Steven Erikson citations

Page 2

“Gods, I wish the world was full of passive women. He thought for a moment longer, then scowled. On second thoughts, what a nightmare that'd be. It's the job of a man to fan the spark into flames, not quench it…”

“Soldiers are issued armour for their flesh and bones, but they must fashion their own for their souls. Piece by piece. (Itkovian)”

“We are all lone souls. It pays to know humility, lest the delusion of control, of mastery, overwhelms. And, indeed, we seem a species prone to that delusion, again and ever again."
~Fiddler, pg. 558”

“I am here to arrest your manservant. The one named Bugg.’
‘Oh, now really, his cooking isn’t that bad.”

“When you've burned the bridges behind you, don't go starting a fire on the one in front of you.”

“And over it all, the butterflies swarmed, like a million yellow-pettalled flowers dancing on swirling winds.”

“Shake your fist all you want but dead is dead.”

“Chaos needs no allies, for it dwells like a poison in every one of us.”

“We have a talent for disguising greed under the cloak of freedom. As for past acts of depravity, we prefer to ignore those. Progress, after all, means to look ever forward, and whatever we have trampled in our wake is best forgotten.”

“Name none of the fallen, for they stand in our place, and stand there still in each moment of our lives. Let my death hold no glory, and let me die forgotten and unknown. Let it not be said that I was one among the dead to accuse the living.”

“Words are like coin—it pays to hoard."
"Until you die on a bed of gold," Paran said.”

“It is an extraordinary act of courage,' said Tulas Shorn, 'to come to know a stranger's pain.”

“Shadow is ever besieged, for that is its nature. Whilst darkness devours, and light steals. And so one sees shadow ever retreat to hidden places, only to return in the wake of the war between dark and light.”

“It is one thing to lead by example with half a dozen soldiers at your back. It is wholly another with ten thousand.”

“Never, dear gods. Never mess with mortals.”

“I was needed, but I myself did not need. I had followers, but not allies, and only now do I understand the difference. And it is vast.”

“I warn you all, hatred is finding fertile soil within me. And in your compassion, in your every good intention, you nurture it.”

“No-one chooses me. I do not give anyone that right. I am Karsa Orlong of the Teblor. All choices belong to me.”

“Desires should never be justified,' Tehol said, wagging a finger. 'All you end up doing is illuminating the hidden reasons by virtue of their obvious absence.”

“Courting is the art of growing like mould on the one you want.”

“Now, invite me in, before I lose my temperature.’

‘Temper, you mean.’

‘No, temperature. It’s getting chilly.”

“In war everyone loses. This brutal truth can be seen in the eyes of every solider in every world.”

“Hatred is a most pernicious thing, finding root in any kind of soil. It feeds on itself.”

“You cannot be remade unless you are first broken.”

“You mortals baffle me.”

“But now Apsalar was trying to tell him that competence was not justification. That necessity demanded its own path and there was no virtue to be found at its heart.”

“What worth peace when it was maintained by threat?
It was only the fearful who knelt in worship before order, and Galar refused to leave in fear.”

“An army that waits is soon an army at war with itself.”

“He had nowhere to look for answers, and he was tired of asking questions.”