Random Quotes

A creature who had not known hatred, lust and terror, I suspected, would be ill-fitted to understand the Kur, or men.
Tribesman of Gor, p.218

No matter how insignificant or tiny one is, in the Gorean belief, one is an ineradicable part of history. That can never be taken from anyone.
Dancer of Gor, p.426

...silence, memory and fire…
Assassin of Gor, p.2

Men are the warriors and women, she knew in her heart, were among the fitting spoils of their victories.
Blood Brothers of Gor, p.213

The strength of a full-grown woman is equivalent to a twelve-year old boy.
Tribesman of Gor, p.223

She was a large girl, and formidable to us,…, but, compared to the men, she was only another female, no different from us. Compared to them, her size and strength, really only that of a woman, was, like ours, when all was said and done, simply negligible. Compared to them she was, like us simply small and weak. Before them, and to them, she could never be any more than we, only another female, small, lovely and helpless, a mere female, totally at their mercy.
Dancer of Gor, p.107

It is nothing for a man to overpower a female.
Tribesman of Gor, p.143

The insignia of men,…, become empty mockeries when permitted to women.
Mercenaries of Gor, p.56

All women need the protection of men, though sometimes this protection is so profound and so familiar as to escape notice. But let the barriers of civilization lapse, even for a day, and their need for men would become unmistakably apparent.
Vagabonds of Gor, p.206

Those who contract the disease are regarded by law as dead.
Assassin of Gor, p.266

The Afflicted are dead. The Afflicted are nameless.
Tarnsman of Gor, p.151

…the bleakest of all castes of men, the Initiates, skilled only in ritual, mythology and superstition.
Tarnsman of Gor, p.186

The religious conditioning of the men of Gor, based on superstition though it might be, was as powerful as a set of chains-more powerful than chains because they did not realize it existed. They feared the word, the curse, of this old man without weapons more than they would have feared the massed swords of a thousand foemen.
Tarnsman of Gor, p.206

We speak not to man's heart," said Om, "but only to his fear. We do not speak of love and courage, and loyalty and nobility-but of practice and observance, and the punishment of the Priest-Kings-for if we so spoke, it would be that much harder for man to grow beyond us. Thus, unknown to most members of my caste, we exist to be overcome, thus in our way pointing the way to man's greatness.
Priest-Kings of Gor, p.300-1

They are men who commonly have an extraordinary aptitude for the game but beyond this men who have become drunk on it, men lost in the subtle, abstract liquors of variation, pattern and victory, men who live for the game, who want it and need it as other men might want gold, or others power and women, or others the rolled, narcotic strings of toxic kanda.
Assassin of Gor, p.27

To some men this game is music and women. It can give them pleasure. It can help them forget. It is Ka-la-na wine, and the night on which such wine is drunk.
Tarnsman of Gor, p.170

Kaissa, like love and music, is it own justification. It requires no other.
Players of Gor, p.236

Kaissa is sometimes played for high stakes.
Fighting Slave of Gor, p.267

It is hard to understand one who is not concerned with Kaissa.
Beasts of Gor p.34

Winning and losing do not matter. What matters is the game, and the beauty.
Beasts of Gor, p.39

The board has a thousand sides and surfaces and dimensions; pieces are of unknown number, nature and value; rules are uncertain; often you do not know who you play or where they are; often the moves must be made in darkness, in ignorance of your opponent's position, pieces, strengths, skills and moves.
Magicians of Gor, p.188

...that only weaklings, and fools, and men who deserve to be slave girls, fall slave to women.
Hunters of Gor, p.13

Any girl who permits herself to fall to men desires in her heart to be their slave.
Hunters of Gor, p.133

Indeed they make superb slaves. They bring high prices in the markets. They are only girls desperate to fight their femininity. When they are no longer permitted to do this they have no choice but to become marvelous women and slaves. A conquered panther girl is one of the most abject and delicious, and joyful, of slaves.
Beasts of Gor, p.240

Do not ask a Gorean what the Home Stone means because he will not understand your question. It will puzzle him. It is the Home Stone.
Magicians of Gor, p.485-6

But I think, often, that it is a mistake to try to translate the Home Stone into meanings. It is not a word, or a sentence. It does not really translate. It is, more like a tree, or the world. It exists, which goes beyond, which surpasses, meaning. In this primitive sense the Home Stone is simply that, and irreducibly, the Home Stone. It is too important, too precious to mean. And in not meaning, it becomes, of course, the most meaningful of all.
Magicians of Gor, p.485

For the Gorean, though he seldom speaks of these things, a city is more than brick and marble, cylinders and bridges. It is not simply a place, a geographical location in which men have seen fit to build their dwellings, a collection of structures where they may most conveniently conduct their affairs.
Outlaw of Gor, p.22

