A Little Hatred (The Age of Madness, #1)

by Joe Abercrombie

“There are few blessings without a curse hidden inside, nor curses without a whiff of blessing.”

“Life is small discomforts, girl! They’re how you know you are alive.”

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.

“None more blessed, my scripture-teacher once declared, than those who light the way for others.”

“Savine.” “That’s a lovely name.” “Oh, if you enjoy the tip, you’ll go mad for the whole thing.” “That so?” he purred at her. “How does it go?” “Savine… dan…” And she leaned even closer to deliver the punchline. “Glokta.”

When you tell a lie, you have to sound like you believe it. Goes double for the ones you tell yourself.

You have to lock your hurt away, and think about what comes next.

She kept silent. Best thing to do when you’ve nothing to say.

All that time spent dreaming of her face and now she was looking right at him, it was hard to meet her eye.

Most men need time to act. Broad had the opposite problem. He was always loaded. Always.

It is easy to smile at the bull you know is chained.

“But once you’ve a task to do, it’s better to do it—” “Than live with the fear of it,”

“A good liar lies as little as possible.”

Rikke had known him for years. There was no need for fumbling small talk. And every moment with her felt like an adventure. She could kidnap a conversation and in a breath carry it off into strange territory. You never knew where you’d end up, but it was always honest.

Had there been any justice in the world, she would’ve looked absurd. But Vick knew well there was no justice, and she looked spectacular.

But we need to think. We need to plan. When we spill our blood—and blood’ll be spilled, depend on that—we need to make sure it buys us something.”

She snapped the window down and snarled, “Get the fuck away from here!”

Some hole where she could reason out what had happened, and some way to escape it. Some place the madness had not reached.

Sound in command, you’re halfway to being there.

“Knowledge isn’t always a gift, d’you see? Sometimes it’s better we be swaddled in the comforting darkness of ignorance.”

Had to stop following his cock from one disaster to another and use his head for once.

Then he smiled—always begin with a smile

“Good and bad aren’t as easy to tell apart as you’d think,” said Vick. “Mostly it’s a matter of where you look at ’em from.”

Fighting every fight you’re offered doesn’t make you a big man, it makes you a fool.

Never use more words when fewer will do the trick.

“Lightning rarely strikes those who deserve it,”

But what separates great soldiers from mere killers is that they know when to stop fighting.”

“Things happen. You’ve got to try to look on the sunny side or you’ll spend your life in darkness.”

Life just falls on you, like rain.

I saw a wolf eat the sun and a lion eat the wolf then a lamb eat the lion then an owl eat the lamb.”

“No leader worth a damn ever led from the front.”

It was like they’d had a contest to dream up the circumstances she’d feel most horribly small, twitchy and ugly in, and this right here had been the winning idea. All she needed to complete the horror was to have a fit and shit herself across the pristine tiled floor. Everyone was so clean. Everyone smelled so good. Everyone’s shoes were so shiny. They all had these little smiles, worn like masks, so you’d no notion what they were really thinking. They all spoke in whispers, like everything was a secret meant only for particular ears and those ears certainly weren’t hers. At least the Long Eye was leaving her alone for now. The only ghosts in attendance were her own awkward reflections, wincing at her, profoundly unimpressed, from the mirrored walls of the hall.

The girl looked down at the necklace, blushing now, which only made her look better. “My father saw me wearing these, he’d shit himself.” “I don’t know what my father would think, but he shits himself routinely.” The girl grinned up. “You’re all right, you know that?”

“The Dogman’s daughter, of course! He was a good friend of my good friend Logen Ninefingers, you know.” “Ah, you have to be realistic.” “Exactly!”

Smile all the time and you’ll make them sick, like a cook serving nothing but meringue. Make your smile a rare treat, you’ll leave them desperate to taste another.

But in the end, what truly makes a man is above the neck.

The feelings of the dead weigh less than a feather.