Assassin's Apprentice (The Farseer Trilogy, #1)

by Robin Hobb

I think myself cured of all spite, but when I touch pen to paper, the hurt of a boy bleeds out with the sea-spawned ink, until I suspect each carefully formed black letter scabs over some ancient scarlet wound.

But each historical event I consider only awakens my own personal shades of loneliness and loss.

from calmness we passed into the deep dreamless sleep reserved for warm spring afternoons and puppies.

Most were not cruel to me; I was simply outside their circles.

So I was and was not a member of the keep community. I avoided some and I observed some and I obeyed some. But with none did I feel a bond.

If ever I find the right woman, I’ll want her to know I won’t be looking at another.

life. But despite my schedule, I found myself mostly alone. Loneliness. It found me every night as I vainly tried to find a small and cozy spot in my big bed.

You’ve learned to guard your thoughts so well, you’re almost afraid to let yourself know what they are.

the lessons I learned were oddly suited to the darker hours of the world.

life. I could not remember how I had managed before when I had been so alone. To return to the drudgery of living day to day, going from task to task seemed impossible.

us. It seemed to me that a darkness lay over us like a fog, both outside and within. The dimness penetrated my eyes, so that I felt sleepy without feeling tired.

But hold this lesson closest and keep it always before you. If ever you make it so they don’t need you, they will kill you.”

But sometimes there are no choices but poor ones. Sometimes, in bad times like these.”

Hard times are here, boy. And I wonder if they will ever pass.” In the years to come, I was to wonder that often.

ignorant. If you can read, you can learn anything. If you’ve a will to.

For a very brief period I was happy, and, an even rarer gift, I knew I was happy.

The different pains so contradicted one another, each clamoring for attention, that I couldn’t even assess what damage had been done to me.

that which I sought to prevent came to pass. But you survived it.

I failed his test, but it didn’t kill me. And as you told me, there are other things in my life.”