The Bone Shard Emperor (The Drowning Empire, #2)

by Andrea Stewart

Iloh was an ass. It didn’t take me long to come to that conclusion. Some faces were worn a certain way from one too many smug expressions, their assedness carved into the lines around mouth and eyes. The lines on Iloh’s face were a map leading to only one destination: the capital of asses.

When you’re young, you think you can change the world. You think you can bend it to your will. When you’re old, you learn to change your small corner of it and live with the rest.”

I see someone who is sad and I want her to be less sad. What’s so wrong about that?”

“A coward is not a man who feels fear. A coward is one who would volunteer others for the suffering he would not take on himself,”

praise is cheap and empty. It can turn quickly to bitterness and scorn.

“Giving up isn’t always the wrong thing to do.”