You know what they say: ‘Men have throats and daggers have sharp edges’.
All the way home, his wound pulsing with every hearbeat, he had cursed himself for a fool. How could he think she loved him? He had never been loved in his life, save perhaps by Erik and the other men who had served with him across the sea, and that was the love of comrades. He had never known the love of women, just their embrace. Twice he had found tears running down his face...
No matter how canny you think you are, something can come along, bam, and put you on your prat.
What is he?’ ‘What would you have him be?
The trick to not being discovered until it is too late is to become part of the expected surroundings. Stealth is more the art of blending in with the background than sneaking through dark shadows.
Remember, never rely on one plan, Tal. Always have two or more in place when you undertake something perilous. If the first one fails, go to the second plan. If the second plan fails, go to the third.” “If the third plan fails, Your Grace?” Kaspar laughed. “Then run like hell if you’re still alive.
We’ll never again be the boys we once were, Tomas. But we’ve become so much more than we dreamed.
Knowing what things are not is often as important as knowing what they are.
Debts of friendship are not debts.
Warlords who fail in conducting war tend to fall from grace quickly.
Fear had driven two enemies into each other’s arms and he smiled at that thought. ‘They fear me more than they do each other and that is good’ he thought.
It was an interesting dilemma and with all such dilemmas an opportunity might emerge. ‘How best to turn this setback into an advantage,’ he wondered silently.
We saw what we saw. Whether it was a place or a vision in our mind, it doesn’t matter. We must act upon what we experienced, so to that end, yes, it was real.’ ‘Now?
You can be as sharp-tongued as a viper, but you can also be as sweet as wild clover honey.
There is always a choice, though it is not always apparent.
It is the single blackest shame in the memory of our race that one segment of our people utterly destroyed another. ‘But.
Your human gods love to present you with such riddles and challenges, or so it has seemed to me for most of my life... You often seem to prefer difficult choices when simple alternatives are available; it is a constant source of amazement to my kind.
You see, there are few objective limits. What they teach you is useful, but never accept the proposition that just because a solution satisfies a problem, that it must be the only solution.
The ways of the heart are complex.” He looked out at the ocean again. “The waves churn and break upon the rocks, Talon. So do human feelings. Passion can be a man’s undoing. With passion must come wisdom; otherwise, your enemies have a weapon to use against you.
When you lose everything,’ Nathan had said, ’you’ve nothing left to lose. You’ve got two choices then: either kill yourself or start building a new life. When I started this new life, without my family, I decided the only sensible thing in it was to live for the small rewards: a job well done, a beautiful sunrise, the sound of children laughing at play, a good cup of wine. Makes it easy to deal with the harsher side of life.