The Best Quotes From Every Season of Game of Thrones (Comprehensive)

"Well my brother has his sword and I have my mind. And a mind needs books like a sword needs a [sharpening stone]." – Tyrion Lannister, S1E2

"The king takes what he wants, that's why he's king." – Eddard (Ned) Stark

• Robert Baratheon became king because he took what he wanted (the throne). He overthrew the old king. 
• The successful clearly define what they want and do anything to get it. 

"When Aerys Targaryen sat on the throne, your father was a rebel and a traitor. Some day, you'll sit on the throne and the truth will be what you make it." – Queen Cersei

• History is written by the winners.

"This isn't Westeros, where men honor blood. Here they only honor strength. There will be fighting after Drogo dies. Whoever wins that fight will be the new khal. He won't want any rivals. Your boy will be plucked from your breast and given to the dogs." – Jorah Mormont

Baelish: "Is there someone in your circle whom you trust completely?" Ned Stark: "Yes" Baelish: "The wise answer was 'no', my lord."

"If a man goes through life with his battle visor down, he can often be blind to the enemies at his side." – Grand Maester Pycelle

Eddard Stark: "What you suggest is treason." Baelish: "Only if we lose."

Varys: "When you imagine yourself [as king], how do you look? Does the crown fit? Do all the lords and ladies simper and bow, the ones who sneered at you for years?" Baelish: "It's hard for them to simper and bow without heads." Varys: "A man with great ambition and no morals... I wouldn't bet against you."

"A good king knows when to save his strength, and when to destroy his enemies. Everyone who isn't us is an enemy." – Queen Cersei

"We only make peace with our enemies, my lord. That's why it's called making peace." – Lord Baelish

"If the day ever comes where you're tempted to sell me out, whatever their price, I'll beat it. I like living." – Tyrion Lannister

[On killing Daenerys and her unborn baby:] "It is a terrible thing we must consider – a vile thing. But we who presume to rule must sometimes do vile things for the good of the realm." – Lord Varys

"When you play the game of thrones, you win or you die. There is no middle ground." – Queen Cersei

"What she doesn't know won't hurt her." "Stupid line. What we don't know is usually what gets us killed." – Lord Baelish

"You think life is some blessed thing to me? Like I would give up my honor for a few more years of...of what? You grew up with actors, you learned their craft and you learned it well. But I grew up with soldiers. I learned how to die a long time ago." – Ned Stark

Varys: "I admire you, Lord Baelish: a grasper from a minor House, with a major talent for befriending powerful men, and women." Baelish: "A useful talent, I'm sure you'd agree."

"I'd rather be dead." – Brandon Stark (when they say he'll never walk again).

• People always say they want to die when they become blind or paralyzed. 

"A king should have scars." – Queen Cersei

"Do you think the path from poverty to wealth is always pure and honorable? I have done many things that a righteous man would condemn. Yet here I am, with no regrets." – Xaro, Game of Thrones S2E6

"Power resides where men believe it resides." – Lord Varys, Game of Thrones S2E3

"A man without friends is a man without power." – Renly Baratheon, Game of Thrones S2E4

"No one can survive in this world without help." – Jorah Mormont

"The only way to keep the small folk loyal is to make certain they fear you more than they do the enemy." – Cersei

"Rich men do not become rich by giving more than they get. They'll give you ships and soldiers and they'll own you forever." – Jorah Mormont

"Don't trust anybody. Life is safer that way." – Shae

Cersei: "What do you know about warfare?" Tyrion: "Nothing, but I know people. And I know that our enemies hate each other almost as much as they hate us." 

"You want to lead one day? Then learn how to follow." – Jeor Mormont

Baelish: "A simple truth: knowledge is power." Cersei: "[Physical] power is power."

"I'm not Ned Stark, I understand the way this game is played. Do not threaten me again or I'll have you thrown into the sea." – Tyrion Lannister

• Ned Stark's honor and loyalty got him killed.

"Your father was a killer. Your brother is a killer. Your sons will be killers someday. The world is built by killers... so you better get used to looking at them." – Sandor

Tyrion: "Lysa is not fond of me, but perhaps the offer of a royal match will convince her to let bygones be bygones." Littlefinger: "She imprisoned you, she tried to execute you and you offer her son a princess?" Tyrion: "For men in our position, holding grudges can be an encumbrance."

• Befriend your enemies.

Tyrion told 3 different people 3 different variations of a story so that he could find out which one was a double agent. 

