Best Quotes from First Law Trilogy

We get it. You love dark fantasy. Read the best quotes from The Broken Empire

The Blade Itself

Once you’ve got a task to do, it’s better to do it than live with the fear of it.

The more you learn, the more you realize how little you know. Still, the struggle itself is worthwhile. Knowledge is the root of power, after all.

You have to learn to love the small things in life, like a hot bath. You have to love the small things, when you have nothing else.

There are few men with more blood on their hands than me. None, that I know of. The Bloody-Nine they call me, my enemies, and there’s a lot of ’em. Always more enemies, and fewer friends.

Blood gets you nothing but more blood.

I’m trying to put things in the best light, but a turd’s a turd, whatever light it’s in!

The seeds of the past bear fruit in the present.

Broken hearts heal with time, but broken teeth never do.

Life – the way it really is – is a battle not between good and bad, but between bad and worse.

Treat a man like a dog and sooner or later he’ll bite you,

The tongueless torturer and the flower of chivalry. An unlikely alliance.

The blade itself incites to deeds of violence.

If a man seeks to change the world, he should first understand it.’ The apprentice trotted the words out as if by rote, evidently relieved to be asked a question he knew the answer to. ‘The smith must learn the ways of metals, the carpenter the ways of wood, or their work will be of but little worth. Base magic is wild and dangerous, for it comes from the Other Side, and to draw from the world below is fraught with peril. The Magus tempers magic with knowledge, and thus produces High Art, but like the smith or the carpenter, he should only seek to change that which he understands. With each thing he learns, his power is increased. So must the Magus strive to learn all, to understand the world entire. The tree is only as strong as its root, and knowledge is the root of power.

As far as I’m concerned you can fuck whomever you please, though my general observation has been that, as far as the reputations of young women are concerned, the less fucking the better. The reverse is true for young men of course. Hardly fair, but that’s life.

Walk in God’s footsteps, Ferro Maljinn. “Huh. They have no God here. “Say rather that they have many. “Many? “Had you not noticed? Here, each man worships himself.

The difference between misery and happiness was the right word from her.

Either you are a part of my future, or a relic of the past.

Before They Are Hanged

The mistakes of old, intoned Bayaz with the highest pomposity, “should be made only once. Any worthwhile education, therefore, must be founded on a sound understanding of history

Self-pity was for children and half-wits.

Few indeed are those who get a choice. We do as we are told. We stand or fall beside those who were born near to us, who look as we do, who speak the same words, and all the while we know as little of the reasons why as does the dust we return to.

Rules are for children. This is war, and in war the only crime is to lose.

Travel brings wisdom only to the wise. It renders the ignorant more ignorant than ever

Proof is boring. Proof is tiresome. Proof is an irrelevance. People would far rather be handed an easy lie than search for a difficult truth, especially if it suits their own purposes.

Sometimes it doesn’t matter too much what choice you make, as long as you make it quick and stick to it.

The only difference between war and murder is the number of dead.

Round and round in circles we go, clutching at successes we never grasp, endlessly tripping over the same old failures.

Truly, life is the misery we endure between disappointments.

Fear has made them sloppy. The world teeters at a precipe. All scared to take a step in case they put a foot into empty air. The instinct of self-preservation. It can destroy a man’s efficiency

The lowly have small ambitions, and are satisfied with small indulgences. They need not get fair treatment. They need only think that they do.

Because the vast majority of men would far rather be told what to do than make their own choices. Obedience is easy.

Cleverness is no guarantee of sensible behavior

Rising early. Of course. The second greatest virtue. It comes just behind ruthlessness.

In my experience, a friend is merely an acquaintance who has yet to betray you.

The Last Argument of The Kings

The Great Leveller,’ Dogman whispered to himself, since he was in a thoughtful frame of mind. That’s what the hillmen call him. Death, that is. He levels all differences. Named Men and nobodies, south or north. He catches everyone in the end.

You get what you give, in the long run, and manners cost nothing

Expect nothing and you won’t be disappointed. Expect nothing and you’ll get nothing.

An excessive and a brutal act, but better to act with too much force than too little. Better to be held in fear, than in contempt. There is no place for sentiment in politics.

Men must sometimes do what they do not like if they are to be remembered

We should forgive our enemies, but not before they are hanged.

Honour, eh? What the hell is that anyway? Every man thinks it’s something different. You can’t drink it. You can’t fuck it. The more of it you have the less good it does you, and if you’ve got none at all you don’t miss it.

People love to see death. It reminds them that however mean, however low, however horrible their lives become… at least they have one.

Fearlessness is a fool’s boast, to my mind. The only men with no fear in them are dead, or the soon to be dead, maybe. Fear teaches you caution, and respect for your enemy, and to avoid sharp edges used in anger.

An open mind is like to an open wound,’ growled Glokta. ‘Vulnerable to poison.’

Strange, isn’t it,’ mused Glokta as he watched him struggle for air. ‘Big men, small men, thin men, fat men, clever men, stupid men, they all respond the same to a fist in the guts. One minute you think you’re the most powerful man in the world.

A man lost in the desert must take such water as he is offered, no matter who it comes from.

One should learn the lessons of history. The mistakes of the past need only be made once. Unless there are no other choices

There was no such thing as luck. Luck was a word idiots used to explain the consequences of their own rashness, and selfishness, and stupidity. More often than not bad luck meant bad plans.

Don’t deceive yourself. Everyone is guilty of something, and even the innocent can be a threat. Perhaps it takes small crimes to prevent bigger ones, Colonel West, but it’s up to bigger men than us to decide.

We are leaders. War is what happens when we fail. Or are pushed into failure by the rash and the foolish. Victory is better than defeat, but not by much.

Men must sometimes do what they do not like if they are to be remembered. It is through struggle, not ease, that fame and honor are won. It is through conflict, not peace, that wealth and power are gained.

The seeds of the past bear fruit in the present.

This was a place of learning, and wonder, and great beauty.’

Time has not been kind to the place. Time is never kind.