Sharp Ends (First Law World #7)

by Joe Abercrombie

Craw chewed the hard skin around his nails, just like he always did. They hurt, just like they always did. He thought to himself that he really had to stop doing that. Just like he always did.

Times like these reveal a man for what he truly is. For a while Temple had convinced himself he was a righteous man, but it is easy to be virtuous before your virtue is put to the test. Like a camel turd baked in the sun, beneath the pious crust he was the same stinking, self-serving coward he had always been.

‘I’ve had about as much of this as I can take!’ ‘So you keep saying. And yet the next day you take some more.’

‘If you have to tell someone you are furious, and then, furthermore, that you mean it, your fury has failed to achieve its desired effect.’

But the sad fact was, only the winners got to regret what they did in a fight,

Takes a lifetime of hard work to make a man. Only takes a few moments to end one.

It was like old Threetrees always said–a sword’s a shitty thing to give a man. Shitty for him, and shitty for everyone around him.

Be generous with your own people, she had always said, or others will be.

‘Rules must be for all, and for those who lead most of all. Without rules, every man stands alone, owning only what he can tear from the world with one hand and grip with the other. Chaos.’