651 Quotes by Joe Abercrombie

What is it about power, that it has to be higher up than everyone else? Can a man not be powerful on the ground floor?

All things considered, and well against the run of luck, he reckoned he’d come out alright. Might be he’d lost an eye down here in Styria. Might be he was leaving no richer than when he’d stepped off the boat. But he was a better man, of that he’d no doubt. A wiser man. Used to be he was his own worst enemy. Now he was everyone else’s.

Pain is the best schoolmaster, as you will soon discover.

Aye, but do they really kneel to him, or to the elf-weapons his guards carry?” “What matters is that they kneel.” “Are fear and respect really the same?” “Of course not,” said Yarvi, walking on and leaving more of his many guards to clear away the crowd. “Respect soon blows away in a storm. Fear has far deeper roots.” Teams of.

A good thief goes unseen. A truly great one merely goes unnoticed. She.

The thing about history is you don’t know what the right side is till long afterwards, and by then it hardly matters.” “That’s the sort o’ thing you hear from folk who know they’re on the wrong side.

Some men you stick to right off. But it’s those that take time to stick that stick longest.

Have a smile for breakfast, you'll be sh—ting joy by lunch.

An open mind is like to an open wound. Vulnerable to poison. Liable to fester. Apt to give its owner only pain.