Quotes by Robin Hobb

As long as you believe it is impossible, you close your mind to understanding it.

Gankis lifted an arm to point at the distant shale cliffs. And in the face of it there were thousands of little holes, little what-you-call-ems...Alcoves, Kennit supplied in an almost dreamy voice. I call them alcoves, Gankis. As would you, if you could speak your own mother tongue.

Leave the pain behind and let your life be your own again. There is a place where all time is now, and the choices are simple and always your own.Wolves have no kings

Still I promise myself, Next time I will do better in the all-too-human conceit that I will always be offered a next time.

And what do you believe?”A slow smile spread over his face. “I believe in you. You are my new beginning.

To sate your need without love is theft

Somehow, she said coldly, you have confused profitable and not profitable for right and wrong. I, however, have not.

Ill never miss a chance to remind you of what a brat you were. A gloriously beautiful and very spoiled brat. I was utterly charmed by your complete self-absorption. It was rather like courting a cat.

Everything she sang was true. I will leave it to you as to whether the truth can exist with details omitted, or if those lacks make a lie of it.

How often does a man know, without question, that he has done well? I do not think it happens often in anyones life, and it becomes even rarer once one has a child.

I lied to hurt you. For letting him be dead while you lived. For being loved by him more than he loved me!He loved you more than he ever loved any of the rest of us!

Those were some astounding lies, cub. And the very last one the most inspired of all. You have your fathers talent for it.

Stop your whining. If you are frightened, be silent. Whining is for prey. It attracts predators. And you are not prey.

It was better to leave the space empty of words than to choose the wrong ones.

She is, Althea thought uneasily, what I pretend to be: a woman who does not let her sex deter her from living as she pleases.

He shook his head pityingly. “This, more than anything else, is what I have never understood about your people. You can roll dice, and understand that the whole game may hinge on one turn of a die. You deal out cards, and say that all a mans fortune for the night may turn upon one hand. But a mans whole life, you sniff at, and say, what, this naught of a human, this fisherman, this carpenter, this thief, this cook, why, what can they do in the great wide world? And so you putter and sputter your lives away, like candles burning in a draft.”“Not all men are destined for greatness,” I reminded him.“Are you sure, Fitz? Are you sure? What good is a life lived as if it made no difference at all to the great life of the world? A sadder thing I cannot imagine. Why should not a mother say to herself, if I raise this child aright, if I love and care for her, she shall live a life that brings joy to those about her, and thus I have changed the world? Why should not the farmer that plants a seed say to his neighbor, this seed I plant today will feed someone, and that is how I change the world today?”“This is philosophy, Fool. I have never had time to study such things.”“No, Fitz, this is life. And no one has time not to think of such things. Each creature in the world should consider this thing, every moment of the hearts beating. Otherwise, what is the point of arising each day?

...Ive returned and I look around me and think, Ive missed my life. While I was off and alone, it went on here, without me, and Im forever doomed to be a stranger in my own home.

Assassins take no pride in fighting fairly. We take pride in winning.

There are few things so tender as a mans dignity.

and to die with the Warriors Prayer on his lips. For, Yes, he had sighed on his dying breath, and all knew that was the ultimate prayer one could offer to life. Acceptance.