Key Insights & Memorable Quotes
Below are the most popular and impactful highlights and quotes from Before They Are Hanged:
“So we wait?” asked Severard.“We wait, and we look to our defences. That and we try to find some money. Do you have any cash, Severard?”“I did have some. I gave it to a girl, down in the slums.”“Ah. Shame.”“Not really, she fucks like a madman. I’d thoroughly recommend her, if you’re interested.”Glokta winced as his knee clicked. “What a thoroughly heartwarming tale, Severard, I never had you down for a romantic. I’d sing a ballad if I wasn’t so short of funds.”“I could ask around. How much are we talking about?”“Oh, not much. Say, half a million marks?”One of the Practical’s eyebrows went up sharply. He reached into his pocket, dug around for a moment, pulled his hand out and opened it. A few copper coins shone in his palm.“Twelve bits,” he said. “Twelve bits is all I can raise.”
“Few indeed are those who get a choice. We do as we are told. We stand or fall beside those who were born near to us, who look as we do, who speak the same words, and all the while we know as little of the reasons why as does the dust we return to.”
“The skies make no special dispensation for Magi, boy, they piss on everyone the same.”
“Very well, Practical Vitari, if you really can’t resist me. You’ll have to go on top, though, if you don’t mind.”
“Course. Doing better next time. That’s what life is.”
“We are leaders. War is what happens when we fail. Or are pushed into failure by the rash and the foolish. Victory is better than defeat, but . . . not by much.”
“Don’t deceive yourself. Everyone is guilty of something, and even the innocent can be a threat. Perhaps it takes small crimes to prevent bigger ones, Colonel West, but it’s up to bigger men than us to decide.”
“Never doubt another's choices, I say. You can't know his reasons.”
“All the great heroes of old, you know - the great kings, the great generals - they all faced adversity from time to time.” Jezal looked up. He had almost forgotten that Bayaz was there. “Suffering is what gives a man strength, my boy, just as the steel most hammered turns out the hardest.”
“Honour, eh? What the hell is that anyway? Every man thinks it's something different. You can't drink it. You can't fuck it. The more of it you have the less good it does you, and if you've got none at all you don't miss it.”
“Anyone can face ease and success with confidence. It is the way we face trouble and misfortune that defines us.”
“People love to see death. It reminds them that however mean, however low, however horrible their lives become… at least they have one.”
“Those with the least always lose the most in war.”
“A man lost in the desert must take such water as he is offered, no matter who it comes from.”
“All an arsehole knows about is shit. ~ Dogman”
“An open mind is like to an open wound,' growled Glokta. 'Vulnerable to poison.”
“Strange, isn't it,' mused Glokta as he watched him struggle for air. 'Big men, small men, thin men, fat men, clever men, stupid men, they all respond the same to a fist in the guts. One minute you think you're the most powerful man in the world. The next you can't even breathe by yourself.”
“A man who does't want opinions should keep his own mouth shut.”
“You don’t have to be ready. You just have to go.”
“There was no such thing as luck. Luck was a word idiots used to explain the consequences of their own rashness, and selfishness, and stupidity. More often than not bad luck meant bad plans.”
“One should learn the lessons of history. The mistakes of the past need only be made once. Unless there are no other choices. ~ Bayaz”
“Say one thing for Logen Ninefingers, say he's a lover.”
“I have a conscience, but it’s a feeble, withered shred of a thing. It couldn’t protect you or anyone else from a stiff breeze.’ Glokta sighed, long and hard. The room was too hot, too bright, his eyes were sore and twitchy and he rubbed at them slowly as he spoke. ‘You could not even guess at the things that I have done. Awful, evil, obscene, the telling of them alone could make you puke.’ He shrugged. ‘They nag at me from time to time, but I tell myself I had good reasons. The years pass, the unimaginable becomes everyday, the hideous becomes tedious, the unbearable becomes routine. I push it all into the dark corners of my mind, and it’s incredible the room back there. Amazing what one can live with.”
“They have that most strange and dangerous of qualities,” said Cosca. “They think they’re in the right.”
“As for being a good man,’ and Glokta curled his lip, ‘that ship sailed long ago, and I wasn’t even there to wave it off.”
“Empathy? What’s that?” Glokta winced as he rubbed at his aching leg. “It’s a sad fact, but pain only makes you sorry for yourself.”
“Well,” Logen had to admit, “there is that.” Luthar’s head dropped even lower, and Logen clapped him on the arm. “But you didn’t get killed! Cheer up, boy, you’re lucky! You’re still alive, aren’t you?” He gave a miserable nod. Logen slid his arm around his shoulder and guided him back towards the horses. “Then you’ve got the chance to do better next time.” “Next time?” “Course. Doing better next time. That’s what life is.”
“Got to have fear to have courage,”
“A choice between killing and dying is no choice at all. You have to be realistic about these things. b”
“We should forgive our enemies, but not before they are hanged.”
