Glen Cook: Trending quotes (page 2)

“The power to kill becomes the ultimate power in the hands of a man who has no reservations about employing it.”

Glen Cook book Water Sleeps

Source: Water Sleeps (1999), Chapter 32 (p. 121)

“Only this time it was just a brief rest, till the stars came out. They stared down with mockery in their twinkles, saying all our sweat and blood really had no meaning in the long eye of time. Nothing we did would be recalled a thousand years from now.
Such thoughts infected us all. No one had any ideals or glory-lust left. We just wanted to get somewhere, lie down, and forget the war.
The war would not forget us.”

Glen Cook The Black Company

Source: The Black Company (1984), Chapter 5, “Harden” (p. 140)

War , Lie , Star , Time

“I heard Mather’s blather but it did not register as sense. I uttered, “Tooga ain’t no crazier than any other religion around here.”
That seemed to offend everyone equally.
Good.”

Glen Cook book Bleak Seasons

Source: Bleak Seasons (1996), Chapter 86 (p. 236)

Religion , Sense

“Man, woman and child, the people of Shadowcatch were privy to the one true secret of the universe: there is always a darker shadow lurking beyond the one whose face you can see.”

Glen Cook book Bleak Seasons

Source: Bleak Seasons (1996), Chapter 35 (p. 108)

People , Secret , Universe

“Though it might wear a thousand different names in a thousand different times, and might come from a thousand different directions, darkness always comes.”

Glen Cook book She Is the Darkness

Source: She Is the Darkness (1997), Chapter 69 (p. 517)

Time

“She was not listening. If she listened she would have to hear uncomfortable truths.”

Glen Cook book Soldiers Live

Source: Soldiers Live (2000), Chapter 72, “Midway Between: The Rescuers” (p. 596)

Truth

“The resources would have to come from that absurd wall project. The city was too big to surround effectively. The project could not be justified. It was a tool for transferring the wealth of the state to a few individuals.”

Glen Cook Dreams of Steel

Source: Dreams of Steel (1990), Chapter 29 (p. 332)

Wealth

“The poor idiot is a living testimonial to the fact that everything takes longer and costs more. Even magic can’t get you around that.”

Glen Cook book Bleak Seasons

Source: Bleak Seasons (1996), Chapter 91 (p. 250)

“Desperate people will do what they must to survive. Only a fool would expect the results to be pretty.”

Glen Cook book Water Sleeps

Source: Water Sleeps (1999), Chapter 6 (p. 31)

People , Fools

“Dawn comes early when you wish it would not. The hours flash when you want them to drag.”

Glen Cook book The White Rose

Source: The White Rose (1985), Chapter 56, “Time Fading” (p. 686)

“Sadly, after years of study, I realize that most history may pivot on personal considerations like that, not on the pursuit of ideals dark or shining.”

Glen Cook book Water Sleeps

Source: Water Sleeps (1999), Chapter 5 (p. 22)

History , Study , Personality

“Time is the most wicked of all villains.”

Glen Cook book Water Sleeps

Source: Water Sleeps (1999), Chapter 5 (p. 25)

Time

“Like most villains, he was wicked only most of the time and mainly in small-minded ways.”

Glen Cook book Water Sleeps

Source: Water Sleeps (1999), Chapter 7 (p. 34)

Way , Time

““Truth is a deadly weapon,” Lady said.
“Which is why priests and princes dread it,” I said.”

Glen Cook book Shadow Games

Source: Shadow Games (1989), Chapter 25, “Taglios: Scouting Southward” (p. 127)

Truth

““She was stronger than the gods who created her?”
“Guys, I didn’t make this stuff up. Don’t ask me to rationalize it. Goblin, you’ve been everywhere. You ever seen a religion that can’t be picked to shreds by any nonbeliever with brains enough to tie his own bootlaces?”

Glen Cook book Bleak Seasons

Source: Bleak Seasons (1996), Chapter 42 (p. 120)

God , Religion , Guy

“Hatreds seldom are constrained to rational scales.”

Glen Cook book Soldiers Live

Source: Soldiers Live (2000), Chapter 5, “An Abode of Ravens: Headquarters” (p. 382)

“He couldn’t handle what it meant to have somebody in love with you. Running away was the only thing he knew how to do.”

Glen Cook book The Silver Spike

Source: The Silver Spike (1989), Chapter 1 (p. 457)

Love

“Generating rumors is one thing even the most inept armed force does exceedingly well.”

Glen Cook book Soldiers Live

Source: Soldiers Live (2000), Chapter 78, “Midway Between: Bad News” (p. 615)

“The people come from everywhere, from five hundred miles, to find their fortunes. But Fortune is an ugly, two-faced goddess.
When you have lived with her handiwork for half a generation, you hardly notice anymore. You forget that this is not the way life has to be. You cease to marvel at just how much evil man can conjure simply by existing.”

Glen Cook book Water Sleeps

Source: Water Sleeps (1999), Chapter 11 (p. 55)

Life , People , Way , Evil

“Life is never like a canal, flowing gently through a straightforward and predictable channel. It is more like a mountain brook, zigging and zagging, tearing things up, sometimes going almost dormant before taking an unexpected and turbulent turn.”

Glen Cook book Soldiers Live

Source: Soldiers Live (2000), Chapter 80, “The Taglian Territories: In Camp” (p. 620)

Life , Mountain , Tear