Bauchelain and Korbal Broach Quotes

“Curious,” Bauchelain said. “What is it you wish us to do for you?”

“Usurp the king,” Imid Factalo said.

“Usurp, as in depose.”

“Right.”

“Depose, as in remove.”

“Yes.”

“Remove, as in kill.”
― Steven Erikson, Bauchelain and Korbal Broach

“You’re loitering, citizen.”
“Actually, I was hesitating.”
― Steven Erikson, Bauchelain and Korbal Broach

“Desire for goodness, Mister Reese, leads to earnestness. Earnestness in turn leads to sanctimonious self-righteousness, which breeds intolerance, upon which harsh judgment quickly follows, yielding dire punishment, inflicting general terror and paranoia, eventually culminating in revolt, leading to chaos, then dissolution, and thus, the end of civilisation.”

He slowly turned, looked down upon Emancipor.
“And we are creatures dependent upon civilisation. It is the only environment in which we can thrive.”

Emancipor frowned.
“The desire for goodness leads to the end of civilisation?”

“Precisely, Mister Reese.”

“But if the principal aim is to achieve good living and health among the populace, what is the harm in that?”

Bauchelain sighed.

“Very well, I shall try again. Good living and health, as you say, yielding well-being. But well-being is a contextual notion, a relative notion. Perceived benefits are measured by way of contrast. In any case, the result is smugness, and from that an overwhelming desire to deliver conformity among those perceived as less pure, less fortunate—the unenlightened, if you will. But conformity leads to ennui, and then indifference. From indifference, Mister Reese, dissolution follows as a natural course, and with it, once again, the end of civilisation.”
― Steven Erikson, Bauchelain and Korbal Broach

“Life is like a clam,” Birds Mottle’s father once told her. “Years filtering shit then some bastard cracks you open and scrapes you into its damned mouth.”
― Steven Erikson, Bauchelain and Korbal Broach

“Every tyranny imaginable is possible when prefaced by the notion that it is for the well-being of the populace.”
― Steven Erikson, Bauchelain and Korbal Broach

“The Lady takes most mortals unto her bosom by maladies of the colon.”
“Death by constipation?”
― Steven Erikson, Bauchelain and Korbal Broach

“Something’s nibbling my spleen!”
― Steven Erikson, Bauchelain and Korbal Broach

“THE VEIL OF CIVILISATION was thin indeed, so easily torn away to reveal depravity waiting beneath, waiting, as such things always did, for the first hint of turbulence.”
― Steven Erikson, Bauchelain and Korbal Broach

“А от съседната излизаха тълпа мъхнати деца, явно изпълзели от някое тайно гробище в някой заден двор: бяха намерили убиеца си и сега крачеха, пееха страховито и размахваха като трофеи разчленени крайници. Странна подробност, която Инеб забеляза: разкъсаният убиец, изглежда, беше изключителен с това, че имаше три ръце, освен ако децата не бяха проявили невнимание, както правят обикновено децата, или пък не знаеха да броят добре. Все едно, хлапетата бяха щастливи, а щастието е хубаво нещо, нали?”
― Steven Erikson, Bauchelain and Korbal Broach

“Отдавна умряла проститутка гонеше съвсем жив мъж през тълпата и си искаше отдавна дължими пари за минала услуга.”
― Steven Erikson, Bauchelain and Korbal Broach

“By the Lady’s never-sucked teats!”
“Elas Sil!”
“Oh shut up! I’m a woman, I can curse about things like that. Wait, it’s not as dark up ahead. Come on, and hasn’t that baby of yours been asleep a long time? You sure it’s not dead?”
“Wel, it peed on me halfway down that last corridor, and last I looked it was smiling.”
“Huh. It ever amazes me women get talked into motherhood.”
― Steven Erikson, Bauchelain and Korbal Broach

“Emancipor stood in front of the small bush,listening to the birds chirp to greet the morning whilst he emptied his bladder.
“Look wel on that yelow, murky stream, Mister Reese—”
The manservant started at the voice beside him. “Master! You, uh, surprised me.”
“Thus reducing you to a trickle.”
― Steven Erikson, Bauchelain and Korbal Broach

“Aye, Master. Only, how do we know where that dhenrabi might take us?”
“Oh, we know that, most certainly. Why, the dhenrabi breeding beds, of course.” “Oh.”
― Steven Erikson, Bauchelain and Korbal Broach

“Look!” piped Korbal Broach.

Bauchelain paused. “I see.”

Tucking the mangled head under an arm, Korbal Broach walked to the steps, and up he went.”
― Steven Erikson, Bauchelain and Korbal Broach

“Desire for goodness, Mister Reese, leads to earnestness. Earnestness in turn leads to sanctimonious selfrighteousness, which breeds intolerance, upon which harsh judgement quickly follows, yielding dire punishment, inflicting general terror and paranoia, eventually culminating in revolt, leading to chaos, then dissolution, and thus, the end of civilization.”
― Steven Erikson, The Tales Of Bauchelain and Korbal Broach, Vol 1

“Of course, he was too busy spilling an endless flood of seed into a barely sensate and in no way resisting Captain Sater down in his cabin, and this, as all well know, is the pinnacle of all human virtue, glory and exaltation.”
― Steven Erikson, Bauchelain and Korbal Broach

“— Налага се да обясня връзката ясно, с достатъчно простота, за да може необразованият ти ум да схване значението изцяло. Желанието за доброта, господин Рийзи, води до искреност. Искреността на свой ред води до чувство за свята праведност, която поражда нетърпимост, от която бързо следва строга присъда, налагаща сурово наказание, предизвикващо всеобщ ужас и параноя, което евентуално кулминира в бунт, водещ до хаос, после до разпад и оттам — до край на цивилизацията. — Бавно се обърна и изгледа Емансипор. — А ние сме същества, зависими от цивилизацията. Тя е единствената среда, в която можем да виреем.
Емансипор се намръщи.
— Желанието за доброта води до край на цивилизацията?
— Точно така, господин Рийзи.”
― Steven Erikson, Bauchelain and Korbal Broach

“Evil possessed myriad faces, and some of them were open and genuine.
Whilst others, like Bauchelain’s, revealed nothing, nothing at all.
Imid could not decide which of the two was more frightening.”
― Steven Erikson, Bauchelain and Korbal Broach

“A defense based on the weakness of nature belongs to untutored children and dogs that bite, Captain.”
― Steven Erikson, Bauchelain and Korbal Broach