“Assume nothing,’” he said. The first chapter of the Tactics. “If we figure everyone might be a murderer, we’re less likely to be disappointed.”
―
Brian Staveley,
The Emperor's Blades
“Resist faith. Resist trust. Believe only in what you touch with your hands. The rest is error and air.” ― Brian Staveley, The Emperor's Blades
“Any fool can see what's there. You need to see what is not there.” ― Brian Staveley, The Emperor's Blades
“You squint hard enough, and everything starts to look suspicious.” ― Brian Staveley, The Emperor's Blades
“Men tend to die when you slide steel beneath their skin and wiggle it around. Even priests.” ― Brian Staveley, The Emperor's Blades
“There’s no blade as keen as surprise.” ― Brian Staveley, The Emperor's Blades
“Pain is suffering because we want to be free of it, and pleasure is suffering because we fear to lose it. Fools search for freedom, but there is no freedom. There is only the embrace.” ― Brian Staveley, The Last Mortal Bond
“The man still fighting last week’s battle will always lose to the man already fighting tomorrow’s,” ― Brian Staveley, The Emperor's Blades
“People kill to get power, they kill to keep power, and they kill if they think they might lose it, which is pretty much always. Even if you and I both stay out of it, even if we both die, whoever came after us will keep coming. They’ll find the next threat, the next worrisome voice, the next person with the wrong name or the wrong skin. Maybe they’ll go after the rich for their coin or the peasants for their rice, the Bascans because they’re too dark or the Breatans because they’re too pale—it doesn’t matter.” ― Brian Staveley, The Providence of Fire
“we use the time we have. There is no other.” ― Brian Staveley, The Emperor's Blades
“There’s no shame, the Kettral said, in crying in your own rack. The rest of the equation remained unspoken, axiomatic: you could cry all you wanted in your rack, provided you got up again in a day or two, provided that when you got up, you went back out, and that when you went back out, you were the baddest, fastest, most brutal motherfucker” ― Brian Staveley, The Providence of Fire
“It was strange the way that people venerated truth. Everyone seemed to strive for it, as though it were some unalloyed good, a perfect gem of glittering rectitude. Women and men might disagree about its definition, but priests and prostitutes, mothers and monks all mouthed the word with respect, even reverence. No one seemed to realize how stooped the truth could be, how twisted and how ugly.” ― Brian Staveley, The Last Mortal Bond
“Leadership isn't just about giving orders. A fool can give orders. A leader listens. He changes his mind. He acknowledges mistakes.” ― Brian Staveley, The Emperor's Blades
“Easier to recall a loosed falcon than a spoken word.” ― Brian Staveley, The Emperor's Blades
“It’s built into the job. Bakers have flour, fishermen have nets, and leaders have lies.” Adare” ― Brian Staveley, The Providence of Fire
“The fighters who frighten you are not the fighters to fear. The man you barely notice will be the one to bury a blade in your back.” ― Brian Staveley, The Emperor's Blades
“Hope, as usual, proved to be a miserable bitch.” ― Brian Staveley, The Last Mortal Bond
“Henderson Jakes, the founder of the Eyrie, had envisioned a cadre of elite soldiers dedicated to celibacy, the empire, and the art of war. He had to settle for two out of three. Young men and women willing to leap off massive birds into burning buildings at a mere nod from a commanding officer grew violently rebellious when required to abstain from sex.” ― Brian Staveley, The Emperor's Blades
“I’m doubly sorry for your loss,” the old monk began after a time. “First, because every son should have a chance to know his father, not as a child knows his protector, but as a man knows another man.” ― Brian Staveley, The Emperor's Blades
“Resist faith. Resist trust. Believe only in what you touch with your hands. The rest is error and air.” ― Brian Staveley, The Emperor's Blades
“Any fool can see what's there. You need to see what is not there.” ― Brian Staveley, The Emperor's Blades
“You squint hard enough, and everything starts to look suspicious.” ― Brian Staveley, The Emperor's Blades
“Men tend to die when you slide steel beneath their skin and wiggle it around. Even priests.” ― Brian Staveley, The Emperor's Blades
“There’s no blade as keen as surprise.” ― Brian Staveley, The Emperor's Blades
“Pain is suffering because we want to be free of it, and pleasure is suffering because we fear to lose it. Fools search for freedom, but there is no freedom. There is only the embrace.” ― Brian Staveley, The Last Mortal Bond
“The man still fighting last week’s battle will always lose to the man already fighting tomorrow’s,” ― Brian Staveley, The Emperor's Blades
“People kill to get power, they kill to keep power, and they kill if they think they might lose it, which is pretty much always. Even if you and I both stay out of it, even if we both die, whoever came after us will keep coming. They’ll find the next threat, the next worrisome voice, the next person with the wrong name or the wrong skin. Maybe they’ll go after the rich for their coin or the peasants for their rice, the Bascans because they’re too dark or the Breatans because they’re too pale—it doesn’t matter.” ― Brian Staveley, The Providence of Fire
“we use the time we have. There is no other.” ― Brian Staveley, The Emperor's Blades
“There’s no shame, the Kettral said, in crying in your own rack. The rest of the equation remained unspoken, axiomatic: you could cry all you wanted in your rack, provided you got up again in a day or two, provided that when you got up, you went back out, and that when you went back out, you were the baddest, fastest, most brutal motherfucker” ― Brian Staveley, The Providence of Fire
“It was strange the way that people venerated truth. Everyone seemed to strive for it, as though it were some unalloyed good, a perfect gem of glittering rectitude. Women and men might disagree about its definition, but priests and prostitutes, mothers and monks all mouthed the word with respect, even reverence. No one seemed to realize how stooped the truth could be, how twisted and how ugly.” ― Brian Staveley, The Last Mortal Bond
“Leadership isn't just about giving orders. A fool can give orders. A leader listens. He changes his mind. He acknowledges mistakes.” ― Brian Staveley, The Emperor's Blades
“Easier to recall a loosed falcon than a spoken word.” ― Brian Staveley, The Emperor's Blades
“It’s built into the job. Bakers have flour, fishermen have nets, and leaders have lies.” Adare” ― Brian Staveley, The Providence of Fire
“The fighters who frighten you are not the fighters to fear. The man you barely notice will be the one to bury a blade in your back.” ― Brian Staveley, The Emperor's Blades
“Hope, as usual, proved to be a miserable bitch.” ― Brian Staveley, The Last Mortal Bond
“Henderson Jakes, the founder of the Eyrie, had envisioned a cadre of elite soldiers dedicated to celibacy, the empire, and the art of war. He had to settle for two out of three. Young men and women willing to leap off massive birds into burning buildings at a mere nod from a commanding officer grew violently rebellious when required to abstain from sex.” ― Brian Staveley, The Emperor's Blades
“I’m doubly sorry for your loss,” the old monk began after a time. “First, because every son should have a chance to know his father, not as a child knows his protector, but as a man knows another man.” ― Brian Staveley, The Emperor's Blades
