The Blade Itself
Highlights
Once you’ve got a task to do, it’s better to do it than to live with the fear of it.
“The failure of something great is never a simple matter, but where there is success and glory, there must also be failure and shame. Where there are both, jealousies must simmer. Envy and pride led by slow degrees to squabbles, then to feuds, then to wars.”
“This is only the beginning. This is before the beginning. Time opens up ahead of us in pitiless abundance. Days, and weeks, and months of it, if need be.”
“That’s what war is, in my experience. A great deal of waiting, in unpleasant conditions. A great deal of waiting, with occasional moments of the most extreme terror.”
“You only do your job, eh? A well-trodden way to avoid responsibility.”
“A man who doesn’t want opinions should keep his own mouth shut.”
…once you’ve been fool enough to ask for a task, you better do the one you’re given.
It’s when it gets easy that a man makes mistakes.
Laughing with a man was a good step forward. First comes the laughter, then the respect, then the trust.
“Fearlessness is a fool’s boast, to my mind. The only men with no fear in them are the 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.”
“…always do your best to look the coward, the weakling, the fool. Silence is a warrior’s best armour, the saying goes. Hard looks and hard words have never won a battle yet, but they’ve lost a few.”
“…never take an enemy lightly, however much the dullard he seems. Treat every man like he’s twice as clever, twice as strong, twice as fast as you are, and you’ll only be pleasantly surprised. Respect costs you nothing, and nothing gets a man killed quicker than confidence.”
“…once you’ve got your plan in mind, you fix on it and let nothing sway you. Time comes to act, you strike with no backwards glances. Delay is the parent of disaster, my father used to tell me, and believe me, I’ve seen some disasters.”
“Doing better next time. That’s what life is.”
I know it’s quite uncomfortable, but clothes can hide things. Leave a man his clothes and you leave him pride, and dignity, and all kinds of things it’s better not to have in here. I never question a prisoner with their clothes on.
“If a man seeks to change the world, he should first understand it… The tree is only as strong as its root, and knowledge is the root of power.”
To truly know and understand even a blade of grass is the study of a lifetime, and the world is ever changing. That is why we tend to specialize.
“The more you learn, the more you realise how little you know. Still, the struggle itself is worthwhile. Knowledge is the root of power, after all.”
“Some kinds of power are nothing but tricks of the mind.”
“…you’re missing out on one of nature’s greatest gifts to man.” He took a sip and smacked his lips in satisfaction. “Calming to the mind, invigorating to the body. There are few ills a good cup of tea won’t help with.”
“Vengeance can feel fine, but it’s a luxury. It doesn’t fill your belly, or keep the rain off.”
“…you know when you should act, and act quickly, but you also know when not to. That shows restraint, and a calculating mind.”
“Government by committee! Everyone pulling their own way! You can only react, never prepare!”
“The King needs money, so he squeezes the nobles. The nobles squeeze their tenants, the tenants squeeze the peasants. Some of them, the old, the weak, the extra sons and daughters, they get squeezed right out the bottom. Too many mouths to feed. The lucky ones make thieves or whores, the rest end up begging.”
“All an arsehole knows about is shit.”
“Self-pity goes with selfishness, and there is nothing more to be deplored in a leader than that. Selfishness belongs to children, and to half-wits. A great leader puts others before himself. You would be surprised how acting so makes it easier to bear one’s own troubles. In order to act like a King, one need only treat everyone else like one.”
…that was civilisation, so far as Logen could tell. People with nothing better to do, dreaming up ways to make easy things difficult.
“Honour, eh? What the hell is that anyway? Every man thinks it’s something different. You can’t drink it. You can’t fuck it. The more of it you have the less good it does you, and if you’ve got none at all, you don’t miss it.” He shook his head. “But some men think it’s the best thing in the world.”
“The recruiting sergeant sells dreams but delivers nightmares.”
Repetition—the curse of the old.
“No one cares about the past any more,” he whispered. “They don’t see that you can’t have a future without a past.”
“Men must sometimes do what they do not like if they are to be remembered. It is through struggle, not ease, that fame and honour are won. It is through conflict, not peace, that wealth and power are gained.”
The only thing worse than a city full of people is a city with no people at all.
“Every shadow’s cast by something.”
There was no such thing as luck. Luck was a word idiots used to explain the consequences of their own rashness, and selfishness, and stupidity. More often than not, bad luck meant bad plans.
Only friends get left behind. Enemies are always at your heels.
“Treat a man like a dog and sooner or later he’ll bite you, it’s a simple fact. Our role as governors, and as noblemen, is surely to respect and protect the common man, rather than to oppress and scorn him?”
A man doesn’t put on a mask unless he’s got some dark work in mind.
“Knowing your own ignorance is the first step to enlightenment.”
“A length of wood does not by itself make a man wise, or noble, or powerful, any more than a length of steel does. Power comes from the flesh, my boy, and from the heart, and from the head. From the head most of all.”
“The room seems rather small for an echo.”
“We are leaders. War is what happens when we fail.”
Luxury meant captivity more surely than the bars of a cage. Soft furniture spelled danger more surely than weapons. Hard ground and cold water was all she needed. Soft things make you soft, and she wanted no part of that.
If you’re going to travel with a man, and maybe fight alongside him, it’s best to talk, and laugh if you can. That way you can get an understanding, and then a trust. Trust is what binds a band together…
“Where does the wise man hide a stone?” Bayaz hurled back at him. “Among a thousand stones! Among a million!”