Our list of the best quotes from HBO TV series created by George R. R. Martin and Ryan J. Condal. House Of The Dragon is set three hundred years before the events of Game of Thrones and chronicles the rise and the downfall of the Targaryens, who are the only family of dragonlords to survive the Doom of Valyria, and the events leading up to the Targaryen civil war, known as the “Dance of the Dragons”.
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Season 1 Quotes
Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: Jaehaerys called the Great Council to prevent a war being fought over his succession. For he knew the cold truth. The only thing that could tear down the House of the Dragon was itself.
Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: I’d rather serve as a knight and ride to battle and glory.
Aemma Arryn: We have royal wombs, you and I. The child bed is our battlefield. We must learn to face it with a stiff lip.
Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: [to Alicent] I want to fly with you on dragon back, see the great wonders across the Narrow Sea, and eat only cake.
King Viserys Targaryen: The dream. It was clearer than a memory. Our son was born wearing Aegon’s iron crown. When I heard the sound of thundering hooves, splintering shields, and ringing swords. And I placed our son upon the Iron Throne as the bells of the Grand Sept tolled, and all the dragons roared as one.
Prince Daemon Targaryen: In the Vale, men are said to f*** sheep instead of women. I can assure you, the sheep are prettier.
Princess Rhaenys Velaryon: These knights are as green as summer grass. None have known real war. Their lords sent them to the tourney field with fists full of steel, and balls full of seed, and we expect them to act with honor and grace. It’s a marvel that war didn’t break out at first blood.
Ser Otto Hightower: The gods have yet to make a man who lacks the patience for absolute power, Your Grace.
King Viserys Targaryen: “The Heir for a Day.” Did you say it?
Prince Daemon Targaryen: We must all mourn in our own way, Your Grace.
Prince Daemon Targaryen: I’ve only ever spoken the truth. I see Otto High tower for what he is.
King Viserys Targaryen: An unwavering and loyal Hand?
Prince Daemon Targaryen: A c***.
Prince Daemon Targaryen: [referring to Otto] He doesn’t protect you. I would.
King Viserys Targaryen: From what?
Prince Daemon Targaryen: Yourself. You’re weak, Viserys. And that council of leeches knows it. They all prey on you for their own ends.
King Viserys Targaryen: The idea that we control the dragons is an illusion. They’re a power man should never have trifled with. One that brought Valyria its doom. If we don’t mind our own histories, it will do the same to us. Targaryen must understand this to be King, or Queen.
King Viserys Targaryen: I’m sorry, Rhaenyra. I have wasted the years since you were born wanting for a son. You are the very best of your mother. And I believe it, I know she did, that you could be a great ruling queen.
King Viserys Targaryen: A dragon’s saddle is one thing, but the Iron Throne is the most dangerous seat in the realm.
King Viserys Targaryen: Our histories, they tell us that Aegon looked across the Blackwater from Dragonstone saw a rich land ripe for the capture. But ambition alone is not what drove him to conquest. It was a dream. And just as Daenys foresaw the end of Valyria, Aegon foresaw the end of the world of men. ‘Tis to begin with a terrible winter gusting out of the distant north.
King Viserys Targaryen: Aegon saw absolute darkness riding on those winds. And whatever dwells within will destroy the world of the living. When this Great Winter comes, Rhaenyra, all of Westeros must stand against it. And if the world of men is to survive, a Targaryen must be seated on the Iron Throne. A king or queen. Strong enough to unite the realm against the cold and the dark. Aegon called his dream The Song of Ice and Fire. This secret, it’s been passed from king to heir since Aegon’s time. Now you must promise to carry it and protect it. Promise me this, Rhaenyra. Promise me.
Lord Corlys Velaryon: To elude a storm, you can either sail into it, or around it. But you must never await its coming.
Ser Otto Hightower: I dearly loved my own lady wife. The pain of her passing still haunts me. And to be compelled to replace her for duty’s sake. You are the King. But I do not envy you.
King Viserys Targaryen: I imagine even dragons get lonely.
Princess Rhaenys Velaryon: [to Rhaenyra] Here is the hard truth, which no one else has the heart to tell you. Men would sooner put the realm to the torch than see a woman ascend the Iron Throne. And your father is no fool.