"I've been all over the world, my boy, and everywhere I go people tell me about the 'true gods', they all think they found the right one. The one true god is what's between a woman's legs. And better yet a queen's legs." – Salladhor Saan

When Tyrion makes deals, he puts the thing that the other person wants most at the end of his list. He'll say you get: (1) The gratitude of the people for ending the war, (2) the gratitude of the king, and (3) your own fortress. It turns a one-item offer into an offer stack. It sounds like you get more than if he only said you get a fortress. The fortress would make him 'one of the greatest lords in the realm'. Littlefinger: "What's in it for me?" Tyrion: "The gratitude of the people of Westeros for helping to end this war. The adoration of the king for bringing the veil back into the fold. And Harrenhal [a fortress in the Riverlands]." 

"She pretends she doesn't speak the common tongue so people will think she's exotic." 

Stannis: "In a real war, the side with the greater number wins 9 times out of 10." Melisandre: "Then we must be the 10th."

"Some say the beauty most desired is the beauty concealed." – Renly Baratheon

"A very small man can cast a very large shadow." – Varys

"If half an onion is black with rot, it is a rotten onion. A man is good, or he is evil." – Melisandre, S2E4

• The quote above is philosophically wrong. All humans have a dark side. From the George R.R. Martin GOT books: "When Craster's wives brought onions, he seized one eagerly. One side was black with rot, but he cut that part off with his dagger and ate the good half raw."

"I've traveled very far in my life and met many women, but none that are immune to flattery." – Xaro

"Those on the margins often come to control the center. And those in the center make room for them – willingly or otherwise." – Xaro

"Tears aren't a woman's only weapon. The best one's between your legs. Learn how to use it." – Cersei

"Look around us, we're all liars here. And every one of us is better than you." – Littlefinger to Sansa Stark

"I'm not like most men." "That's what most men say." 

Tyrion: "If I told you to murder an infant girl say, still at her mother breast's, would you do it without question?" Bronn: "Without question? No. I'd ask how much."

"No man gives me a crown. l pay the iron price. l will take my crown, for that is who l am. That is who we have always been." – Balon Greyjoy

"It doesn't matter what we want. Once we get it, we only want something else." – Lord Baelish

Shae: "Why should I make up a story when I know the truth?" Sansa Stark: "Because the truth is always either terrible or boring."

"Even the bravest men fear death." – Jorah Mormont

"I try to know as many people as I can. You never know which one you'll need." – Tyrion Lannister

"You're very kind. Some day it will get you killed." – Sandor

"People work together when it suits them. They're loyal when it suits them. They love each other when it suits them. And they kill each other when it suits them." – Orell

• Humans are self-interested. Even altruistic acts are rooted in selfishness. 

"They told me I had no choice. I always have a choice." – Daario

"Influence grows like a weed. I tended mine patiently." – Varys

"Who doesn't like to see their friends fail now and then." – Varys

• Humans are naturally envious.

Gilly: "How do you know all that?" Sam: "I read about it in a very old book."

"The people are hungry for more than just food. They crave distractions. And if we don’t provide them, they’ll create their own. And their distractions are likely to end with us being torn to pieces." – Olenna Tyrell

• "Give them bread and circuses and they will never revolt." – Juvenal, a Roman poet active in the late first and early second century CE.

"The contents of a man's letters are more valuable than the contents of his purse." – Varys

Tywin: "You really think a crown gives you power?" Tyrion: "No, I think armies give you power."

"Explain to me why it is more noble to kill 10,000 men in battle than a dozen at dinner." – Tywin

Trial by combat. The strong are seen as good and virtuous. Imagine if innocence or guilt in modern court trials was proven by if the defendant could win a fight to the death with the best fighter in the courtroom. This was the morality of the Romans: strong = morally good. They had a very different morals than we do today. 

"We mothers do what we can to keep our sons from the grave. But they do seem to yearn for it. We shower them with good sense, and it slides right off like rain off a wing." – Olenna Tyrell

• Context: "The grave" = war

"[If] you waste time trying to get people to love you, you'll end up the most popular dead man in town." – Bronn

"They all laughed at me, all those high Lords, they all thought they were better than me. Ned Stark, Hoster Tully." – Walder Frey

• This resentment made Frey go on to kill Ned's widowed wife (who Frey had known since she was a little girl) and her son. 

"A good man does everything in his power to better his family's position. Regardless of his own selfish desires." – Tywin

"No act done in service of the lord of light can ever be a sin."

