne is a thousand times harder than winning one.” – A Game of Thrones 

“When you know what a man wants you know who he is, and how to move him.” – A Storm of Swords

Game Of Thrones Quotes

“Any man who must say ‘I am king’ is no true king at all.” – A Storm of Swords

“Everyone is mine to torment.” – S03E10

“Never forget what you are, for surely the world will not. Make it your strength. Then it can never be your weakness.” – A Game of Thrones

Game of Thrones Quotes About Danger

“Fear cuts deeper than swords.” – A Game of Thrones 

“There are no heroes… in life, the monsters win.” – A Game of Thrones

“I rose too high, loved too hard, dared too much. I tried to grasp a star, overreached, and fell.” – A Dance with Dragons

“A craven can be as brave as any man, when there is nothing to fear. And we all do our duty, when there is no cost to it. How easy it seems then, to walk the path of honor. Yet soon or late in every man’s life comes a day when it is not easy, a day when he must choose.” – A Game of Thrones

“The unseen enemy is always the most fearsome.” – A Clash of Kings

Game Of Thrones Quotes

“A Lannister always pays his debts.” – A Game of Thrones

“There are no true knights, no more than there are gods. If you can’t protect yourself, die and get out of the way of those who can. Sharp steel and strong arms rule this world, don’t ever believe any different.” – A Clash of Kings

“A harp can be a dangerous as a sword, in the right hands.” – A Storm of Swords

“The brightest flame casts the darkest shadow.” – A Clash of Kings

Game of Thrones Quotes About Knowledge

“A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies… the man who never reads lives only once.” – A Dance with Dragons

“A mind needs books as a sword needs a whetstone, if it is to keep its edge.” – A Game of Thrones

“Sleep is good… and books are better.” – A Clash of Kings

“People often claim to hunger for truth, but seldom like the taste when it’s served up.” – A Clash of Kings

“The greatest fools are ofttimes more clever than the men who laugh at them.” – A Storm of Swords

“A lord must learn that sometimes words can accomplish what swords cannot.” – A Game of Thrones

“The heart lies and the head plays tricks on us, but the eyes see true.”

“You know nothing, Jon Snow.” – S04E09

“Minds are like swords, I do fear. The old ones go to rust.” – A Game of Thrones 

“Is it so far from madness to wisdom?” – A Game of Thrones

Game of Thrones Quotes About Love

“The things we love destroy us every time.” – A Game of Thrones 

“What is honor compared to a woman’s love? What is duty against the feel of a newborn son in your arms…or the memory of a brother’s smile?” – A Game of Thrones

“We are only human, and the gods have fashioned us for love. That is our great glory, and our great tragedy.” – A Game of Thrones

“Love is poison. A sweet poison, yes, but it will kill you all the same.” – A Game of Thrones

“You may be as different as the sun and the moon, but the same blood flows through both your hearts. You need her, as she needs you…” – A Game of Thrones

“I crossed a thousand leagues to come to you, and lost the best part of me along the way. Don’t tell me to leave.” – A Storm of Swords

“Love is the bane of honor, the death of duty.” – A Game of Thrones

“Love is madness, and lust is poison.” – A Dance with Dragons

Game of Thrones Quotes About Death

“Death is so terribly final, while life is full of possibilities.” – A Game of Thrones

“Every man must die… But first he must live.” – A Storm of Swords

“How would you like to die, Tyrion son of Tywin?”
“In my own bed, with a belly full of wine and a maiden’s mouth around my cock, at the age of eighty,” he replied.” – A Game of Thrones

Source: Etsy

“I grew up with soldiers. I learned how to die a long time ago.” – S01E09

“Why should death make a man truthful, or even clever? The dead are likely dull fellows, full of tedious complaints – the ground’s too cold, my gravestone should be larger, why does he get more worms than I do…” – A Clash of Kings

“The man who passes the sentence should swing the sword. If you would take a man’s life, you owe it to him to look into his eyes and hear his final words. And if you cannot bear to do that, then perhaps the man does not deserve to die.” – A Game of Thrones

“Was there ever a war where only one side bled?” – A Clash of Kings

Looking for more?

Try these quotes about love, and also these on summer – particularly appropriate if winter is coming!