Lord Lyonel Strong: [to Viserys] You sit upon the highest seat in the realm, Your Grace. Proud men don’t like having to look up.
Prince Daemon Targaryen: It was never my brother’s strongest trait.
Lord Corlys Velaryon: What?
Prince Daemon Targaryen: Being King.
Prince Daemon Targaryen: I will speak of my brother as I wish. You will not.
Lord Corlys Velaryon: We are the realm’s second sons, Daemon. Our worth is not given. It must be made.
King Viserys Targaryen: Jason Lannister is an excellent match.
Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: He’s arrogant and self-serious.
King Viserys Targaryen: Well, I thought you might have that in common.
King Viserys Targaryen: I came here to hunt, not to be suffocated by all this f***ing politicking!
King Viserys Targaryen: Many in my line have been dragon riders. Very few among us have been dreamers. What is the power of a dragon next to the power of prophecy.
King Viserys Targaryen: That I am forever doomed to anger one person in the pleasing of another.
Vaemond Velaryon: Daemon is why we are losing!
Young Laenor Velaryon: He at least is fighting this war. What role have you played in his council, uncle, other than Master of Complaints?
Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: How romantic it must be to get imprisoned in a castle and made to squeeze out heirs.
Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: [in High Valyrian] For men marriage might be a political arrangement. For women it is like to be a death sentence.
Prince Daemon Targaryen: [in High Valyrian] This is a tragic world. You cannot live your life in fear, or you will foresake the best parts of it.
Prince Daemon Targaryen: [as he’s kissing Rhaenyra] F***ing is a pleasure, you see. For the woman as it is the man. A marriage is a duty, yes. But that doesn’t stop us from doing what we want. From f***ing who we want.
Mysaria: Hard lessons are not welcomed but suffered.
King Viserys Targaryen: [to Otto] You think yourself a cunning man. Your designs are obvious. Do you wish to have your blood on the Iron Throne so badly that you are willing to destroy mine own?
King Viserys Targaryen: [to Daemon] I have spent a lifetime defending you. But your heart is even blacker than I thought.
King Viserys Targaryen: [to Daemon] You are no conqueror. You are a plague sent to destroy me.
Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: “From my blood come the Prince That Was Promised, and his will be the Song of Ice and Fire.”
King Viserys Targaryen: The truth does not matter, Rhaenyra. Only perception. You have exposed yourself. Now we must both suffer the consequences.
King Viserys Targaryen: [to Otto] Just five days, you went from being another man in Jaehaerys’s court, to the second most powerful man in the realm. I wonder, how long did it take you to choose yourself over your King?
Ser Otto Hightower: A loyal Hand must tell his king a discomforting truth from time to time, Your Grace. If he doesn’t, he’s failed as a servant.
Ser Otto Hightower: You’re no fool, and yet you choose not to see it. The time is coming, Alicent. Either you prepare Aegon to rule, or you cleave to Rhaenyra, and pray for her mercy.
Larys Strong: When one is never invited to speak, one learns instead to observe.
Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: I am the crown, Ser Criston. Or I will be. I may chafe at my duties, but do you think I would choose infamy in exchange for a bushel of oranges, or a ship to Asshai? It is my duty to marry a nobleman from a great house.
Lord Lyonel Strong: Is it not better to live in peace than to have songs sung after you are dead?
Lord Lyonel Strong: Many that are tested, only wish to have been spared it.
Lord Jason Lannister: This is why men wage war, because women would never be ready for the battle in time.
Prince Daemon Targaryen: You know, in King’s Landing, men are made to answer for their slanders. Even old bronze c***s like you.
Young Lady Laena Velaryon: A Targaryen prince, a dashing knight, and a dragon rider. You appear to be every young maiden’s dream.
Prince Daemon Targaryen: That’s only because you don’t know me yet.
Queen Alicent Hightower: [referring to baby Joffrey] Do keep trying, Ser Laenor. Soon or late, you may get one who looks like you.
Queen Alicent Hightower: [to Viserys, referring to Rhaenyra] I have raised this matter before, and you forbade me to speak of it, so I held my tongue. To have one child like that is a mistake. To have three is an insult, to the throne, to you, to House Velaryon, and the match you battled so hard to make for her. Not to mention decency itself.
King Viserys Targaryen: Nature is a thing of mysterious works.
