The Escapement (Engineer Trilogy, #3)

by K.J. Parker

The quickest way to a man’s heart,” the instructor said, “is proverbially through his stomach, but if you want to get into his brain, I recommend the eye socket.”

He wondered: is this love? Or just a habit, unwanted but now unbreakable; a dependency, which is what love always becomes. Like alcohol, or smoking hemp; the need increases as the pleasure fades into pain. Better to be abstemious, to indulge only occasionally, socially, among friends.

Any man who’d betray his friend just to get his wife deserved to end up with the sort of woman who’d cheat on her husband with his best friend.

If you’re going to do some unspeakably evil thing to gain your heart’s desire, you should at least have the basic good manners to take proper care of your heart’s desire once you’ve got it, instead of leaving it lying around neglected, like a spoilt child’s toys.

there’s no such thing as a weapon; there’s just tools, and men who decide how they’re going to use them.

“I suppose everybody asks himself at some time or other, what wouldn’t I do to get what I want? And the answer is, when I find out, I’ll let you know.

The facile but apt comparison was with an onion: peel away one layer to reveal another, and any contact with her ended in tears.

“First, you can’t be hit if you aren’t there. Second, if someone’s close enough to hurt you, he’s close enough to be hurt back.

That’s why there’s no such thing as evil, Falier. Evil’s just love in action, love on the move between wanting and getting.