All Quotes

"A few other works, half of which turn out to be rubbish. Always a problem with written sources, which frequently tell you far more about the person who wrote them than the subject addressed."

"Earthworms are theologically neutral creatures, as far as I know."

"I won’t dismiss it from the list just yet. But it needs verification. Everything needs verification."

"The world is not always so friendly a place that you can afford to squander your advantages on a pointless conceit."

"I can think of no greater nightmare than to lose my ability to read."

"Pen cleared his throat. “Do you normally try to murder people you’ve just met?” Although that was what a soldier did, he supposed."

"Perhaps the absence of risk should not be mistaken for the presence of fortitude."

"Pen wondered at a world that hanged poor men for thievery, but celebrated great ones."

"This demon seemed slow to deploy even the most basic magics, but maybe dolphins didn’t think in terms of arson."

"The princess-archdivine once quipped to me that our friends are what the gods give us to make up for our families."

"Dying is easy. Surviving is hard."

"Reform is resisted by everyone who has an interest in it not taking place at their expense."

"You’re worse than evil. You’re inefficient."

"Don’t promote your troubles beyond your rank."

"No prayer addressed to my god ever returned any useful insight."

"Mira does not gossip about her clients. Very rigid rule, I gather. The highest rank of Lodi courtesans don’t; that’s part of how they became the highest rank."

"Nikys had never believed that clothes made the man, but the lack of them certainly did."

"Des, it seemed, was much less terrified by this return to Cedonia than he was. Of course, a demon could not be killed exactly. Are you saying I would be a surprise? Oh, Pen. You have been a surprise from the beginning."

"Assassins can cross borders where armies can’t."

"Penric smiled and advanced, feeling dimly that the first thing a man said to his intended’s respected mother probably shouldn’t be Quick, take your clothes off!"

"It didn’t seem wise to assume all had gone as planned."

"He wouldn’t say pray, as he’d decided long ago not to bother the gods with questions when he didn’t really want to hear the answers."

"One gives you the shirt off his back, mused Des, and the other offers to help you bury bodies. I do believe you have made some new friends, Pen!"

"Time. It did not wait for any human want, or grief, or plan. Or careful list. Nearly half her life might be behind her already. It was time to get started on the next half."

"And that was just how it worked, wasn’t it? Happiness handed around and around, never stopping. It wasn’t something one could hoard tight like a miser. That would be like trying to hold one’s breath for later."

"Just once, Pen thought glumly, he’d like to get an answer to prayers, instead of being delivered as one."

"Pen spared a moment of fresh loathing for the sectarian idiocy that made even children afraid."

"Some poetic epics extolled heroism in warriors; Adelis the actual soldier put his faith in logistics."

"Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times begins to seem like a message to be ignored at one’s peril."

"Pen would pray to his God for guidance, but he never did get any back when he did that, so he supposed he must use his own judgment."

"She made the best of herself through tidiness and health, not by the unearned gift that’s the blessing and curse of those born beautiful."

"“Five gods avert,” said Rede. And then, after a pensive moment, “Do They?” “Not that I can tell,” said Pen. “I’ve sometimes wondered if the gods regard death not as a dreaded ending, but as a welcome beginning.” “Of what?” “I am deeply not sure. Which doesn’t stop people from making up a thousand tales.”"

"It turns out languages are like children. Once you have six, adding a seventh hardly makes any difference."

"Don’t borrow trouble the interest rate is much too high."

"“This is why medicine can’t be my calling,” said Pen dimly. “The demand is endless, and I’ve learned I am not. Only the gods could deal with all the world’s pain, all at once, all the time. It’s a wonder they’re not driven mad. Unless they have been, which would explain some things. Theologically speaking.”"

"There were many Temple sorcerers in great Thasalon, which drew all men of ambition to it, whether like flies to honey or to manure a matter of opinion."

"“I thought you already knew everything.” “Knowledge is not the same thing as understanding. I have a profound need to understand. Everything.”"

"The man was embezzling demons?"

"His further study of humanity had revealed just how much people could convince themselves that their own needs were those of the gods, and not the other way around."

"I did not say that well, Pen fretted. No, said Des thoughtfully as they turned away, but you said it true. Which is better, and more rare."

"“A quagmire of delay,” Lady Xarre observed, “has trapped efforts at righting wrongs before.”"

"No tactical plan should hinge on one’s enemy making the right mistake."

"Really, murmured Des, Tronio is like a chicken that brought its own pot and onions."

"Tolga guided him not to the morgue, but to a patient chamber alloted mostly to a dozen crippled old indigent men, some brought in to be healed, some to die. For a beggar, Pen was not entirely sure it was a better death than in an alley or under a bridge; death was never a comfortable process, despite cots and sheets and usually overworked attendants, and it took longer here."

"She used to ask, 'Why did the gods give [my son] to me if they were only going to take him away?' Learned Retaka never had an answer. "No," said Pen slowly, "that's backward. The gods do not give us our children. We give our children to the gods.""

"Over and over in his career, Pen had confronted the insight that the gods did not care for humans' material concerns, much to the humans' dismay. Only with what record of them was carved into their souls by their unique and individual lives, presented as the final offering upon the alter of their deaths. All deaths, in whatever form. One by one, each attended to with the same singular consideration. Each valuated with the discernment of a connoisseur adding to his collection. Each placed in the niche found most fitting to it. Denied by self-will sometimes, by the gods' will at others, but never lost by carelessness."

"We see the world not as it is, but as we are. ~ Dag Redwing Hickory Bluefield"

"Her eyes were full of new; it made them brighter."

"Words won't break bones seemed like the lying-est lie Barr had ever been told, as a child. Bones knit eventually, he knew from close personal experience. The scars of slander, an insult not just delivered but believed, might never heal in a lifetime."

""Thing is... she may get mad, but she isn't whiny or naggy about it. She doesn't store it up like a, a compost heap, all hot on the inside and rotting. She's angry like she has a right, and no one disputes it." She added after a moment, "Or tells her to be a good girl, or be quiet, or apologize. Or go to her room" ~ Lily Mason, on why she admires Captain Amma"