"You're not doing this for your god, you're doing it for gold." – Arya Stark

Baelish: "A story we agree to tell each other over and over until we forget that it's a lie." Varys: "But what do we have left once we abandon the lie? Chaos. A gaping pit waiting to swallow us all." Baelish: "Chaos isn't a pit. Chaos is a ladder. Many who try to climb it fail and never get to try again – the fall breaks them. And some are given a chance to climb but they refuse. They cling to the realm or the gods or love – illusions. Only the ladder is real. The climb is all there is."

"There's nothing worse than a late-blooming philosopher." – Tyrion 

"I have a gift for you as well: Your life." – Daenerys 

"The gods gave men two gifts to entertain ourselves before we die: The thrill of fucking a woman who wants to be fucked and the thrill of killing a man who wants to kill you." – Daario

"Is your father cruel like mine?" 

"You'll die soon enough. But it won't be murder, it will be justice." 

"Love, that's what the Starks of Winterfeld call it eh? I call it a pretty face." – Walder Frey

"It's not easy being drunk all the time. Everyone would do it if it were easy." – Tyrion

"An unhappy wife is a wine merchant's best friend." – Cersei

"So many men risk so little. They spend their lives avoiding danger...and then they die. I'd risk everything to get what I want." – Lord Baelish

"Know your strengths, use them wisely, and one man can be worth 10,000." – Lord Baelish

"Nothing like a thoughtful gift to make a new friendship grow strong." – Lord Baelish

Jaime: "Bold warrior you are, attacking a man when his guard's down." Bronn: "Best time to attack a man."

"A man with no motive is a man no one suspects. Always keep your foes confused. If they don't know who you are or what you want, they can't know what you plan to do next." – Lord Baelish

After Sansa's mother is killed: "Sansa, your mother would want you to carry on. You know it's true." – Tyrion

• Nobody would want their loved ones to grieve their death. They'd want you to be happy, not sad. They would want you to learn the lessons from their life, remember the good times you had together, and forget the bad times. 

Sansa: "Why did you kill him?" Baelish: "Because he was a drunk and a fool and I don't trust drunk fools."

"There's only one hell. The one we live in now." – Melisandre to Shireen

"Money buys a man silence for a time. A bolt in the heart buys it forever." – Baelish

Oberyn Martell: "What are you, his hired killer?" Bronn: "Started that way, now I'm a knight." Oberyn Martell: "How did that come to pass?" Bronn: "Killed the right people, I suppose."

"You learned to fight like a good little boy. I'll bet that thrust through the Mad King's back was pretty as a picture. You want to fight pretty or you want to win?" – Bronn

"Hate's as good a thing as any to keep a person going. Better than most." – Sandor

• Arya has a list of people she's going to kill that she recites before she goes to sleep. 

"By the time you were born, your father's austerity had become hers. Marriage changes people." – Lysa Arryn

"Men never crave what they already have." – Melisandre the Red Witch

"The day will come when you think you are safe and happy. And your joy will turn to ashes in your mouth." – Cersei (recalling what Tyrion said to her) 

"If I do not press my claim, my claim will be forgotten. I will not become a page in someone else's history book." 

Sansa asks Baelish what he wants and he says, "Everything". 

"I don't want friends like me. My new friends are predictable, very reasonable people." – Baelish

"You don't need to make formal alliances with people you trust." – Tywin

"The absence of [sexual] desire leaves one free to pursue other things." – Varys

• Varys says one of the 'other things' is power. 

"Better to gamble on the man you know than the strangers you don't." – Baelish

Fennesz: "Please, Your Grace. The young may rejoice in the new world you have built for them, but for those of us too old to change, there is only fear and squalor. I am not alone. There are many outside waiting to beg the same of you." Daenerys Targaryen: "I did not take this city to preside over the injustice I fought to destroy. I took it to bring people freedom. But freedom means making your own choices."

"If we beheaded every ranger who lay with a girl, the wall would be manned by headless men." 

