More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
Above all, he has learned the trick of saying a great deal less than he knows.”
“If a thing smells like a liar, and is the colour of a liar, the chances are it is a liar, would you not agree?”
“Is it not a simple question? Nipples, Harker, on men. What purpose do they serve? Have you not often wondered?”
A great leader must share the hardships of his followers, of his soldiers, of his subjects. That is how he wins their respect. Great leaders do not complain. Not ever.” “Fuck them then,” muttered Jezal under his breath. “And this rain, too!”
I’ve been in all kind of battles, and skirmishes, and fights. Most of them started in chaos, and all of ’em ended in it, and not once did I not come near to shitting myself at some point.”
“Fearlessness is a fool’s boast, to my mind. The only men with no fear in them are the dead, or the soon to be dead, maybe. Fear teaches you caution, and respect for your enemy, and to avoid sharp edges used in anger. All good things in their place, believe me. Fear can bring you out alive, and that’s the very best anyone can hope for from any fight. Every man who’s worth a damn feels fear. It’s the use you make of it that counts.”
Respect costs you nothing, and nothing gets a man killed quicker than confidence.”
“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.”
His fist was the hammer, the floor was the anvil, and the Shanka’s head was the metal to be worked. One blow and its nose split open, broken teeth falling. Two and he smashed its cheekbone in. Three and its jaw burst apart under his knuckles. His fist was made of stone, of steel, of adamant. It was heavy as a falling mountain, and blow after blow it crushed the Shanka’s thick skull to formless mush.
There it was, before them. That thing which they had come so far, and braved so many dangers to find. That thing which Glustrod dug from the deep earth long years ago. That thing which had made a blasted ruin of the greatest city in the world. The Seed. The Other Side, made flesh. The very stuff of magic. Then Ferro slowly began to frown. “This is it?”
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.
And he stood up, and he wiped his hand on his shirt, and he walked away, back to the living, and left the two of them behind him in the earth.
