Quotes from Joe Abercrombie

It's what you give out that makes a man, not what you get back.

Couldn't be a coincidence that the happiest men Broad ever knew were generally the stupidest.

Nothing was stronger than the law! Now it seemed that fire was stronger still. Law alone, without enforcement, is just breath.

Etherer," said Practical Frost.

Cosca winced. "You always were far too attached to fighting. How often did I tell you? A mercenary has no business getting involved with that nonsense.

can be a terrible curse for a man to get everything he ever dreamed of. If the shining prizes turn out somehow to be empty baubles, he is left without even his dreams for comfort.

Perhaps for some men obedience became a habit they could not question. Or perhaps they came to define themselves by their service to a master, and chose to take the short step into death as part of something great, rather than walk the long, hard road of life in insignificance.

Perhaps that was all courage really was. Being so convinced of one's own importance one came to believe death was something only other people need worry about.

When it comes to virtue, after all, appearances are everything.

Vigyázz az eskükkel, Tüske! Mindegyik egy-egy lánc, ami lehúz.

Glen Cook, Scott Lynch, and Steven Erikson, then

You're young and got dreams ahead of you still. You don't know how it is. One day you're something, so promising and full o' dares, so big the world's too small a place to hold you. Then, 'fore you know it, you're old, and you realize all them things you had in mind you'll never get to. All them doors you felt too big to fit through have already shut. Only one left open and it leads to nothing but nothing.

the young Lord Smund, a man of impeccable lineage and immense fortune, a little over twenty but with all the talents of a precocious ten-year-old.

The man retreated towards the door. And no doubt to a heroic, pointless death at one breach or another. The most heroic deaths of all were the pointless ones, Cosca had always found.

Truly, life is the misery we endure between disappointments.

Savor the little moments, son, that's my advice. They're what life is. All the little things that happen while you're waiting for something else.

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

People love to see death. It reminds them that however mean, however low, however horrible their lives become… at least they have one.

Love is a fine cushion to rest upon, but only hate can make you a better person.

As a writer, you have to first of all write what you want to. Listen to advice, by all means, but don't get bogged down in it.

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.

More often than not bad luck meant bad plans.

Every man has his excuses, and the more vile the man becomes, the more touching the story has to be. What is my story now, I wonder?

The fool strikes. The wise man smiles, and watches, and learns. Then strikes.