I am not you and all my choices have already been made, good and bad.

— Conn Iggulden

I am the rightful khan of the nation. I am the Gurkha. My word is iron and my word is law.

— Conn Iggulden

If a man has gold, he lives with the terror that someone will take it away from him, so he builds walls around it. Then everyone knows where the gold is, so they come and take it. That’s the way it always goes, brother. Fools and gold, together.

— Conn Iggulden

If he had learned anything from his father’s fate, it was to win, no matter how you did it. It was not important if someone else was hurt, or killed. If you won, you would be forgiven anything. You could be taken from a stinking Ger and forced through the ranks until a thousand men followed your orders as if they came from the khan himself. Blood and talent. The nation was built on both.

— Conn Iggulden

If he had learned anything in manhood, it was that it didn’t matter what other people thought of him—even the ones he respected. In the end, he would patch together a life, with its sorry errors and its triumphs, just as they had.

— Conn Iggulden

It's all you can say, when the end comes: 'I did not waste my time.' I think that matters. I think it may be all that matters.

— Conn Iggulden

Kublai went on as if he had not spoken.“Before you all, in the lands of my enemies, I declare myself great khan of the nation, of the khanates under my brothers, Hulu and Arid-Boke, of the Chapatti khanate and all others. I declare myself great khan of the Chin lands and the Sung. I have spoken, and my word is iron!

— Conn Iggulden

My word is iron," Kublai said to the guards, as Men Gang was led away. "Your people will come to know this, in time.

— Conn Iggulden

No worthy goal should come easily, he told himself. Suffering created value.

— Conn Iggulden

Predators did not need mercy.

— Conn Iggulden