Before They Are Hanged (The First Law, #2)

by Joe Abercrombie

Respect costs you nothing, and nothing gets a man killed quicker than confidence.”

“Then you’ve got the chance to do better next time.” “Next time?” “’Course. Doing better next time. That’s what life is.”

“Anyone can face ease and success with confidence. It is the way we face trouble and misfortune that defines us. Self-pity goes with selfishness, and there is nothing more to be deplored in a leader than that. Selfishness belongs to children, and to half-wits. A great leader puts others before himself. You would be surprised how acting so makes it easier to bear one’s own troubles. In order to act like a King, one need only treat everyone else like one.”

You get what you give, in the long run, and manners cost nothing. From now on, he would think of others first. He would treat everyone as if they were his equal.

Strange how, as long as the hardship lasts, we can stand it. As soon as the crisis is over, the strength all leeches away in an instant.

Perhaps he was an uglier man, but he was a better man too, and at least, as Logen would have said, he was still alive.

Never took an easy path if he thought it was the wrong one. Never stepped back from a fight if he thought it had to be done.