- A dog doesn’t choose to be beaten; it learns to bite. That’s all the world ever taught me.
- You think fear can be cured? When you’ve been burned, every fire is a furnace.
- There’s a beast in every man, and mine was caged by fire.
- My brother made me a monster, but the world showed me what to do with it.
- Every scream is a memory, every glance in a mirror is a reminder. You think that leaves room for much else?
- Knights? The lot of them are killers in silk cloaks and shiny armor.
- You call it honor; I call it a pretty lie to dress up the butcher’s work.
- A real knight fights not because he wants to, but because he has to. I never saw a true knight, just men with swords.
- The world loves a knight, not because he’s good but because he pretends well.
- If knighthood is about protecting the weak, then why are there so many crushed under the hooves of those gallant horses?
- This face scares people, but it’s the scars inside that scare me.
- Every man wears his scars. Mine just happen to show.
- You look at me and see a monster, but don’t think I ever forgot what made me this way.
- A scar is just a wound that’s stopped bleeding but never stopped hurting.
- They say time heals all wounds. They haven’t seen my face.
- The girl’s like a sword: too much fire used in making her, leaving her sharp but brittle.
- She thinks she’s using me to get home, but we’re both just trying to find a way through the dark.
- We’re not friends, but there’s something between us; like shared blood on the same blade.
- She’s got the fire of the North in her, burns hot and cuts deep.
- Arya might hate me, but she learns. And that’s more than most.
- Everyone is afraid of something. That fear keeps you alive or gets you killed.
- I fight because I’m scared. Scared of what happens if I don’t.
- Fear is the honest part of a man. It tells you what’s worth fighting for.
- You can lie about not being afraid, but in the dark, the truth comes out.
- When you’ve seen what I’ve seen, fear is as much a part of you as your shadow.
- I left the Kingsguard because a dog can only be kicked so many times before it turns on its master.
- Fire was my terror, but I’d sooner face every flame than serve another day under that mad boy king.
- That cloak was a shackle, and I threw it off. Better to be a rogue than a butcher’s blade.
- Leaving the Kingsguard wasn’t just desertion—it was salvation from a mad court.
- I didn’t flee from battle, I fled from madness. There’s no honor in burning men alive.
- From the outside, you see the rot in the kingdom’s heart that those on the inside pretend not to smell.
- I’ve always been an outsider, and that’s the only way to live if you don’t want the filth to stain you too deep.
- Being apart gives you the freedom to look at them all and see kings and queens for the fools they are.
- An outsider’s eyes aren’t clouded by the crowns and the glory. We see the lies up close.
- The court’s a cesspit and every lord a liar. I just chose to stand far enough away to avoid the stench.
- If a man like me can find some kind of redemption, it’s in the eyes of those I’ve saved, not those I’ve slain.
- Redemption? A man does good, it doesn’t wash out the bad, nor the bad the good.
- Maybe there’s no washing away the blood, but you can try to balance the scales.
- Protecting the Stark girls might be the closest I’ve come to doing something purely good.
- A man’s past deeds are like his shadows: always there, but they don’t define you unless you let them.
- Those outlaws think they serve justice, but their justice is just another word for revenge.
- The Brotherhood claims to fight for the people, but who decides which people?
- They call it the Brotherhood Without Banners, I call it a gang of murderers hiding behind a cause.
- Fighting them showed me that every man believes he’s righteous in his own eyes.
- Their brand of justice burns hotter and cuts deeper than any lord’s law.
- The Clegane legacy is one of blood and loyalty, dogs loyal to a fault, until they bite.
- My house taught me to be hard and strong, but I had to teach myself when to be gentle.
- We Cleganes are known for our strength, but our true legacy is the pain we’ve borne and inflicted.
- I bear the legacy of my father and brother like a scar—it shows who I am, not who I have to be.
- In the Clegane family, loyalty was the chain and violence the key. Breaking both set me free.
The Psychology of the Hound
The True Nature of Knighthood
Battle Scars: Physical and Emotional
Relationship with Arya Stark
The Role of Fear
Escape from the Kingsguard
A Man Apart: The Outsider’s Perspective
The Redemption Arc of the Hound
The Brotherhood Without Banners
Legacy of the Clegane Family