For them a city is almost a living thing, or more than a living thing. It is an entity with a history, as stones and rivers do not have history; it is an entity with a tradition, a heritage, customs, practices, character, intentions, hopes. When a Gorean says, for example, that he is 'of' Ar, or Ko-ro-ba, he is doing a great deal more than informing you of his place of residence.
Outlaw of Gor, p.22

A palace without a Home Stone is a hovel; a hovel with a Home Stone is a palace.
Slave Girl of Gor, p.142

One popular account has it that an ancient hero, Hesius, once performed great labors for Priest-Kings, and was promised a reward greater than gold and silver. He was given, however, only a flat piece of rock with a single character inscribed upon it, the first letter in the name of his native village. He reproached the Priest-Kings with their niggardliness, and what he regarded as their breach of faith. He was told, however, that what they gave him was indeed worth far more than gold and silver, that it was a 'Home Stone.' He returned to his native village, which was torn with war and strife. He told the story there, and put the stone in the market place.
'If the Priest-Kings say this is worth more than gold and silver,' said a wise man, 'it must be true.'
'Yes,' said the people. 'Whose Home Stone is it?' asked the people, 'yours or ours?'
"Ours,' responded Hesius.
Weapons were then laid aside, and peace pledged. The name of the village was 'Ar.'
Dancer of Gor, p.302

Where a man sets his Home Stone down on a piece of land, he is claiming by law that land for himself. "The Home Stone says this place is mine, this is my home.
Magicians of Gor, p.485

The sharing of a Home Stone is no light thing in a Gorean city.
Slave Girl of Gor, p.394

One does not lightly dispute the passage of one who carries his Home Stone.
Nomads of Gor, p.1

.., for in the vicinity of their Home Stone men fight with all the courage, savagery and resourcefulness of the mountain larl.
Outlaw of Gor, p.29

Indeed, there is a saying on Gor, a saying whose origin is lost in the past of this strange planet, that one who speaks of Home Stones should stand, for matters of honor are here involved, and honor is respected in the barbaric codes of Gor.
Tarnsman of Gor, p.27

But let me not try to speak of Home Stones. If you have a Home Stone, I need not speak. If you do not have a Home Stone, how could you understand what I might say?
Fighting Slave of Gor, p.145

How hard it is for two who do not share caste to understand one another," he said.
Explorers of Gor, p.431

Where would the dwellers of cities be without us?
Dancer of Gor, p.293

Language and city, and caste, however, are matters of great moment to them, and provide sufficient basis for the discriminations in which human beings take such great delight.
Beasts of Gor, p.156

The ethical teachings of Gor, which are independent of the claims and propositions of the Initiates, amount to little more than the Caste Codes---collections of sayings whose origins are lost in antiquity.
Tarnsman of Gor, p.40-41

It is the codes which separate men from sleen and larls," said Thurnus. "They are the difference. They are the wall.
Slave Girl of Gor p.227

Most Goreans take Caste very seriously. It is apparently one of the socially stabilizing forces on Gor. It tends to reduce the dislocations, disappointments and tragedies inherent in more mobile structures, in which men are taught that they are failures if they do not manage to make large amounts of money or excel in one of a small number of prestigious professions. The system also helps to keep men of energy and high intelligence in a wide variety of occupations, this preventing the drain of such men into a small number of often artificially desiderated occupations, this tending then to leave lesser men, or frustrated men, to practice other hundreds of arts the survival and maintenance of which are important to a superior civilization.
Dancer of Gor, p.186-187

"There are brave men in all castes," said Shaba.
Explorers of Gor, p.433

Female slavery is the institutionalized expression, in a civilization congenial to nature, of the fundamental biological relationship between the sexes. In the institution of female slavery we find this basic relationship recognized, accepted, clarified, fixed and celebrated.
Savages of Gor, p.193-4

…he who can bend the longbow cannot be slave…
Slave Girl of Gor, p.112

When men stalk one another with weapons it is well to have patience, great patience.
Priest-Kings of Gor, p.54

One who limits oneself solely to defense, and is unwilling to attack, obviously can never win. Too, sooner or later, it seems, he must be doomed to lose. There is no wall so strong that it will not one day crumble.
Rogue of Gor, p.190

…subtle differences, and dimensions and increments, which tend to divide masters.
Rogue of Gor, p.190

What are the codes? They are nothing, and everything. They are a bit of noise, and the steel of the heart. They are meaningless and all significant. They are the difference. Without the codes men would be Kurii.
Beasts of Gor, p.340

What is it to be a warrior? It is to keep the codes. Nothing else matters.
Beasts of Gor, p.340

