The Mad Ship Quotes

“Everyone thinks that courage is about facing death without flinching. But almost anyone can do that. Almost anyone can hold their breath and not scream for as long as it takes to die.

True courage is about facing life without flinching. I don't mean the times when the right path is hard, but glorious at the end. I'm talking about enduring the boredom, the messiness, and the inconvenience of doing what is right.”
― Robin Hobb, The Mad Ship

“Tomorrow owes you the sum of your yesterdays. No more than that. And no less.”
― Robin Hobb, The Mad Ship

“Look forward, not back. Correct your course and go on. You can't undo yesterday's journey.”
― Robin Hobb, The Mad Ship

“Innocent?” He was incensed at her suggestion he was somehow responsible for this mess. “I’ve done nothing wrong, I intend nothing wrong. I am innocent!”
“Half the evil in this world occurs while decent people stand by and do nothing wrong. It’s not enough to refrain from evil, Trell. People have to attempt to do right, even if they believe they cannot succeed.”
“Even when it’s stupid to try?” he asked with savage sarcasm.
“Especially then,” she replied sweetly. “That’s how it’s done, Trell. You break your heart against this stony world. You fling yourself at it, on the side of good, and you do not ask the cost. That’s how you do it.”
― Robin Hobb, The Mad Ship

“Love isn't just about feeling sure of the other person, knowing what he would give up for you. It's knowing with certainty what you are willing to surrender for his sake. Make no mistake; each partner gives up something. Individual dreams are surrendered for a shared one.”
― Robin Hobb, The Mad Ship

“I never confuse the cost of something with its value”
― Robin Hobb, The Mad Ship

“Why can't people love one another and still remain free?" Althea demanded suddenly.

Amber paused to rub her eyes, then tug thoughtfully at her earring. "One can love that way," she conceded regretfully. "But the price on that kind of love may be the highest of all." She strung her words together as carefully as she strung her beads. "To love another person like that, you have to admit that his life is as important as yours. Harder still, you have to admit to yourself that perhaps he has needs you cannot fill, and that you have tasks that will take you far away from him. It costs loneliness and longing and doubt and...”
― Robin Hobb, The Mad Ship

“You're not who he expected you to be; that doesn't mean you aren't somebody. Nor are you perfect. Stop using every mistake you make as an excuse to fail completely.”
― Robin Hobb, The Mad Ship

“The wise man takes the shortest path to peace with himself.’ Acceptance of what is, that is the shortest path.”
― Robin Hobb, Mad Ship

“No being gets to decide what his life is 'supposed to be.' ” She lifted her eyes and her gaze stabbed him. “Be a man. Discover where you are now, and go on from there, making the best of things. Accept your life, and you might survive it. If you hold back from it, insisting this is not your life, not where you are meant to be, life will pass you by. You may not die from such foolishness, but you might as well be dead for all the good your life will do you or anyone else.”
― Robin Hobb, The Mad Ship

“Open your eyes. This horrible mess is your life. There is no sense in waiting for it to get better. Stop putting it off and live it.”
― Robin Hobb, The Mad Ship

“That part of your life is over. Set it aside as something you have finished. Complete or no, it is done with you. No being gets to decide what his life is "supposed to be"...'Be a man. Discover where you are now, and go on from there, making the best of things. Accept your life, and you might survive it. If you hold back from it, insisting this is not your life, not where you are meant to be, life will pass you by. You may not die from such foolishness, but you might as well be dead for all the good your life will do you or anyone else.”
― Robin Hobb, The Mad Ship

“I think there is in the heart of a man a place made for wonder. It sleeps inside, awaiting fulfillment. All one’s life, one gathers treasures to fill it. Sometimes they are tiny glistening jewels: a flower blooming in the shelter of a fallen tree, the arch of a small child’s brow combined with the curve of her cheek. Sometimes, however, a trove falls into your hands all at once, as if some greedy pirate’s chest spilled before an unsuspecting beholder. Such were the dragons on the wing.”
― Robin Hobb, The Mad Ship

“Love isn't just about feeling sure of the other person, knowing what he would give up for you. It's knowing with certainty what you are willing to surrender for his sake. Make no mistake; each partner gives up something. Individual dreams are surrendered for a shared one. In some marriages, one partner gives up almost everything she once thought she wanted. But it's not always the woman who does so. Such sacrifice is not shameful. It's love. If you think the man is worth it, it works.”
― Robin Hobb, The Mad Ship

“That’s how it’s done, Trell. You break your heart against this stony world. You fling yourself at it, on the side of good, and you do not ask the cost. That’s how you do it.”
― Robin Hobb, The Mad Ship

“You want a mate who will follow your dream. You don't want to give up your own ambitions to make someone else's life possible.'
'I supposed that's true,' Althea admitted reluctantly. An instant later she demanded, 'Why is that so wrong?'
'It isn't,' Amber assured her, A moment later she added wickedly, 'As long as you're male.”
― Robin Hobb, The Mad Ship

