Blade of Tyshalle Quotes

“It's not always easy to distinguish between existentialism and a bad mood.”
― Matthew Stover, Blade of Tyshalle

“A tale is told of twin boys born to different mothers.
One is dark by nature, the other light. One is rich, the other poor. One is harsh, the other gentle. One is forever youthful, the other old before his time.
One is mortal.
They share no bond of blood or sympathy, but they are twins nonetheless.
They each live without ever knowing that they are brothers.
They each die fighting the blind god.”
― Matthew Woodring Stover, Blade of Tyshalle

“It is a truism that when one is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. The glory of art is that it can show this proverbial hammer how everything looks to a screwdriver--and to a plowshare, and to an earthenware pot. If reality is the sum of our perceptions, to acquire more varying points of view is to acquire, literally, more reality.”
― Matthew Woodring Stover, Blade of Tyshalle

“I won, goddammit. I beat Kollberg. I beat you. I got everything I goddamn wanted: fame, wealth, power. Shit, I even got the girl."
"The problem with happy endings," Tan'elKoth said,"is that nothing is ever truly over."
"Fuck that," Hari said."I am living happily ever goddamn after. I am.”
― Matthew Stover, Blade of Tyshalle

“There are some who say that Time is itself a hammer; that each slow second marks another tap that makes big rocks into little rocks, waterfalls into canyons, cliffs into beaches.
There are some who say that Time is instead a blade. They see the dance of its razored tip, poised like a venomous snake, forever ready to slay faster than the eye can see.
And there are some who say that Time is both hammer and blade.
They say the hammer is a sculptor's mallet, and the blade is a sculptor's chisel: that each stroke is a refinement, a perfecting, a discovery of truth and beauty within what would otherwise be blank and lifeless stone.
And I name this saying wisdom.”
― Matthew Stover, Blade of Tyshalle

“Don't care about gods. Gods are irrelevant. What counts is people. What counts is having respect for each other.”
― Matthew Stover, Blade of Tyshalle

“I read once, somewhere, that the way you know you've grown up is when your future death becomes a stone in your shoe: when you feel it with every step.”
― Matthew Stover, Blade of Tyshalle

“I fear Michaelson not at all. Michaelson is a fiction, you fools. The truth of him is Caine. You do not comprehend the distinction; and so he will destroy you.”
― Matthew Stover, Blade of Tyshalle

“A religion that teaches you God is something outside the world--something separate from everything you see, smell, taste, touch, and hear--is nothing but a cheap hustle.”
― Matthew Stover, Blade of Tyshalle

“The capacity for personal freedom is a rare talent. Talent exists to be used. We do not ask sheep to be wolves; we, the wolves, do not ask ourselves to be sheep. Sheep can make such rules as happen to suit them--but it's foolishly naive to expect wolves to obey.”
― Matthew Stover, Blade of Tyshalle

“We can each sit and wait to die, from the very day of our births. Those of us who do not do so, choose to ask--and to answer--the two questions that define every conscious creature: What do I want? and What will I do to get it? Which are, finally, only one question: What is my will? Caine teaches us that the answer is always found within our own experience; our lives provide the structure of the question, and a properly phrased question contains its own answer”
― Matthew Stover, Blade of Tyshalle

“When you eat, eat. When you sleep, sleep. When you fight, fight.”
― Matthew Woodring Stover, Blade of Tyshalle

“Everything that happens in your life—every single thing—leaves a scar. A permanent scar. You’re not supposed to get over it. To get over something—to erase the mark it left on you—erases part of who you are.”
― Matthew Woodring Stover, Blade of Tyshalle

“The problem with happy endings,” Tan’elKoth said, “is that nothing is ever truly over.”
― Matthew Woodring Stover, Blade of Tyshalle

“Everybody spends their whole lives pretending that shit isn’t random. We trace connections between events, and we invest those connections with meaning. That’s why we all make stories out of our lives. That’s what stories are: ways of pretending that things happen for a reason.”
― Matthew Woodring Stover, Blade of Tyshalle

“If i listen hard enough, i can hear that voice: that small quiet whisper in the back of my head that keeps on insisting "My will, or i won't".”
― Matthew Woodring Stover, Blade of Tyshalle

“The king of the gods took away this man’s family, everyone that he loved—and still this particular man did not surrender.”
― Matthew Woodring Stover, Blade of Tyshalle

“Shit, kid, thinking about that makes me all warm and fuzzy inside, like I just ate a kitten.”
― Matthew Stover, Blade of Tyshalle

