Quotes by Mark Lawrence

Thats my secret and my shame. Im Nona Grey, war is in my veins, and the screams of my enemies are music to me.

There is, in the act of destruction, a beauty which we try to deny, and a joy which we cannot. Children build to knock down, and though we may grow around it, that need runs in us, deeper than our blood.

There is, in the act of destruction, a beauty which we try to deny, and a joy which we cannot. Children build to knock down, and though we may grow around it, that need runs in is, deeper than our blood.

Men who are certain of everything - well perhaps they are not men at all.

It doesnt pay to trust a lettered man in the road, Brothers, their heads are full of other mans ideas.

I remember the stink of corruption. It had a kind of sweetness to it, a sweetness thatd make you want to hurl.

After all, that’s all a man really needs: a big city full of sin and sleaze, and a chance.

Give us everything we ask for and suddenly its too much.

Theres a problem with continually stamping down on the least sensible instincts that drive men to recklessly endanger themselves. Even the most reasonable and level-headed of us have only limited space to store such unwanted emotion. You keep putting the stuff away, shoving it to the back of your mind but like an over-full cupboard there comes a point where you try to cram one more thing into it and all of a sudden something snaps, the catch gives, the door bursts open and everything inside spills out on top of you.

The road forgets. Make your life a journey, keep moving toward what you want, leave behind anything thats too heavy to carry.

The holy stone looked for all the world like a small iron pineapple, its surface divided into squares by deep grooves, a tarnished silver-steel handle or lever held tight to the side. In ancient times the pineapple was ever the symbol of welcome, though the church used the objects in a different way. Apparently, each theological student of good family and destined for high office was given one on beginning their training and forbidden from pulling the lever on pain of excommunication. A test of obedience they called it. A test of curiosity I called it. Clearly the church wanted bishops who lacked the imagination for exploration and questioning.

We wrap up our violent and mysterious world in a pretence of understanding. We paper over the voids in our comprehension with science or religion, and make believe that order has been imposed. And, for the most of it, the fiction works. We skim across surfaces, heedless of the depths below. Dragonflies flitting over a lake, miles deep, pursuing erratic paths to pointless ends. Until that moment when something from the cold unknown reaches up to take us. The biggest lies we save for ourselves. We play a game in which we are gods, in which we make choices, and the current follows in our wake. We pretend a separation from the wild. Pretend that a mans control runs deep, that civilization is more than a veneer, that reason will be our companion in dark places.

We wrap up our violent and mysterious world in a pretence of understanding. We paper over the voids in our comprehension with science or religion, and make believe that order has been imposed. And, for the most of it, the fiction works. We skim across surfaces, heedless of the depths below. Dragonflies flitting over a lake, miles deep, pursuing erratic paths to pointless ends. Until that moment when something from the cold unknown reaches up to take us.The biggest lies we save for ourselves. We play a game in which we are gods, in which we make choices, and the current follows in our wake. We pretend a separation from the wild. Pretend that a mans control runs deep, that civilization is more than a veneer, that reason will be our companion in dark places.

At the dockside I was pleasantly surprised to find the North wasnt all hairy men in animal skins. There was also hairy women in animal skins.

The enemy of my enemy may be my friend … of course the friend of my friend is often a jerk.

...and an edge that could cut a truth from a lie.

You can win the victories you seek, Jorg. But only if you find better reasons to want them.

Sometimes the only option is to raise the stakes, to throw yourself the other way, to force your opponent further down the path theyve chosen, further than they might want to go.

“Truth is a weapon and lies are a necessary shield.”

“Tell me, tutor, I said. Is revenge a science, or an art?”