Last Argument of Kings (The First Law, #3)

by Joe Abercrombie

“And the bonds of duty? Do they feel any looser, now?”

it was better to do it, than to live with the fear of it.

Sometimes it doesn’t matter too much what choice you make, as long as you make it quick and stick to it.

It can be a fearsome weapon, patience. One that few men ever learn to use.

People would far rather be handed an easy lie than search for a difficult truth, especially if it suits their own purposes.

Shock and surprise, my little beauties, and quickness to strike, and lack of pity. These are the things that make a killer. Size, and strength, and a big loud voice are alright in their place, but they’re nothing to that murderous, monstrous, merciless speed, eh, Bloody-Nine?”

“Rare rages render a man frightening. Common ones render him ridiculous.”

You can have enemies you never really meet, Logen had plenty. You can kill men you don’t know, he’d done it often. But you can’t truly hate a man without loving him first, and there’s always a trace of that love left over.

“Chose?” Glokta felt his eyelid twitching again. “If you believe that I chose any part of the pitiful shadow of a life you see before you, you are very much mistaken. I chose glory and success. The box did not contain what was written on the lid.”

And freedom is far overrated in any case. We all have our responsibilities. We all owe something to someone. Only the entirely worthless are entirely free. The worthless and the dead.”