Emperor of Thorns Quotes

“This is where the wise man turns away. This is where the holy kneel and call on God. These are the last miles, my brothers. Don't look to me to save you. Don't think I will not spend you. Run if you have the wit. Pray if you have the soul. Stand your ground if courage is yours. But don't follow me.

Follow me, and I will break your heart.”
― Mark Lawrence, Emperor of Thorns

“No half measures. Some things can’t be cut in half. You can’t half-love someone. You can’t half-betray, or half-lie.”
― Mark Lawrence, Emperor of Thorns

“There's a slope down toward evil, a gentle gradient that can be ignored at each step, unfelt. It's not until you look back, see the distant heights where you once lived, that you understand your journey.”
― Mark Lawrence, Emperor of Thorns

“Dark times call for dark choices. Choose me.”
― Mark Lawrence, Emperor of Thorns

“Every man has his thorns, not of him, but in him, deep as bones.”
― Mark Lawrence, Emperor of Thorns

“Some tell it that "sorry" is the hardest word, but for me it has always been "help".”
― Mark Lawrence, Emperor of Thorns

“When you're in a dark place, and your light is going to run out before too long, you get on with things. It's a wonder to me how few people apply that same logic to their lives.”
― Mark Lawrence, Emperor of Thorns

“Hurt spreads and grows and reaches out to break what’s good. Time heals all wounds, but often it’s only by the application of the grave, and while we live some hurts live with us, burning, making us twist and turn to escape them. And as we twist, we turn into other men.”
― Mark Lawrence, Emperor of Thorns

“I kissed her cheek then, because I feared to do it and though commonsense may occasionally bind me, I'll be fucked if fear will.”
― Mark Lawrence, Emperor of Thorns

“I knew myself broken, to burn over every refusal, to feel my blood rise at the slightest provocation, but knowing and fixing are different things.”
― Mark Lawrence, Emperor of Thorns

“After all, getting everything you wish for is nearly as dire a curse as having all your dreams come true.”
― Mark Lawrence, Emperor of Thorns

“If you must run, have something to run toward, so it feels less like cowardice.”
― Mark Lawrence, Emperor of Thorns

“Words are blunt instruments, better suited to murder than to making sense of the world.”
― Mark Lawrence, Emperor of Thorns

“Nature shaped the claw to trap, and the tooth to kill, but the thorn...the thorn's only purpose is to hurt.”
― Mark Lawrence, Emperor of Thorns

“I maintain a balanced view of the world, but that balance is always in my favour.”
― Mark Lawrence, Emperor of Thorns

“It's an irony of our times that men seeking peace must make war.”
― Mark Lawrence, Emperor of Thorns

“There's a road to hell that is paved with good intentions but it's a long route. The quicker path is paved with the kind of ignorance that clever men who just don't want to know are best at.”
― Mark Lawrence, Emperor of Thorns

“We can’t be trapped by fear. Lives lived within such walls are just slower deaths.”
― Mark Lawrence, Emperor of Thorns

“There are truths you know but will not speak. Even to yourself in the darkness where we are all of us alone. There are memories you see and yet don't see.”
― Mark Lawrence, Emperor of Thorns

“Take a rest and the world catches up with you. Lesson in life—keep moving.”
― Mark Lawrence, Emperor of Thorns

“I would shake the world until its teeth rattled if that was required to have it spit out an answer.”
― Mark Lawrence, Emperor of Thorns

“Every man has his thorns, not of him, but in him, deep as bones. The scars of the briar mark me, a calligraphy of violence, a message of blood-writ, requiring a lifetime to translate.”
― Mark Lawrence, Emperor of Thorns

“Two dozen--and yet you killed all but one?" The provost arched a brow and set her quill down again as if unwilling to record a falsehood.

"Dear lady, I killed them from youngest child to oldest woman, and when I was done I blunted three axes dismembering their corpses. I am Jorg of Ancrath--I burned ten thousand in Gelleth and didn't think it too many.”
― Mark Lawrence, Emperor of Thorns

“But I respected his instincts as a killer and I liked the honesty of the man. And who was I to judge? I'd F'ed a necromancer and killed a Pope within the space of a week.”
― Mark Lawrence, Emperor of Thorns

“Pretty armour doesn't make a warrior.”
― Mark Lawrence, Emperor of Thorns

“Clarity of vision is a thing much prized. I find when you turn that clear sight upon yourself—and see through to the truth behind your own actions—it might be better to be blind.”
― Mark Lawrence, Emperor of Thorns

“A man can reach into anything and turn it to his cause. It's not want, or desire, just certainty. Only be assured that whatever you reach into will reach into you in turn.”
― Mark Lawrence, Emperor of Thorns

“A victim who believes himself anticipated at every turn is not only crippled by uncertainty but also easier to predict.”
― Mark Lawrence, Emperor of Thorns

“The future is a dark place. We all die there.”
― Mark Lawrence, Emperor of Thorns

“Men who are certain of everything—well perhaps they're not men at all.”
― Mark Lawrence, Emperor of Thorns