01c. 1974 ADThe gods hate those who plan badly, and help those with good friends, good swords, and good sense.Joe Abercrombie / quote ↗
02c. 1974 ADYou can always make enemies of your friends,' said Sumael. 'Making friends of your enemies is harder labor.Joe Abercrombie / quote ↗
03c. 1974 ADEvil turned out not to be a grand thing. Not sneering Emperors with their world-conquering designs. Not cackling demons plotting in the darkness beyond the world. It was small men with their small acts and their small reasons. It was selfishness and carelessness and waste. It was bad luck, incompetence, and stupidity. It was violence divorced from conscience or consequence. It was high ideals, even, and low methods.Joe Abercrombie / quote ↗
05c. 1974 ADWest couldn't simply leave the man like this, he didn't have it in him."Goodman Heath," he said as he approached, and the peasant looked up at him, surprised. He fumbled for his hat and made to rise, muttering apologies."No, please, don't get up." West sat down on the bench. He stared at his feet, unable to look the man in the eye. There was an awkward silence. "I have a friend who sits on the Commission for Land and Agriculture. There might be something he can do for you…" He trailed off, embarrassed, squinting up the corridor.The farmer gave a sad smile. "I'd be right grateful for anything you could do.""Yes, yes, of course, I'll do what I can." It would do no good whatsoever, and they both knew it. West grimaced and bit his lip. "You'd better take this," and he pressed his purse into the peasant's limp, calloused fingers. Heath looked at him, mouth slightly open. West gave a quick, awkward smile then got to his feet. He was very keen to be off."Sir!" called Goodman Heath after him, but West was already hurrying down the corridor, and he didn't look back.Joe Abercrombie / quote ↗
06c. 1974 ADBut you know what they say - old milk turns sour but old scores just get sweeter.Joe Abercrombie / quote ↗
07c. 1974 ADYou stick a bunch of drunken murderers together, ain't long before some turn to thieving, then to lying, then to bad language, and pretty soon to sobriety, raising families and making an honest living.Joe Abercrombie / quote ↗
08c. 1974 ADLorsen shook his head in amazement. 'You truly are disgusting.''I would be the last to disagree, but you fail to see that you are worse. No man capable of greater evil than the one who thinks himself in the right. No purpose more evil than the higher purpose. I freely admit I am a villain. That's why you hired me. But I am no hypocrite.Joe Abercrombie / quote ↗
10c. 1974 ADIt was what you gave out that made a man, not what you got back.Joe Abercrombie / quote ↗
11c. 1974 ADThe Bloody-Nine opened his mouth, and shrieked out all of his bottomless love and his endless hate in one long wail.Joe Abercrombie / quote ↗
12c. 1974 ADInquisitor Lorsen's thin lip curled. "There is truly nothing in you of what separates man from animal, is there? You are bereft of conscience. An utter absence of morality. You have no principle beyond the selfish."Cosca's face hardened as he leaned forwards. "Perhaps when you have faced as many disappointments and suffered as many betrayals as I, you will see it - there is no principle beyond the selfish, Inquisitor, and men are animals. Conscience is a burden we choose to bear. Morality is the lie we tell ourselves to make its bearing easier. There have been many times in my life when I have wished it was not so. But it is so.Joe Abercrombie / quote ↗
13c. 1974 ADHurray', shouted Glokta. 'Porridge again!'He looked over at the motionless Practical. 'Porridge and honey, better than money, everything's funny, with porridge and honey!Joe Abercrombie / quote ↗
14c. 1974 ADWhen was it exactly that I became... this? By small degrees, I suppose. One act presses hard upon another, on a path we have no choice but to follow, and each time there are reasons. We do what we must, we do what we are told, we do what is easiest. What else can we do but solve one sordid problem at a time? Then one day we look up and fine we are... this.Joe Abercrombie / quote ↗
15c. 1974 ADWhen was it exactly that I became... this? By small degrees, I suppose. Once act presses hard upon another, on a path we have no choice but to follow, and each time there are reasons. We do what we must, we do what we are told, we do what is easiest. What else can we do but solve one sordid problem at a time? Then one day we look up and fine we are... this.Joe Abercrombie / quote ↗
16c. 1974 ADSometimes it doesn't matter too much what choice you make, as long as you make it quick and stick to it.Joe Abercrombie / quote ↗
18c. 1974 ADYou have to be grateful for the small things, when any minute might be your last.Joe Abercrombie / quote ↗
19c. 1974 ADThe Forest that had been about her all her life, certain as a mountain, was made ashes. The high gable that had stood for two hundred years fallen in ruin. Throvenland was torn apart like smoke on the wind. Nowhere would be safe, ever again.Joe Abercrombie / quote ↗
20c. 1974 ADThings aren't what they used to be' is the rallying cry of small minds. When men say things used to be better, they invariably mean they were better for them, because they were young, and had all their hopes intact. The world is bound to look a darker place as you slide into the grave.Joe Abercrombie / quote ↗
21c. 1974 ADFew indeed are those who get a choice. We do as we are told. We stand or fall beside those who were born near to us, who look as we do, who speak the same words, and all the while we know as little of the reasons why as does the dust we return to.Joe Abercrombie / quote ↗
24c. 1974 ADAnd Yarvi realized that Death does not bow to each person who passes her, does not sweep out her arm respectfully to show the way, speaks no profound words, unlocks no bolts. The key upon her chest is never needed, for the Last Door stands always open. She herds the dead through impatiently, needles of rank or fame or quality. She has an ever-lengthening queue to get through. A blind procession, inexhaustible.Joe Abercrombie / quote ↗
