Joe Abercrombie - The Blade Itself (2006)

12 Sourced Quotes

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Fearlessness is a fool's boast, to my mind. The only men with no fear in them are dead, or the soon to be dead, maybe. Fear teaches you caution, and respect for your enemy, and to avoid sharp edges used in anger. All good things in their place, believe me. Fear can bring you out alive, and that's the very best anyone can hope for from any fight. Every man who's worth a damn feels fear. It's the use you make of it that counts.

Joe Abercrombie
Every man has his excuses, and the more vile the man becomes, the more touching the story has to be. What is my story now, I wonder?

Joe Abercrombie
Once you've got a task to do, it's better to do it than live with the fear of it.

Joe Abercrombie
Travel brings wisdom only to the wise. It renders the ignorant more ignorant than ever.

Joe Abercrombie
But you can't truly hate a man without loving him first, and there's always a trace of that love left over.

Joe Abercrombie
Luck is a woman. She's drawn to those that least deserve her.

Joe Abercrombie
You have to learn to love the small things in life, like a hot bath. You have to love the small things, when you have nothing else

Joe Abercrombie
People love to see death. It reminds them that however mean, however low, however horrible their lives become… at least they have one.

Joe Abercrombie
A friendship between a man and a woman was what you called it when one had been pursuing the other for a long time and never gotten anywhere.

Joe Abercrombie
There are few men with more blood on their hands than me. None, that I know of. The Bloody-Nine they call me, my enemies, and there's a lot of 'em. Always more enemies, and fewer friends. Blood gets you nothing but more blood. It follows me now, always, like my shadow, and like my shadow I can never be free of it. I should never be free of it. I've earned it. I've deserved it. I've sought it out. Such is my punishment.

Joe Abercrombie
It's hard to stay calm when you're terrified, helpless, alone, at the mercy of men with no mercy at all.

Joe Abercrombie
You don't pick your family, you take what you're given and you make the best of it.

Joe Abercrombie