Maester Aemon quotes from Game of Thrones

Maester Aemon

You will find little joy in your command. But, with luck, you’ll find the strength to do what needs to be done. Kill the boy, Jon Snow. Winter is almost upon us. Kill the boy and let the man be born.

Maester Aemon

Tell me, did you ever wonder why the men of the Night's Watch take no wives and father no children?

Jon Snow

No.

Maester Aemon

So they will not love. Love is the death of duty. lf the day should ever come when your lord father was forced to choose, between honour on the one hand and those he loves on the other, what would he do?

Jon Snow

He...He would do whatever was right. No matter what.

Maester Aemon

Then Lord Stark is one man in 10,000. Most of us are not so strong. What is honour, compared to a woman's love? And what is duty, against the feel of a newborn son in your arms? Or a brother's smile?

Jon Snow

Sam told you?

Maester Aemon

We're all human. Oh, we all do our duty when there's no cost to it. Honour comes easy then. Yet, sooner or later in every man's life, there comes a day when it is not easy. A day when he must choose.

Jon Snow

And this is my day? ls that what you're saying?

Maester Aemon

Oh, it hurts, boy. Oh, yes. I know.

Jon Snow

You do not know. No one knows. I may be a bastard, but he is my father and Robb is my brother!

Maester Aemon

The gods were cruel when they saw fit to test my vow. They waited until I was old. What could I do when the ravens brought the news from the South? The ruin of my house. The death of my family. I was helpless, blind, frail, but when I heard they had killed my brother's son, and his poor son, and the children. Even the little children!

Jon Snow

Who are you?

Maester Aemon

My father was Maekar, first of his name. My brother Aegon reigned after him, when I had refused the throne, and his son was Aerys whom they called "The Mad King."

Jon Snow

You're Aemon Targaryen!

Maester Aemon

I am a Maester of the Citadel, bound in service to Castle Black and the Night's Watch. I will not tell you to stay or go. You must make that choice yourself and live with it the rest of your days, as I have.

Alliser Thorne

So you admit you murdered Qhorin Halfhand?

Jon Snow

I didn't murder him.

Alliser Thorne

No? You put your sword through a brother of the Night's Watch. What do you call that?

Jon Snow

He wanted me to kill him.

Janos Slynt

A bastard son of a traitor. What would you expect?

Jon Snow

The Halfhand believed our only chance to stop Mance was to get a man inside his army.

Alliser Thorne

Don't talk about the Halfhand as if you knew him. He was my brother.

Jon Snow

Then you'd know he'd do anything to defend the Wall. The free folk would have boiled him alive, but letting me kill him...

Janos Slynt

The free folk? Listen to him. He even talks like a wildling now.

Jon Snow

Aye, I talk like a wildling. I ate with the wildlings. I climbed the Wall with the wildlings. I...I laid with a wildling girl.

Janos Slynt

You admit to breaking your vows, then?

Jon Snow

I do.

Janos Slynt

The law is the law. The boy must die.

Maester Aemon

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

Alliser Thorne

There's a difference between sneaking off to the Mole's Town brothel and sleeping with the enemy.

Jon Snow

While we sit here, debating which rules I broke, Mance Rayder marches on the Wall with an army of a hundred thousand.

Alliser Thorne

Impossible. You can't get fifty wildlings together before they start killing each other.

Jon Snow

One hundred thousand. He's united the Thenns, the Hornfoots, the ice-river clans, there's giants fighting for him.

Janos Slynt

Giants?

Jon Snow

Have you ever been beyond the Wall, ser?

Janos Slynt

I commanded the City Watch of King's Landing, boy.

Jon Snow

And now you're here. You must not have been very good at your job.

Janos Slynt

How dare you?!

Jon Snow

There's a band of wildlings south of the Wall already, led by Tormund Giantsbane. I killed their warg and three others. They shot me full of arrows. Their orders are to attack Castle Black from the south when Mance hits it from the north. The signal for the attack will be a bonfire. Mance said it would be the greatest fire the North has ever seen. That's the truth. All the truth. Do you intend to execute me or am I free to go?

Maester Aemon

None of us are free. We are men of the Night's Watch. But we won't be taking your head today, Jon Snow.