The Blade Itself (The First Law, #1)

by Joe Abercrombie

Once you’ve got a task to do, it’s better to do it than to live with the fear of it.

You carry on. That’s what he’d always done. That’s the task that comes with surviving, whether you deserve to live or not. You remember the dead as best you can. You say some words for them. Then you carry on, and you hope for better.

‘Porridge and honey, better than money, everything’s funny, with porridge and honey!’

You have to learn to love the small things in life, like dry boots. You have to love the small things, when you’ve nothing else.

But some things have to be done. It’s better to do them, than to live with the fear of them.

Perhaps there was something dark about our friend the merchant.’ ‘There’s always something dark about a man with money,’

‘Everything frightens me, and it’s well that it does. Fear is a good friend to the hunted,

‘Life – the way it really is – is a battle not between good and bad, but between bad and worse’