Top 15 Glen Cook Quotes

Do you think we could get a tutor for Varth?”

There were too many secret things going on. And too many perfectly banal, openmouthed evils driven by ambition or fanaticism distracting everyone from the creeping apocalypse.

I did not reflect on what my response, as Captain, would have been toward an underling with my present attitude. The Words Immortal are: That Was Different.

Suvrin had a little too much of the politician in him. Too much of the kind of mind willing to let an individual go so the rest will not be inconvenienced.

I’m an incurable romantic. The essence of romance is an unshakable conviction that next time will be different.

All is not lost. But neither is it found.

Seemed to have made peace with the bad times. Some manage that with comparative ease. Others remain crippled for life. Those are not the sort who remain soldiers. They become ex-soldiers and get intimate with wine or poppies.

But with royalty you never know. They think differently than real people. The real world never quite seems to reach them.

But, no. It was too late. Fortune’s die was cast. The cruel game had to be played to its end, no matter what anyone wanted.

It was the wee hours of the morning, when even the heartbeat of the world had trouble thumping on.

It doesn't make much sense, does it?" my darling whispered to me. "People go at the oddest times and from the oddest causes."
"Soldiers live," I muttered.
"You're turning that into a mantra."
"You feel guilty. You wonder why him and not me, then you're glad it was him and not you, then you feel guilty. Soldiers live. And wonder why.

Being an old cynic myself I have strong notions about the true value of human gratitude. It is a currency whose worth plunges by the hour.

Exact words were of no consequence. At heart the squabble was as old as humanity itself, fug-headed antiques locking horns with omniscient youth.

Against the years all men campaign in vain.

Life is never like a canal, flowing gently through a straightforward and predictable channel. It is more like a mountain brook, zigging and zagging, tearing things up, sometimes going almost dormant before taking an unexpected and turbulent turn.