651 Quotes by Joe Abercrombie

Men can have all manner of deeply held beliefs about the world in general that they find most inconvenient when called upon to apply to their own lives. Few people let morality get in the way of expediency. Or even convenience. A man who truly believes in a thing beyond the point where it costs him is a rare and dangerous thing.

People liked to think of beauty as some natural gift, but Savine firmly believed that just about anyone could be beautiful, if they worked hard at it and spent enough money. It was merely a question of emphasising the good, disguising the bad and painfully squeezing the average into the most impressive configuration. Very much like business, really.

You would’ve thought the more pain you suffered, the more you’d get used to it, but it was the other way around.

A sword has a voice.

You are too full of your own hopes to hold anyone else’s.

That’s the one. I’m an optimist.’ ‘How’s it working out for you?’ ‘Not great, but I keep hoping.’ ‘That’s optimists. You bastards never learn.

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

Seemed that Logen’s father had been right. You can never have too many knives.

Every nation was rich in its own way, but poor in the same.