"You’re a whore. Sansa is fit to bear my children and you are not. I can’t be in love with a whore. I can’t have children with a whore. How many men have you been with? 500? 5000?" – Tyrion to Shae

"I had fallen in love with a whore. And I was stupid enough to think that she had fallen in love with me." – Tyrion

"In my experience, eloquent men are right every bit as often as imbeciles." – Tyrion Lannister

"Any fool with a bit of luck can find his way into power. But earning it for yourself, that takes work." – Lord Varys, Game of Thrones S5E1

"Every ambitious move is a gamble." – Lord Baelish

"I tell them no one's special and they think I'm special for telling them so." – High Sparrow

"We've become a great house by entering into alliances with other houses. And parlaying those alliances into greater power. The best way to forge a lasting alliance isn't by peeling a man's skin off. The best way is marriage." – Roose Bolton

"My father used to tell me that boredom indicates a lack of inner resources." – Roose Bolton

"Everyone you meet has a hidden motive and you pride yourself on sniffing it out." – High Sparrow to Olenna Tyrell

"A ruler who kills those devoted to her is not a ruler who inspires devotion." – Tyrion

"Killing and politics aren't always the same thing." – Tyrion

"The future is shit. Just like the past." – Tyrion

On being born into a powerful family: "The gift of a great name. Sometimes that's all one needs." – Baelish

Tyrion: "What is it you want exactly?" Varys: "Peace. Prosperity. A land where the powerful do not prey on the powerless." Tyrion: "The powerful have always preyed on the powerless. That's how they became powerful in the first place." Varys: "Perhaps...or perhaps we've grown so used to horror we assume there's no other way." 

Cersi: "Why no shoes?" High Sparrow: "Because I gave them away to someone who needed them more. We all do that. It stops us from forgetting what we really are." 

"Until recently, I was one of the richest men in the world. But who needs wealth when you can make a woman laugh?" – Tyrion

"A betting man would put his money on Stannis. As it happens, I am a betting man." – Baelish

"It takes courage to admit fear. And to admit a mistake." – Daenerys

"We march to victory or we march to defeat. But we go forward. Only forward." – Stannis 

"I don't trust the maesters. I trust their self-interest. They're trustworthy if they're convinced that working with me is in their self-interest." – Tyrion

"For years, I pretended to love the poor, the afflicted. I had pity for them but I never loved them. They disgusted me." – Queen Margaery Tyrell

"[The poor] are hard to love. The poor disgust us because they are us, shorn of our illusions. They show us what we'd look like without our fine clothes and how we'd smell without perfume." – High Sparrow 

"I did what I thought was right and I got murdered for it." – Jon Snow

• Honor and loyalty got Jon Snow killed, like Ned Stark.

"Go on then, [kill me]. I deserve it. We all do. We are weak, vain creatures." – High Sparrow

"Try to stay out of fights. But if you have to fight, win." – Rickard Stark to young Eddard Stark

The key lesson of the no-face god: recreate yourself. You don't have to be the person you were born to be. You don't have to be the person your friends and family expect you to be. You can change your personality and life trajectory, where you live, and what you do. You don't have to stay the same. Where do you get role models to recreate yourself as? Dead people. Take their ideas, their way of speaking, where they lived, and the path they took in life. 

Margery Tyrell: "It's not an easy thing, admitting to yourself what you really are." Tommen Baratheon: "I... I was just telling [High Sparrow] about your devotion to the poor." Margaery Tyrell: "Ah, yes, I visited their hovels, and I fed them soup, and I made sure I was seen doing it. I never gave them what they really needed, though. I've had lots of time to think about how good I was at seeming good. All the stories I told myself about who I was and... why I did the things I did. There were so many lies in those stories." 

• People do altruistic and charitable things to convince others (and themselves) that they're not self-interested and don't have a dark side. But all humans are self-interested and have a dark side. 

"There is beauty beneath the sea. But if you stay too long, you'll drown." 

Tyrion: "A wise man once said: A true history of the world is a history of great conversations in elegant rooms." Missandei: "Who said this?" Tyrion: "Me, just now."

Tyrion likes to play a game with people he just met where he guesses their backgrounds. Like events or facts about their past. If he's right, they drink. If he's wrong, he drinks. 

"Slavery is a horror that should be ended at once. War is a horror that should be ended at once. I can't do both today." – Tyrion

"Lesson number one: assume everyone wants to hit you. Because they do." – Bronn 

Cersi to Unella: "Confess. Confess. Confess. Confess it felt good beating me, starving me, frightening me, humiliating me. You didn't do it because you cared about my atonement. You did it because it felt good. I understand. I do things because they feel good. I drink because it feels good. I killed my husband because it felt good to be rid of him. I fuck my brother because it feels good to feel him inside me. I lie about fucking my brother because it feels good to keep our son safe from hateful hypocrites." 

