“They are human, after all, and it is human nature to transform loss into a virtue. So that it might be lived with, so that it might be justified.” — Steven Erikson Copy Share Image
“No matter, they weren’t going anywhere. Never again. Two skeletons buried beneath a dead city. No more fitting a barrow for a warrior of the Apocalypse and a Malazan soldier. That seemed just, poetic even. He would not complain, and when he stood at this sergeant’s side at Hood’s Gate, he would be proud for the company.So much had changed… — Steven Erikson Copy Share
“I was reminded ... the way that wood crumbles into dissolution.’ ‘The release of energy. Perhaps a better way of seeing it.’ ‘Such release is ever fatal.’ ‘Among plants, yes,’ said Caladan Brood. Among plants ... ‘I think of the breath we give them — our gift.’ ‘And the breath they give back,’ said the warlord, ‘that burns if touched.… — Steven Erikson Copy Share
“I am here to arrest your manservant. The one named Bugg.’ ‘Oh, now really, his cooking isn’t that bad.” — Steven Erikson Copy Share Image
The more civilized a nation, the more conformed its population, until that civilization's last age arrives, when multiplicity wages war with conformity. The former grows ever wilder, ever more dysfunctional in its extremities; whilst the latter seeks to increase its measure of control, until such efforts acquire diabolical tyranny.' - Traveller — Steven Erikson Copy Share
“People in great need were quick to find blame in themselves, quick to assume the burden of guilt for things they in truth had no control over and could not hope to change. It was, she had begun to understand, integral to the very nature of belief, of faith. A need that could not be answered by the self was… — Steven Erikson Copy Share
“Envy shrugged. 'Can no value be found in good intentions?' 'What, precisely, are you trying to justify? And to me, or yourself?' She glared,… — Steven Erikson Copy Share Image
Any reasonable ruler would have the expectation and the demand the other way round. — Steven Erikson Copy Share Image
“The existance of many gods conveys true complexity of mortal life. Conversely, the assertion of but one god leads to a denial of complexity,… — Steven Erikson Copy Share Image
“All right, shadow-priest, you've been spying — on what? What state secrets have you learned watching me groom these horses?' 'Only that they hate you, Daru. Every time your back was turned, they got ready to nip you — only you always seemed to step away at precisely the right moment-' 'Yes, I did, since I knew what they were… — Steven Erikson Copy Share
“There is nothing wrong with where we are, how we are. You spit on satisfaction, leaving you always unsettled and miserable. I am a Teblor – we live simply enough, and we see the cruelty of your so-called progress. Slaves, children in chains, a thousand lies to make one person better than the next, a thousand lies telling you this… — Steven Erikson Copy Share
“Why do I hate spiders? Gods, who doesn't? What a stupid question.” — Steven Erikson Copy Share Image
It is an extraordinary act of courage,' said Tulas Shorn, 'to come to know a stranger's pain. — Steven Erikson Copy Share Image
