All Quotes

"'There are quiet places also in the mind', he said meditatively. 'But we build bandstands and factories on them. Deliberately — to put a stop to the quietness. ... All the thoughts, all the preoccupations in my head — round and round, continually What's it for? What's it all for? To put an end to the quiet, to break it up and disperse it, to pretend at any cost that it isn't there. Ah, but it is; it is there, in spite of everything, at the back of everything. Lying awake at night — not restlessly, but serenely, waiting for sleep — the quiet re-establishes itself, piece by piece; all the broken bits ... we've been so busily dispersing all day long. It re-establishes itself, an inward quiet, like the outward quiet of grass and trees. It fills one, it grows — a crystal quiet, a growing, expanding crystal. It grows, it becomes more perfect; it is beautiful and terrifying ... For one's alone in the crystal, and there's no support from the outside, there is nothing external and important, nothing external and trivial to pull oneself up by or stand on ... There is nothing to laugh at or feel enthusiast about. But the quiet grows and grows. Beautifully and unbearably. And at last you are conscious of something approaching; it is almost a faint sound of footsteps. Something inexpressively lovely and wonderful advances through the crystal, nearer, nearer. And, oh, inexpressively terrifying. For if it were to touch you, if it were to seize you and engulf you, you'd die; all the regular, habitual daily part of you would die ... one would have to begin living arduously in the quiet, arduously in some strange, unheard of manner."

"I'm afraid of losing my obscurity. Genuineness only thrives in the dark. Like celery."

""Thief is the single most terrifying, immersive, and rewarding game I have played and the one single-player game I continue to replay. In addition to the overriding stealth gamestyle, it is loaded with unique elements that hold one in the world. I love the setting, a medieval tech fantasy world that owes less to D&D than to such literary lights as Fritz Leiber, Jack Vance and Michael Shea. It has a spare, but well-crafted storyline, eccentric NPCs, brilliant verse, and unparalleled sound design. Then there are the enormous, intricate levels: Sprawling towns (both populated and ruinous), haunted crypts, bizarre mansions, lost cities, and the finest subterranean sequences in any game the climactic level being a surreal descent that convinced me I had scrambled many miles towards the earth's core. There are countless books I wish I had written; Thief is one of the few games I wish I had worked on." - Marc Laidlaw, Valve (writer/designer: Half-Life)"

"Hadst I a hammer, wouldst I hammer in the morning. Wouldst I hammer in the evening, all over this land."

"Tell you what. You keepers can plant a few shrubs about town and I'll take care of me. I'll find my own way home."

"Mechanist Guard: I hearken unto they fearful heart: "thump, thump!""

""History is written by the observer. Propaganda is written by the victor." - Keeper Archives"

""Darn boots...stupid toe-pinchers...." - Guard"

"Ooo! Shiny ones!"

"What you want?"

"I care not."

"Ha, you're a queer fellow."

"I've done had enough of this."

"Heya! It's me, Imoen."

"[when taking the leading position] Yer all buffleheaded."

"[when fatigued] Uh-ah. I'm gettin' a little sleepy."

"[when dying] I feel so cold."

"Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, watch it! I'm huge!"

"Magic is impressive, but now Minsc leads! Swords for everyone!"

"You point, I punch."

"Evil 'round every corner. Careful not to step in any."

"(Grumbling) One day... one day..."

"(When hiding in shadows) None shall see me, though my battlecry may give me away."

"(on casting failure) I turned around to shield Boo and I lost my spell. I am not sorry."

"Life is so hollow."

"Oh, what is the point?"

"Our quest is vain."

"Let us save our effort and just lie down and die!"

"I'll do what I can, but expect very little."

"( If the character has a high reputation) With you around, I almost feel that we have a chance!"

"The sun shines, and I'm amazed we live to see another day!"

"Onward, to futility!"

"I surely shall collapse from exhaustion before I fall on the battlefield."

"(In cities) The bluster of the city makes me feel... insignificant."

"Another death in our hopeless crusade"

"It seems our resident suicide monger, Ajantis, lives in a black and white world."

"Dur* Tell me 'bout the raaabits..."

"I ate his liver with a nice Chianti and some Fava beans."

"Take heart fellow adventurers, for you have curried the favor of Boo, the only miniature giant space hamster in the Realm!"

"There is strength in numbers, and I am two or three, at least."

"The bigger they are, the harder I hit!"

""You know... you should really have that looked at." "I am looking at it." - Guards"

"(high-pitched quasi-female voice) Stop TOUCHING me!!"

"(when berserking): Fear not! I will inspire you all by charging blindly on!"

""The ancient corruption was again contained. To do more would have upset the balance, but we knew to remain ever vigilant lest it resurface. Neither the Hammers nor the pagans could be trusted not to meddle." -Keeper Annals"

""In the beginning we lived as thieves, Stealing fur and fang of beasts for survival. Then came the Builder who brought us the Hammer, And with it we forged a new way of life. To reject the Hammer is to denounce the Builder." -The Hammer Book of Tenets"

""Builds your roofs of dead wood. Builds your walls of dead stone. Builds your dreams of dead thoughts. Comes crying laughing singing back to life, takes what you steal, and pulls the skins from your dead bones shrieking." -Clay tablet in an abandoned Trickster temple"

""Come the time of peril, did the ground gape, and did the dead rest unquiet 'gainst us. Our bands of iron and hammers of stone prevailed not, and some did doubt the Builder's plan. But the seals held strong, and the few did triumph, and the doubters were lain into the foundations of the new sanctum." -Collected letters of the smith-in-exile"

""The knowledge of those who came before could neither be disseminated or destroyed. Its power would be a dangerous tool in the wrong hands, but would also insure against future cataclysm. At that time we chose to maintain it with writings preserved in extant locations." -Keeper Annals"

""Gone? Well I'd run too if I saw someone like me looking for... er, me..." - Guard"