Quotes from Joe Abercrombie

A dark-skinned young woman sat on the roof of the aftcastle, one leg swinging as she watched the new slaves shuffle across.

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.

Cuando hay que hacer algo, lo mejor es no demorarlo para no tener que vivir temiéndolo.

The memory of that unfortunate meeting hung between them for a moment like a fart,

Could he truly pretend that he wanted to be her friend? A friendship between a man and a woman was what you called it when one had been pursuing the other for a long time, and had never got anywhere.

Knowledge isn't always a gift, d'you see? Sometimes it's better we be swaddled in the comforting darkness of ignorance.

Rising early. Of course. The second greatest virtue. It comes just behind ruthlessness.

But it's 'cause real life is what it is that a man needs daydreams. Most

You were a hero round these parts. That's what they call you when you kill so many people the word murderer falls short.

You have to be grateful for the small things, when any minute might be your last.

I despise violence. It is the last tool of feeble minds.

A great leader must share the hardships of his followers, of his soldiers, of his subjects. That is how he wins their respect. Great leaders do not complain. Not ever.

Few things indeed,' mused Pike, 'seem to have so much appeal before, and so little after, as a battle.

He had discovered early in his military career that if one has an effective and experienced officer above, coupled with effective and experienced soldiers below, one need do, and know, nothing.

The memories of our glories fade, and rot away into half-arsed anecdotes, thin and unconvincing as some other bastard's lie. The failures, the disappointment,the regrets,they stay raw as the moment they happened. A pretty girls smile, never acted on. A petty wrong we let another take the blame for. A nameless shoulder that knocked us in a crowd and left us stewing for days, for months. For ever. This is the stuff the past is made of. The wretched moments that make us what we are. "(less) (less)

His recklessness or her ambition alone could not have done it. But like two chemicals which, apart, are merely mildly poisonous, combined they had produced an unstable explosive which had blown both their lives and thousands of others to hell.

Perhaps he should have fallen to his knees and given thanks to the gods for their unlikely victory but the red harvest sword-hacked and arrow-stuck about the ruin did not look like a thing to give thanks for.

I saw two Northmen. One was reading a book.' 'Really? A book?' Friendly shrugged. 'There are readers everywhere.

It was a bad day for men, all in all, and a good one for the ground. Always the way, after a battle. Only the ground wins.

The two men fell to sullen glaring, and Jezal frowned with them. He resented the sudden feeling that the whole business was somehow an argument between Bayaz and this priest and that he, although a king, was like a child eavesdropping on his parents' conversation, and with just as little say in the outcome.

Every man who's worth a damn feels fear. It's the use you make of it that counts.

When it came to hatred, Brodd Tenways had a bottomless supply. He was one of those bastards who can't even breathe quietly, ugly as incest and always delighted to push it in your face, leering from the shadows like the village pervert at a passing milkmaid.

You seem happy enough," came Monza's voice, "for a man about to risk his life." Shiver's opened his eyes and turned his grin on her. "I've made peace with myself." "Good for you. That's the hardest war of all to win." "Didn't say I won. Just stopped fighting." "I'm starting to think that's the only victory worth a shit," she muttered, almost to herself.

Solo se puede conquistar los miedos afrontándolos. Si los rehúyes, te conquistan ellos a ti.»