Live in the present, remember the past, and fear not the future, for it doesn't exist and never shall. There is only now.

I've found there are very few fights you can't win with a few whacks from a good, strong stick.

Let no one rule your mind or body. Take special care that your thoughts remain unfettered. One may be a free man and yet be bound tighter than a slave.

Death is part of who we are. It guides us. It shapes us. It drives us to madness. Can you still be human if you have no mortal end?

From stone, flesh; from flesh, earth; and from earth, stone again. The wheel turns and we see but a glimpse of the entirety.

Of the affairs of love ... my only advice is to be honest. That's your most powerful tool to unlock a heart or gain forgiveness.

I didn't have a lot to do. Dad felt I was too young to go to college; I didn't have a job, and the nearest town was some 20 miles away. I needed a way of entertaining myself. Writing was what I settled on.

When have we ever had any choice but to go forward?

A wise man would ignore the future and drink and carouse while he still has an opportunity to enjoy this world.

Eragon really is just my daydreams, stuff I wanted to be doing like running around fighting monsters and rescuing beautiful elves.

The deeds of the children are a testament to the upbringing they received from their parents.

Misfortune always comes to those who wait. The trick is to find happiness in the brief gaps between disasters.

Fear is good in small amounts, but when it is a constant companion, it cuts away at who you are and makes it hard to do what you know is right.

The monsters of the mind are far worse than those that actually exist. Fear, doubt, and hate have hamstrung more people than beasts ever have.

To while away the day contemplating evils that might have been is to poison the happiness we already have.

A true warrior does not fight because he wishes to but because he has to. A man who yearns for war, a man who enjoys his killing, he is a brute and a monster. No matter how much glory he wins on the battlefield, that cannot erase the fact that he is no better than a rabid wolf who will turn on his friends and family as soon as his foes.

Consider none your superior, whatever their rank or station in life.

Eragon started as me but ended up evolving into his very own character. Even as he has gone through his coming-of-age story, the process of writing and publishing these novels has been my own coming-of-age story. There are parallels between my own experience and Eragon's, but fortunately, I don't have people charging at me with swords.

Perhaps no one religion contains all the truth of the world. Perhaps every religion contains fragments of the truth and it is our responsibility to identify those fragments and piece them together.

Fame or infamy, either one is preferable to being forgotten.

Love can be a terrible curse. It can make you overlook even the largest flaws in a person's behavior.

Books are my friends, my companions. They make me laugh and cry and find meaning in life.

Many people have died for their beliefs. The real courage is living and suffering for what you believe.

Everything in this world must be paid for, whether in gold, time, or blood. Nothing is without its price.

If you wish to be happy, think not of what is to come nor of that which you have no control over but rather of the now and of that which you are able to change.

Whatever you do, you must remain nimble in your thinking. Do not become so attached to any one belief that you cannot see past it to another possibility.

Change itself is neither good nor bad, but knowledge is always useful.

You can't argue with all of the fools in the world. It's easier to let them have their way, then trick them when they're not paying attention.

Anger is poison. You must purge it from your mind or else it will corrupt your better nature.

I think the closest thing we have to magic is the power of stories. It's the power to transport us to worlds we could never visit, worlds that don't exist.

Victory is victory and dead is dead, however it is achieved.

The real torture with Eragon came in the editing. I discovered that editing is really another word for someone ruthlessly tearing apart your work with a big smile, all the while telling you that it will make the book so much better. And it did, though it felt like splinters of hot bamboo being driven into my tender eyeballs.

A man of conscience -- the most dangerous kind in the world.

It was really a personal challenge to see if I could write a book. I wasn’t looking for publication. I thought maybe my parents would read it, maybe my sister....

I need no master to punish me in order to behave as I ought. If I did, I would be no more than a child who obeys his father's rules only because he fears the whip, and not because he actually means good.

It's impossible to go through life unscathed. Nor should you want to. By the hurts we accumulate, we measure both our follies and our accomplishments.

The weeping man is broken inside. He cannot see clearly enough for his eyes to be of any use.

People have an annoying habit of remembering things they shouldn't.