Цитаты из книги Принц Терний

Cowards should be treated with respect. Cowards best know how to hurt. Corner one at your peril.

Brother Row you could trust to make a long shot with a short bow. You could trust him to come out of a knife fight with somebody else`s blood on his shirt. You could trust him to lie, to cheat, to steal, and to watch your back. You couldn`t trust his eyes though. He had kind eyes, and you couldn`t trust them.

Some said that Red Kent had a black heart, and that might be true, but anyone who had seen him take out a six-strong foot patrol with hatchet and knife would tell you the man had an artist`s soul.

"I do fear you," the girl said. "Not for your size, Jorg. For the threads tha gather around you. For the lines that meet where I can`t see them. For the weight, and the knife-edge on which it sits." She spoke in a sing-song, high and sweet.
"You make a fine oracle, girl," I said. "You`ve got that mix of profound and empty just right."

I had to admire his ability to wrong-foot me. I stood there armed with accusations, burdened with all my yesterdays, and he`d turned away from me, to the future.

There are turning points, Robart. Forks in the path we follow through our lives. Times that we look back to and say, 'If only.' This is one of those times. It`s not often we get them pointed out to us. At this point you`ll either decide to hate me, or to serve me. Consider the choice carefully.

No bath. It`s about time for a little road-stink at court. Soft words and rose water may please the gentry, but those that fight the war live dirty. I return to my father as a man who has shared the soldier`s lot. Let him know the truth of it.

"Terror and entertainment are weapons of statehood, Jorg." Lundist kept his tone neutral, his face inscrutable save for a tightness in the lips suggesting that the words carried a bad taste. "Execution combines both elements."

It`s always been that way with me. Answers come when I stop trying to think it through and just speak. The best plan I`ll come up with is the one that happens when I act.

It never pays to walk blind. Especially not in your own castle where familiarity hides so much -- even when we have eyes to see.

We are defined by our enemies -- but also we can choose them. Make an enemy of hatred, Jorg. Do that and you could be a great man, but more importantly, maybe a happy one.

I wanted some new truth from Lundist. Explain me, to me. Whatever the words, that was my question, youth to old age. But even tutors have their limits.

It`s the silence that scares me. It`s the blank page on which I can write my own fears.

"A man who`s got no fear is missing a friend, Jorg," he said, and a smile found its way onto those sick lips of his. "Running ain`t no bad thing. Leastways if you run in the right direction." He waved a hand toward where Rike wrestled with a clump of bulrushes, the mud up to his chest already. "Fear helps a man pick his fights. You`re fighting them all, my prince."

A knife is a scary thing right enough, held to your throat, sharp and cool. The fire too, and the rack. And an old ghost on the Lichway. All of them might give you pause. Until you realize what they are. They`re just ways to lose the game.

War, my friends, is a thing of beauty. Those as says otherwise are losing. If I`d bothered to go over to old Bovid, propped up against the fountain with his guts in his lap, he`d probably take a contrary view. But look where disagreeing got him.

Когда в чем-то сомневаешься, позволь ненависти вести тебя. Обычно я не следовал этому совету. Он делает тебя предсказуемым.

Я поспешил вперед, внутренний голос тихо нашептывал обо всем сразу: о слабости, которая острее клинка, о заточенном лезвии ножа, убивающем в мгновение ока, о раскаленном железе, прижигающем рану, чтобы подавить заражение. Вот только о любви к ближнему голос молчал.