One does not speak to a slave of the codes.
Beasts of Gor, p.340

I had been so much a fool as to be sad. That is not the mood in which to enter battle, even the battle which one knows one cannot win, even the ultimate battle in which one knows is doomed to defeat. Do not be sad. Better to take the field with laughter, with a joke, with a light thought, with a buoyant thought, or to go forward with sternness, or in fury, or with hatred, or defiance, or calculation, but never with self pity, never with sadness. Never such things, never them!
Vagabonds of Gor, p.446

The bite of the ost to be one of the cruelest ways to die.
Outlaw of Gor, p.118

Be strong and do as you will. The swords of others will set you your limits."
Marauders of Gor, p.10

A warrior takes what he wishes.
Outlaw of Gor, p.28

I am of the Warriors. I will take by the sword what women please me.
Beasts of Gor, p.348

Steel is the coinage of the warrior. With it he purchases what pleases him.
Marauders of Gor, p.10

Within the circle of each man's sword, therein is each man a Ubar.
Marauders of Gor, p.10

Until you find (someone or something), your companion is peril and steel.
Priest Kings of Gor, p.307
Nomads of Gor, p.287

A sword must drink until its thirst is satisfied.
Guardsman of Gor, p.17

Where weapons may not be carried, it is well to carry weapons.
Marauders of Gor, p.41

Did he think that the color of a fellow's garments was what made him a warrior? Surely he must realize that one not of the warriors might affect the scarlet, and that one who wore the grimed gray of a peasant, one barefoot, and armed only with the great staff, might be of the scarlet caste. It is not the uniform which makes the warrior, the soldier.
Magicians of Gor, p.129

There are no mere points of honor.
Vagabonds of Gor, p.63

Tears are not unbecoming to the soldier…The soldier is a man of deep passions, and emotion. Many men cannot even understand his depths. Do not fear your currents and your powers. In the soldier are flowers and storms. Each is a part of him, and each is real. Accept both. Deny neither." (Guardsman of Gor, p.238)

No one can take the scarlet from you, once it is granted, unless it be by the sword.
Tribesman of Gor, p.218

There is no incompatibility between letters and arms. The greatest soldiers are often gifted men.
Mercenaries of Gor, p.48

Many are the causes of Gor and so too, many are the captains. Many captains choose their causes on the scales of merchants, weighing their iron against gold.
Mercenaries of Gor, p.48

Steel can always command a price.
Explorers of Gor, p.86

Causes exist that men may fight.
Guardsman of Gor, p.16

War is a perilous and exhilarating sport, a game of warriors and Ubars.
Vagabonds of Gor, p.18

It is no dishonor to surrender.
Beasts of Gor, p.421

There is a time and place for speaking, as there is a time and place for steel.
Slave Girl of Gor, p.269

Not everyone who is of the Warriors knows that he is of the Warriors.
Rogue of Gor, p.317

Is it not a paradox? Men need us in order to bring about a world in which we may be scorned and disregarded…..Men seldom recall whom it was who brought them the fruits of victory.
Beasts of Gor, p.31

I had heard warriors say that they would rather be poisoned by a woman than slain by an arrow.
Raiders of Gor, p.4

The steel, as is often the case, had seemed to think for itself.
Savages of Gor, p.92

The cynical, mercantile mind will never understand the mind of the soldier.
Explorers of Gor, p.229

To live a tarn must fly, far and often." and "Like its brother the wind when the tarn is not free it has no choice but to die.
Priest Kings of Gor, p.191-2

The spirit of the tarn must not be broken, not that of the war tarn. He is trained to the point where it is necessary for a strong master to decide whether he shall serve him or slay him. You will come to know your tarn, and he will come to know you. You will be as one in the sky, the tarn the body, you the mind and will. You will live in an armed truce with the tarn. If you become weak or helpless, he will kill you. As long as you remain strong, his master, he will serve you, respect you, obey you.
Tarnsman of Gor, p.58

Once one has been a tarnsman, one must return again and again to the birds.
Outlaw of Gor, p.130

The element of the tarnsman is…the clouds, the saddle and the sky; his steed is the tarn, his field of battle, strewn with light and wind, higher than mountains, deeper than the sea, is the very sky itself.
Captive of Gor, p.190

Territory must be held as well as won.
Mercenaries of Gor, p.142

He has sowed silver and harvested cities.
Magicians of Gor, p.188

More gates are opened with gold than iron.
Magicians of Gor, p.188

Any city can fall behind the walls of which can be placed a tharlarion laden with gold.
Mercenaries of Gor, p.101

I can take any city behind whose walls I can get a tarn of gold.
Hunters of Gor, p.140