“You earn your future, Malta Vestrit." The bead-maker cocked her head at her. "What does tomorrow owe you?" "Tomorrow owes me?" Malta repeated in confusion.
"Tomorrow owes you the sum of your yesterdays. No more than that." Amber looked out to sea again. "And no less. Sometimes folk wish tomorrow did not pay them off so completely.”
― Robin Hobb, The Mad Ship

“We aren't fated to survive, then at least let us fight it to the end. Let it be fate that extinguishes us, not our own lack of heart.”
― Robin Hobb, The Mad Ship

“You have a wild young heart. Right now, it is like a caged bird that batters itself against the bars. To struggle harder will only hurt you more. Wait, be patient. Your time will come to fly. And when it does, you must be strong, not bloodied and weary.”
― Robin Hobb, The Mad Ship

“Fate rushes down upon us! The time drags and the days plod past, lulling us into thinking that the doom we fear will always so delay. Then, abruptly, the dark days we have all predicted are upon us, and the time when we could have turned dire fate aside has passed. How old must I be before I learn? There is no time; there is never any time. Tomorrow may never come, but todays are linked inexorably in a chain, and now is always the only time we have to divert disaster.”
― Robin Hobb, The Mad Ship

“Since then, she had wondered if it were strength or a sort of madness that let her pretend she was normal.”
― Robin Hobb, The Mad Ship

“No one can have so little that someone else can find nothing to envy. Poverty and simplicity were not shields from the greed of others. If you had nothing left to steal, they'd take your body and enslave it.”
― Robin Hobb, The Mad Ship

“Why’re you like that?” the boy persisted.
“Like what?” Paragon finally asked in annoyance.
“Ya’know. Allus mad. Or crazy fightin’ Say’n stuff ta be mean.”
“How else do you expect me to be?” Paragon retorted. “Joyous that they’ve dragged me out here? All excited to go off on a hare-brained rescue mission with them?”
He felt the boy’s shrug. “Ya could be.”
“I could be?” Paragon snorted. “I’d like to know how.”
“S’easy. Ya decide t’be.”
“You decide to be happy? I should just forget everything that has been done to me, and be happy? Tra-la-la-la? Like that.”
“Ya could.” He heard the boy’s nails against his scalp. “Lookit me. I coulda hated everyone o’ ‘em. I decided t’be happy. Decided ta take what I could get. Make a life outer it.” A pause. “S’not like I’m gonna get another life. Gotta make this’n work.”
“It’s not that simple,” Paragon snapped.
“Could be,” Cliff insisted. “In’t no harder than decidin’t’be mad allus.”
The boy sauntered away slowly. His bare feet scuffed lightly on the deck. “But it’s a lot funner,” he called back over his shoulder.

p. 406: Clef to Paragon”
― Robin Hobb, The Mad Ship

“Stop using every mistake you make as an excuse to fail completely.”
― Robin Hobb, Mad Ship

“Half the evil in this world occurs while decent people stand by and do nothing wrong. It’s not enough to refrain from evil, Trell. People have to attempt to do right, even if they believe they cannot succeed.” “Even when it’s stupid to try?” he asked with savage sarcasm. “Especially then,” she replied sweetly. “That’s how it’s done, Trell. You break your heart against this stony world. You fling yourself at it, on the side of good, and you do not ask the cost. That’s how you do it.”
― Robin Hobb, Mad Ship

“Sa'Adar's eyes went wide. "You're mad."
"Scarcely. Why do people always accuse me of that when I'm arranging things to my liking instead of theirs?”
― Robin Hobb, The Mad Ship

“Be a man. Discover where you are now, and go on from there, making the best of things. Accept your life, and you might survive it. If you hold back from it, insisting this is not your life, not where you are meant to be, life will pass you by. You may not die from such foolishness, but you might as well be dead for all the good your life will do you or anyone else.”
― Robin Hobb, The Mad Ship

“It was right, what they said: Enlightenment was merely the truth at the correct time.”
― Robin Hobb, The Mad Ship

“You can’t go back,” she told him bluntly. Her voice was neither kind nor unkind. “That part of your life is over. Set it aside as something you have finished. Complete or no, it is done with you. No being gets to decide what his life is ‘supposed to be.’” She lifted her eyes and her gaze stabbed him. “Be a man. Discover who you are now, and go on from there, making the best of things. Accept your life, and you might survive it. If you hold back from it, insisting that this is not your life, not where you are meant to be, life will pass you by. You may not die from such foolishness, but you might as well be dead for all the good your life will do you or anyone else.”
p. 114 Etta to Wintrow”
― Robin Hobb, The Mad Ship

“Changes were the essence of life; one should not dread change.”
― Robin Hobb, Mad Ship