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“I saw a wolf eat the sun. Then a lion ate the wolf. Then a lamb ate the lion. Then an owl ate the lamb.”
“There are few blessings without a curse hidden inside, nor curses without a whiff of blessing.” Isern carved a little piece of chagga from a dried-out chunk. “Like most things, it’s a matter of how you look at it.”
“Life is small discomforts, girl! They’re how you know you are alive.”
Battles may sometimes be won by the brave, but wars are always won by the clever.
She had long ago learned that at least half of everything is presentation. Seem a victim, soon become one. Seem in charge, people fall over themselves to obey.
It was a riddle. This man, born with no advantages, believed in something so much he was willing to die for it. Orso, born with everything, could scarcely make himself get out of bed of a morning. Or, indeed, an afternoon.
“There’s nothing can’t be ruined in a moment,” said Liddy. “It all hangs by a thread, all the time. We’ve got to look forward now. That’s what you do. You move on.”
It’s a rare man who’s made better by a bit of power.
If you can’t find a way to win that doesn’t involve torturing some half-mad girl, then maybe you don’t deserve to win at all. Or maybe that was all shit, and it was just ’cause she was pretty. The sad truth is that pretty people can slide through all kinds of scrapes that’d end very badly for the ugly.
The goal of government, you see,” and the Arch Lector prodded at the air with his bony forefinger, “is to load the unhappiness onto those least able to make you suffer for it.”
“Believe it or not, we all want what’s best. The root o’ the world’s ills is that no one can agree on what it is.”
She’d never been in a council of war before but, like fucks and funerals, her first time was something of a let-down.
Truly clever things are said with short words. Long ones are used to hide stupidity.
“High ideals and reality are like oil and water,” muttered Vick. “They don’t mix well.”
Orso snorted up a laugh. “I can hardly deny it. I fear I want everyone to like me, Master Sulfur.” “We all do, Your Highness, but he who tries to please everyone pleases no one at all.”
Might be it’s people who kill people, but you can’t stab a man with a blade you haven’t got.
Vengeance is just an empty chest you choose to carry. One you have to go bent under the weight of all your days. One score settled only plants the seeds of two more.”
You can’t choose what you remember. But you can choose what you do about it. Time comes… you got to let it all go.” He smiled sadly down at the tabletop. “So you can go back to the mud without the baggage.”
