Red Seas Under Red Skies (Gentleman Bastard, #2)

by Scott Lynch

deny something to enough people and sooner or later it will grow a mystique as thick as fog.

‘Difficult’ and ‘impossible’ are cousins often mistaken for one another, with very little in common.”

“As for history, we are living in its ruins. And as for biographies, we are living with the consequences of all the decisions ever made in them. I tend not to read them for pleasure. It’s not unlike carefully scrutinizing the map when one has already reached the destination.”

You know who waxes philosophical about the tiniest weaknesses of enemies? The powerless.”

“Any man can fart in a closed room and say that he commands the wind,”

So this is what a command is. Staring consequences in the eye and pretending not to flinch.