Quotes from Joe Abercrombie

When you're in hell, only a devil can point the way out.

It's hard to be done a favor by a man you hate. It's hard to hate him so much afterwards. Losing an enemy can be worse than losing a friend, if you've had him for long enough.

Those with the least always lose the most in war.

The more you learn, the more you realize how little you know. Still, the struggle itself is worthwhile. Knowledge is the root of power, after all.

You have to learn to love the small things in life, like a hot bath. You have to love the small things, when you have nothing else.

That was the difference between a hero and a villain, a soldier and a murderer, a victory and a crime. Which side of a river you called home.

Strange, how the best moments of our lives we scarcely notice except in looking back.

Chose? If you believe that I chose any part of the pitiful shadow of a life you see before you, you are very much mistaken. I chose glory and success. The box did not contain what was written on the lid.

If life has taught me one thing, it's that there are no villains. Only people, doing their best.

Sometimes men change for the better. Sometimes men change for the worse. And often, very often, given time and opportunity . . .' He waved his flask around for a moment, then shrugged. 'They change back.

Luck is a woman. She's drawn to those that least deserve her.

My name is Nicomo Cosca, famed solider of fortune, and I am here for dinner.

A man lost in the desert must take such water as he is offered, no matter who it comes from.

The wise wait for their moment, but never let it pass.

Have a smile for breakfast, you'll be shitting joy by lunch.

History is littered with dead good men.

Hard words are for fools and cowards.

People would far rather be handed an easy lie than search for a difficult truth, especially if it suits their own purposes.

I'm a fucking coward." "Maybe." Craw jerked his thumb over his shoulder at Whirrun's corpse. "There's a hero. Tell me who's better off.

Round and round in circles we go, clutching at successes we never grasp, endlessly tripping over the same old failures. Truly, life is the misery we endure between disappointments.

Knives,' muttered Calder, 'and threats, and bribes, and war?' Bayaz' eyes shone with the lamplight. 'Yes?' 'What kind of a fucking wizard are you?' 'The kind you obey.

The only difference between war and murder is the number of dead.

All an arsehole knows about is shit. ~ Dogman

Armour …' mused Whirrun, licking a finger and scrubbing some speck of dirt from the pommel of his sword, 'is part of a state of mind … in which you admit the possibility … of being hit.