Quotes from Steven Erikson

There is only one thing worse than arguing with a drunk,' Faradan Sort said, 'and that's arguing with a drunk who's right.

He was asked, then, who was this Winged Grief? And Gallan said, 'There is but one left who would dare command me. One who would not weep and yet had taken into his soul a people's sorrow, a realm's sorrow. His name was Silchas Ruin.

Even a man who has lived a life of sorrows will ask for one more day.

A civilization was the means by which too many people could live together despite their mutual hatred.

And so, yet again, we crush the blossom in our hand, lift our gaze from the tumbling petals, and ask the world, 'Where, then, is this beauty you promised?

You would choose only the worthy to embrace, Shield Anvil? Then what you do is not an embrace, sir. It is a reward.

As if true honesty belonged to solitude, since to be witnessed was to perform, and performance was inherently false since it invited expectation.

When we war against nature, we war against ourselves. There is no distinction, no dividing line, no enemy. We devour everything in a lust for self-destruction. As if that is intelligence's only gift.

A bludgeon of wives (surely that must be the plural assignation)!

Evil is at its boldest when it walks an unerring path.

Leave me this freedom … to do something. To do a thing … a thing that does not destroy, but creates. Please, can I not be more than I am? Please. Do not find me.

If it is peace you seek then you need only turn and walk away. Leave." "To leave here is to arrive elsewhere. I cannot retreat from disorder, for it shall surely follow. Peace must be asserted where one finds oneself. Only when discord is resolved will there be peace.

The soul knows no greater anguish than to take a breath that begins with love and ends with grief. But there are other anguishes, many others. They unfold as they will, and to dwell within them is to understand nothing.

What must be understood is this: attackers attack as a form of defence. It is their instinctive response to threat, real or perceived. It may be desperate or it may be habit, or both, when desperation becomes a way of life. Behind the assault hides a fragile person.

If you come to the window, and look through the other end, Karsa, you will see things far away drawn closer.' He scowled at her, and set the instrument down. 'If something is far away, I simply ride closer.

Make no assumptions. About anything. Ever. Stay mindful, my friend, and suspicious. Suspicious, but not frightened by complexity.

None to witness. Dust of dreams, dust of all that we never achieved. Dust of what we might have been and what we cannot help but be.

Why not worship money? At least its rewards are obvious and immediate . But no, that was simplistic. Letherii worship was more subtle, its ethics bound to those traits and habits that well served the acquisition of wealth. Diligence, discipline, hard work, optimism, the personalization of glory. And the corresponding evils: sloth, despair and the anonymity of failure. The world was brutal enough to winnow one from the other and leave no room for doubt or mealy equivocation.

Time promised everything and delivered nothing.

Draw a breath, a deep breath, now hold it, my friends, hold it long for the world the world drowns.

Some things are important. Others are not. Yet all would claim a mortal's attention. It falls to each of us to remain ever mindful, and thus purchase wisdom in the threading of possibilities. It is our common failing, Brys Beddict, that we are guided by our indifference to eventualities. The moment pleases, the future can await consideration.

The simple ones aren't simple. The broken ones aren't broken. They are rearranged.

His wounds now bear scars, and those scars dull all feeling. You may see that as a flaw, but I assure you, just as the body will protect what was damaged, so too will the soul.

There's no certainty in this, Baruk. That seems a fact particularly galling to you humans.