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

by Joe Abercrombie

“A man who doesn’t want opinions should keep his own mouth shut.”

Laughing with a man was a good step forward. First comes the laughter, then the respect, then the trust.

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

“Third, watch your opponent as close as you can, and listen to opinions if you’re given them, but once you’ve got your plan in mind, you fix on it and let nothing sway you. Time comes to act, you strike with no backwards glances. Delay is the parent of disaster, my father used to tell me, and believe me, I’ve seen some disasters.”

“By the dead, but I can’t work you people out! Where I come from, a man earns the right to lead! His men follow because they know his quality, and respect him because he shares their hardships with ’em! Even Bethod won his place!” He strode up and down before the tent, waving his big hands. “Here you pick the ones who know the least to lead, and fix on the biggest fool o’ the whole pack for a commander!”

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.”

lichen.

S

First you suffer it yourself, then you inflict it on others, then you order it done. Such is the pattern of life.

Men must sometimes do what they do not like if they are to be remembered. It is through struggle, not ease, that fame and honour are won. It is through conflict, not peace, that wealth and power are gained. Do such things no longer interest you?”

There was no such thing as luck. Luck was a word idiots used to explain the consequences of their own rashness, and selfishness, and stupidity. More often than not, bad luck meant bad plans.

“You can never have too many knives.” “No? What if you fall in a river and can’t swim for all that iron?”

He had scarcely once thought about Ardee his whole time in the South. Other matters seemed so much more pressing. My one friend gave me this one task. If anything has happened to her…

Finally! This is still a continuity issue in my opinion. It feels more like a forgotten thread that the author finally remembered to close up in book two. Assigning someone to watch over Ardee would have made more sense.

Happiness was nothing more than a fresh fish and a fire still alight.

He dropped his spoon into his barely touched bowl of soup and licked sourly at his gums.

Only the 27th time that the author has written about Glokta’s gums. He has grown so accustomed to writing about licking or sucking on his own gums that it has even spread to other characters.

“Sometimes it is, if acting means taking part in your squabbles. You forget, Bayaz, that I have seen all this before, more than once, and a wearisome pattern it seems to me. History repeats itself. Brother fights brother. As Juvens fought Glustrod, as Kanedias fought Juvens, so Bayaz struggles with Khalul. Smaller men in a bigger world, but with no less hatred, and no more mercy. Will this sordid rivalry end even as well as the others? Or will it be worse?”

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.