For once, I had almost thought I could have had something nice, that my mistress luck was about to remove its pointy heels from my chest. But it was just a fool’s dream.

Well, my mother would repeat again that I needed a psychiatrist, and a good one at that.

It was always surprising when she said that, considering that my family was very traditionalist and considered mental health a taboo. Well, look at that, I am the breaker of chains, the wind of progress that makes the most skeptic people want to believe that psychiatrists actually work because, if they don’t, they are stuck with me.

my cat is an asshole who likes my neighbour Sarah more than me. But I do like Sarah more than him too, so, that’s that.

People are not worried about whether they receive less; people worry about whether whatever they received is undistributed well.

Fortune has turned her back on me. She has it in for me; she is a woman, and I am not that way inclined.

- Frederick after the Prussian army was defeated at Kolín, via Frederick the Great: King of Prussia by Tim Blanning

spent one point on the effort to do good and spent ten points on its publicity.

By contrast, he was more concerned about another matter. The flames of gossip lit up in his eyes. "Won't Zi Dian be jealous if you run over to my side? You two must’ve had a lover’s quarrel, right?"

"Hey hey hey!" Ying Ge suddenly glared at him. "Just what kind of relationship do you think we have?! I’ve always regarded that uncle as my father!"

Gu Nan showed an enlightened look and gave a heartfelt sigh. "So he was a stepdad."

-Ascending the Heavens as an Evil God, Chapter 269

“So, what did you learn today, Bast?”
“Today, master, I learned why great lovers have better eyesight than great scholars.”
“And why is that, Bast?” Kote asked, amusement touching the edges of his voice.
Bast closed the door and returned to sit in the second chair, turning it to face his teacher and the fire. He moved with a strange delicacy and grace, as if he were close to dancing. “Well Reshi, all the rich books are found inside where the light is bad. But lovely girls tend to be out in the sunshine and therefore much easier to study without risk of injuring one’s eyes.”

It is only shallow people who do not judge by appearances. The mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible.

- Oscar Wilde

Only priests and fools are fearless, and I've never been on the best of terms with Gods

Those who die healthily are stuffed and displayed in glass-cased shrines as examples of good living.

Dying is a way to tell the world to just… fuck off. Go fuck yourselves, you fucking fucks! Fuck off and fuck off forever and if you don’t know what fucking forever is, take a look at us, you fuckers, we’re fucking forever and we don’t give a fuck about any of you, so just fuck… fuck… fuck off!

-The Collected Tales of Bauchelain and Korbal
           by Steven Erikson

Failure wears many guises, and I have worn them all.