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

by Joe Abercrombie

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

But you can’t truly hate a man without loving him first, and there’s always a trace of that love left over.

Heroism of an everyday and unglamorous kind. A kind that made no difference to the overall outcome.

It can be a terrible curse for a man to get everything he ever dreamed of. If the shining prizes turn out somehow to be empty baubles, he is left without even his dreams for comfort.

I am First of the Magi. I am the last authority and I say… I am righteous.”

Power makes all things right. That is my first law, and my last. That is the only law that I acknowledge.”