The Hammer Quotes

“Basic fact of life: no matter how far you run, you always take yourself with you.”
― K.J. Parker, The Hammer

“If the world is a book, are you the hero, or just a walk-on part?”
― K.J. Parker, The Hammer

“A quiet life," Stheno replied. "You wouldn't think it was a lot to ask.”
― K.J. Parker, The Hammer

“We hold that you can’t own anything that four strong men can’t lift.”
― K.J. Parker, The Hammer

“The question was, to what extent was he supposed to believe it? Of course, Gignomai had a special way of lying, which involved mostly telling the truth.”
― K.J. Parker, The Hammer

“Father duly appeared, took his seat without looking in Gignomai’s direction, put down the book he’d been reading at breakfast, picked up another, lying open and face down on the desk. Gignomai couldn’t help glancing at him from time to time. All those words, he thought, all that information; it was like pouring water into sand. It all went in, through the eyes into the brain, and none of it ever came out again. Father’s head was a slurry-pit into which the sum of human knowledge and experience drained away, and all that richness, too much of it, poisoned the ground so that nothing would grow there ever again. He shuddered slightly.”
― K.J. Parker, The Hammer

“Gignomai took a book off the top of the pile, glanced at the spine (Caecilius on Prosody) and opened it. It began with a beautiful illuminated letter B and went downhill from there.”
― K.J. Parker, The Hammer

“The trouble with running away is that, no matter where you go, you have to take yourself with you.”
― K.J. Parker, The Hammer

“I do housework,” she said, “and I mend clothes. I’d do a proper job if I could. I’d have been a surgeon, like my father, except it’s not allowed.” He frowned. “It isn’t?” “Of course not. Women can’t be surgeons or clerks or lawyers or lecturers at Temple or merchants. There’s not actually a law, but there doesn’t have to be. People wouldn’t stand for it.”
― K.J. Parker, The Hammer

“There are certain traditions,” Father went on, shifting his head a little so he was looking just over the top of Gignomai’s head, as though he was talking to where Gignomai should have been at age fourteen, if he hadn’t turned out disappointingly short.”
― K.J. Parker, The Hammer

“Ah well.” Gignomai turned slowly round. “It’s not often commented on, but when you stop and think, mercy is the biggest injustice of them all.”
― K.J. Parker, The Hammer

“It’s about keeping the peace,” said Rasso from the livery. His choice of words made Marzo want to smile. Rasso had borrowed the phrase from him and, like any man in the colony who borrowed anything, he seemed determined to use it till it fell apart before he was called on to give it back.”
― K.J. Parker, The Hammer

“the fundamental difference between luck and a wheelbarrow; only one of them was designed to be pushed.)”
― K.J. Parker, The Hammer