Last Argument of Kings (The First Law Trilogy Book 3)

Ninefingers was talking of himself, of course, as everyone always does, given the chance.

“How?” hissed Glokta. “If I wished to attend to every detail myself I would have no need of your services.

Say one thing for Logen Ninefingers, say he’s a cunt. Simple as that.

Do you know what’s worse than a villain? A villain who thinks he’s a hero. A man like that, there’s nothing he won’t do, and he’ll always find himself an excuse.

It can be a fearsome weapon, patience. One that few men ever learn to use.

People would far rather be handed an easy lie than search for a difficult truth, especially if it suits their own purposes.

His eyes slid sideways to the streets. Different-coloured eyes, Jezal noticed, one blue, one green.

anyone in a position of high authority ever really knew what they were doing. The best one could hope for was to maintain some shred of an illusion that one might. And occasionally, perhaps, try to give the mindless flood of events the slightest push in one direction or another, hoping desperately that it would turn out to be the right one.

If you want to be a new man you have to stay in new places, and do new things, with people who never knew you before. If you go back to the same old ways, what else can you be but the same old person?