“universe.” Tan’elKoth’s tone remained dry and precise, but his face grew ever more grim. “Chambaraya is, one might say, a smaller knot of mind within the Worldmind: what the elves call T’nnalldion. Through Faith, the Bog can get its corporate fingers into that knot, unbind it, and tie it again in their own image.” Avery shook her head blankly, uncomprehending. Tan’elKoth’s expression was bleak as an open grave. “They’ll make of it a world like this one.” “Is that all?” Avery asked, frowning. “You make it sound like a catastrophe.” “It will be an Armageddon unimaginable; it will be genocide on a scale of which Stalin could not have dreamed.” “Wiping out magick doesn’t seem like such a bad thing.” “Businessman,” Tan’elKoth said patiently, “you don’t understand. Magick has not been wiped out on Earth; it is a function of Flow, which is the energy of existence itself. But its state can be altered. And it has been. Once, Earth was home to fully as many magickal creatures as was Overworld: dragons and sea serpents and mermaids, rocs and djann and primals and stonebenders and all. But creatures such as these require higher levels of certain frequencies of Flow than does humanity; as the pattern of Earth degraded, these creatures not only died, but their very bones gave up their integrity. They vanished into the background Flow of your universe.” “You’re saying magick works on Earth?” Avery said skeptically. “Magick works, as you say, everywhere. But the manner in which magick works on Earth is a local aberration; the physics of this planet and its spatial surrounds have been altered to conditions that favor the ascendance of humanity.” “And what’s wrong with that?” “I did not say it was wrong. I do not debate morality. In my zeal to protect my Children, I once favored such a fate for my own world. But it is unnatural. It is both the cause and the result of the ugly twisting of human nature that we see around”
― Matthew Woodring Stover, Blade of Tyshalle

“Life is mere chance only when one allows it to be”
― Matthew Stover, Blade of Tyshalle

“Each of us is the sum of our scars.”
― Matthew Woodring Stover, Blade of Tyshalle

“If reality is the sum of our perceptions, to acquire more varying points of view is to acquire, literally, more reality.”
― Matthew Woodring Stover, Blade of Tyshalle

“THERE ARE SOME who say that Time is itself a hammer: that each slow second marks another tap that makes big rocks into little rocks, waterfalls into canyons, cliffs into beaches. There are some who say that Time is instead a blade. They see the dance of its razored tip, poised like a venomous snake, forever ready to slay faster than the eye can see. And there are some who say that Time is both hammer and blade. They say the hammer is a sculptor’s mallet, and the blade is a sculptor’s chisel: that each stroke is a refinement, a perfecting, a discovery of truth and beauty within what would otherwise be blank and lifeless stone. And I name this saying wisdom.”
― Matthew Woodring Stover, Blade of Tyshalle

“wore no cloak of his own, only a tunic and pants of black leather that seemed to bristle with knives at every angle. These made embracing him an uncomfortable business— But I suppose it would have been so, regardless.”
― Matthew Woodring Stover, Blade of Tyshalle

“I’ll tell you what I think. I think capital-L Life has no meaning in a human sense—it is what it is, like a rock, or the sun, or anything else. It means itself, and that’s all. But that doesn’t mean our lives have no meaning, you follow? Life might not have a meaning of its own, but the stories we tell about it do. You told me once that the universe is a structure of coincidence. It means whatever you decide it means. Which is another way of saying: What your life means depends on how you tell the story.” “That’s not good enough,” I said. Like all words of wisdom, those had been much easier to say than to accept. “What meaning can I possibly give a story like mine?” “How the fuck should I know? Maybe if you just tell it the best you can, it’ll grow its own meaning.”
― Matthew Woodring Stover, Blade of Tyshalle

“Maybe you shouldn’t worry so much about their stories. Maybe you should just pay attention to their roles in your story. Let them worry about what they deserved or didn’t deserve.” “Let the dead bury the dead,” I said. “Yeah. What you’re gonna do about it, that’s your story. You might find things make a little more sense.”
― Matthew Woodring Stover, Blade of Tyshalle

“You never know how things’ll play out. You can’t. The universe doesn’t work that way.” He grinned at me. “So cheer the fuck up, huh?” “No, I—no, I mean . . .” I shook my head, trying to fit all this into my reality. “You found yourself on a precipice, in the dark. So you jumped.” “Every day, Kris. Every fucking day.” And he sounded happy about it.”
― Matthew Woodring Stover, Blade of Tyshalle

“You are now the chokepoint of the Blind God’s ambitions for this world; it is through you its power will still seek to poison us. Your doom is to resist the Blind God with every breath, and to struggle every day to repair the damage he has done through you.” He said, “How can I—?” “You cannot. You will strive without respite until the day of your death, always knowing that you will ultimately fail. Always knowing that the instant you surrender, things you love will begin to die.”
― Matthew Woodring Stover, Blade of Tyshalle

“Don’t preach law to me,” he said there. “I don’t need law. I need justice.”
― Matthew Woodring Stover, Blade of Tyshalle

“Me?” He laughed. “I don’t break rules. I don’t even notice them.”
― Matthew Woodring Stover, Blade of Tyshalle