Empire of the Vampire (Empire of the Vampire, #1)

by Jay Kristoff

Those who do not learn from the past suffer the future.

“I am put in mind of apples and the distances they fall from their trees.”

My mama knew herself, and there’s a fearsome power in that. Knowing exactly who you are and exactly what you’re capable of. Most folk would call it arrogance, I suppose. But most folk are fucking fools.”

When you have nothing, you have nothing to lose.

“Too much hate will burn a man to cinders, Chevalier.” “Oui. But at least he’ll die warm.”

“There’s no misery so deep as one you face by yourself. No nights darker than ones you spend alone. But you can learn to live with any weight. Your scars grow thick enough, they become armor.

“Who the fuck told you I was a hero?”

“Behold the purse in which I keep my fucks for what you think of me.”

I’d killed a man with my own hands, and it’s no small thing to be the one who takes a life from this earth. You make the world less by it, and if you’re careless, make yourself less besides.

There are three ways men view the women of the world, Gabriel. Enemies to be overcome. Prizes to be won. Or as people. My advice is choose the latter, my love. Lest they begin considering you the former.

“‘What business is that of yours?’ “‘None at all. Which I suppose is my favorite kind.’

“‘Well, then, it seems the Almighty gifted you a functional brain. Huzzah and hurrah. They seem in rather short supply around this fucking place.’

“A life without books is a life not lived.

‘What a world this would be, were it not held wholly and solely in the grip of stubborn old men.’

‘Mark my words, youngblood. You don’t want to be a hero. Heroes die unpleasant deaths, far from home and hearth.’

Your past is stone, but your future is clay. And you decide the shape of the life you’ll make.’

‘If we spend all our lives in darkness, is it any wonder when darkness starts to live in us?’