Fool's Errand (Tawny Man, #1)

by Robin Hobb

You poison today’s ease, reaching always for tomorrow.

‘Death is always less painful and easier than life! You speak true. And yet we do not, day to day, choose death. Because ultimately, death is not the opposite of life, but the opposite of choice. Death is what you get when there are no choices left to make.

Do you know how draining it can be, to strike poses when no one knows they are poses, to assume a whole different character when there is no one to appreciate how well I do it?’

Cruelty is a skill taught not only by example but by experience of it.