Glen Cook Quotes

They (i. e., the peasants) could imagine no future more grim than their past.

Bomanz had lived his lies so long he often lied to himself.

It is not necessarily for mercenary soldiers to know what is going on. It is sufficient for them to do the job for which they have taken the gold. That had been drummed into me from the moment I enlisted. There is neither right nor wrong, neither good nor evil, only our side and theirs. The honor of the company lies within, directed one brother toward another. Without, honor lies only in keeping faith with the sponsor.

And there is no time. There is a war on.
Always there is a war on.

All is not lost. But neither is it found.

Baladitya understands that in addition to being foreign territory the past is, as history, a hall of mirrors that reflect the needs of souls observing from the present. Absolute fact serves the hungers of only a few disconnected people. Symbol and faith serve the rest.

That your solution to everything? Cut somebody's throat?"
"Always slows them down.

Public works which did not serve the rich and powerful had a way of dying of neglect.

He couldn’t handle what it meant to have somebody in love with you. Running away was the only thing he knew how to do.

I said, “I am a soldier, grown old and tired and confused. I have been fighting since before you were born. And I have yet to see anything gained.”

Literacy is sorcery itself in the hinterland.

Can you read?"
I nodded.
"Rules are posted over there. You got two choices. Obey them. Or be dead.

I do hope that karma is the keystone of the universe—even if I have to come back as a banana slug myself.

“Truth is a deadly weapon,” Lady said.
“Which is why priests and princes dread it,” I said.

Smeds did not give a rat’s ass who ran things as long as they left him alone. Most people felt that way.