"This is irregular." "Yes, well, I suppose life is irregular." – Sam

"The best way to make alliances is with marriage." – Daenerys

"You're in the great game now and the great game is terrifying. The only people who aren't afraid of failure are mad men." – Tyrion

"A wise man once said that you should never believe something simply because you want to believe it." – Tyrion

"Safety is never a permanent state of affairs." – Davos Seaworth

Extreme self-confidence: "I spent my life in foreign lands. So many men have tried to kill me, I don't remember all their names. I have been sold like a broodmare. I've been chained and betrayed, raped and defiled. Do you know what kept me standing, through all those years in exile? Faith. Not in any god, not in myths and legends. In myself. In Daenerys Targaryen. The world hadn't seen a dragon in centuries, until my children were born. The Dothraki hadn't crossed the sea, any sea. They did for me. I was born to rule the Seven Kingdoms, and I will." – Daenerys Targaryen, Game of Thrones S7E3

"You need to take your enemy's side to see things the way they do. And you need to see things the way they do if you're going to anticipate their actions, respond effectively, and beat them." – Tyrion

"It's better to be a coward for a minute than dead for the rest of your life." – Davos Seaworth

"When enough people make false promises, words stop meaning anything." – Jon Snow

"Fight every battle everywhere, always, in your mind. Everyone is your enemy, everyone is your friend. Every possible series of events is happening all at once. Live that way and nothing will surprise you. Everything that happens will be something that you've seen before." – Baelish

"Leave one wolf alive and the sheep are never safe." – Arya Stark

"If [god] is so all-powerful, why doesn't he just tell you what the fuck he wants?" – Sandor

"You think I don't ask myself that every hour of every day? Why am I here? What am I supposed to do? What does the lord see in me? I don't know." – Beric Dondarrion

"I trust the eyes of an honest man more than I trust what everybody knows." – Tyrion

Sam cured Ser Jorah of greyscale without any training. How did he do it? By reading. Archmaester of the Citadel: "[Curing greyscale] is a meticulous, difficult procedure. Many [scholars and healers] whose chains are heavy with healing links have attempted it and failed. And you succeeded, how?" Sam: "I read the books and followed the instructions." 

"You always liked nice things. They made you feel better than everyone." – Arya Stark to Sansa Stark

"I've been getting ready. I never knew what for, but I knew I'd know it when it comes." – Gendry

The best way to get someone to believe something is a captivating demonstration. That's how Jon Snow was able to get Cersei to believe in the undead army. They brought a zombie to her so she could see it for herself. 

"The surest way to a woman's heart is with a gift. A priceless gift." 

"Why are you always in such a foul mood?" "Experience." 

Jaime Lannister: "Highgarden will never belong to a cutthroat!" Bronn: "No? Who were your ancestors? The ones who made your family rich? Fancy lads in silk? They were fucking cutthroats! That's how all the Great Houses started, isn't it? With a hard bastard who was good at killing people. Kill a few hundred people, they make you a lord. Kill a few thousand, they make you king. And then all your cocksucking grandsons can ruin the family with their cocksucking ways."

"If you only trust the people you grew up with, you won't make many allies." – Jon Snow

"Every good ruler needs to inspire a bit of fear." – Tyrion

"Have you considered the best ruler might be someone who doesn't want to rule?" – Varys

"It's not easy to see something that's never been before." – Daenerys

"[Daenerys'] life has convinced her that she was sent here to save us all." – Varys

Varys: "How many others know?" Tyrion: "Including us, eight." Varys: "Well then it's not a secret anymore. It's information. If a handful of people know now, hundreds will know soon."

Tyrion Lannister: If it weren't for you, I never would've survived my childhood. Jaime Lannister: You would have. Tyrion Lannister: You were the only one who didn't treat me like a monster. You were all I had.

Jaime: "You're not angry at me?" Brandon: "I'm not angry at anyone."

"I didn't ask [Tyrion] to be my Hand simply because he was good. I asked him to be my Hand because he was good, and intelligent, and ruthless when he had to be." – Daenerys

"Men do stupid things for women. They're easily manipulated." – Sansa

"Without Littlefinger, Ramsey, and the rest, I would have stayed a little bird all my life." – Sansa

"Now your army may be torn to shit but I'd still bet on your dragon queen to win. And it just so happens I'm a betting man." – Bronn

"My fighting days are done, but I still got a few killing days left, you hear me?" – Bronn to Jaime and Tyrion

Varys: "She does not like to have her authority questioned." Tyrion: "Something she has in common with every monarch who ever lived."

"[Tyrion's] made many terrible mistakes. He's going to spend the rest of his life fixing them." – Brandon Stark