Assassin's Apprentice

When you cut pieces out of the truth to avoid looking like a fool you end up looking like a moron instead.

Don’t do what you can’t undo, until you’ve considered what you can’t do once you’ve done it.

Very little worth knowing is taught by fear.

Nothing takes the heart out of a man more than the expectation of failure.

When you spring to an idea, and decide it is truth, without evidence, you blind yourself to other possibilities.

All events, no matter how earthshaking or bizarre, are diluted within moments of their occurrence the the continuance of the necessary routines of day-to-day. -Fitz Most prisons are of our own making. A man makes his own freedom, too. -Chade When you cut pieces out of the truth to avoid looking like a fool, you end up sounding like a moron instead. -Burrich We left. Walking uphill and into the wind. That suddenly seemed a metaphor for my whole life. -Fitz

That is the trick of good government. To make folk desire to live in such a way that there is no need for its intervention.

Too late to apologize, I've already forgiven you.

When considering a man's motives, remember you must not measure his wheat with your bushel. He may not be using the same standard at all.

Learning is never wrong. Even learning how to kill isn't wrong. Or right. It's just a thing to learn, a thing I can teach you. That's all.

How do you politely explain to someone that you had believed for years he was a moron as well as a Fool? Fitz in Assassin's Apprentice

Men cannot grieve as dogs do. But they grieve for many years.

People are intimidated by a man who acts with no apparent regard for consequences. Behave as if you cannot be touched and no one will dare to touch you.

It doesn't have to be that bad,' Chade said quietly. 'Most prisons are of our own making. A man makes his own freedom, too.

My silences he mistook for a lack of wit rather than a lack of any need to speak.

Utter loneliness was planted in me then, and sent its deep roots down into me.

Chade, I know the Fool is strange. But I like it when he comes to talk to me. He speaks in riddles, and he insults me, and makes fun of me, and gives himself leave to tell me things he thinks I should do, like wash my hair, or not wear yellow. But (...) I like him. He mocks me, but from him, it seems a kindness. He makes me feel, well, important. That he could choose me to talk to.

Most prisons are of our own making. A man makes his own freedom, too.

One had a knife. But I had a staff and was trained to use it.

My perception of my life crashed from high tragedy to juvenile self-pity in a matter of moments.

All events, no matter how earthshaking or bizarre, are diluted within moments of their occurrence by the continuance of the necessary routines of day-to-day living.

It was inside me. The more I sought it, the stronger it grew. It loved me. Loved me even if I couldn't, wouldn't, didn't love myself. Love me even if I hated. It set its tiny teeth in my soul and braced and held so that I couldn't crawl any further. And when I tried, a howl of despair burst from it, searing me, forbidding me to break so sacred trust. It was Smithy.

The art of diplomacy is the luck of knowing more of your rival's secrets than he knows of yours.

I'd rather I was a stray pup,' I made bold to say. And then all my fears broke my voice as I added, "You wouldn't let them do this to a stray pup, changing everything all at once. When they gave the bloodhound puppy to Lord Grimsby, you sent your old shirt with it, so it would have something that smelled of home until it settle in.' 'Well,' he said, "I didn't ... come here, fitz. Come here, boy.' And puppy-like, I went to him, the only master I had, and he thumped me lightly on the back and rumbled up my hair, very much as if I had been a hound.

I do not know whom I wish to win; until I do, I will let no player be eliminated.

Because your heart will be hammered against him, and your strength will be tempered in his fire.

I think myself cured of all spite, but when I touch pen to paper, the hurt of a boy bleeds out with sea-spawned ink, until I suspect each carefully formed black letter scabs over some ancient scarlet wound.

One can only walk so far from one's true self before the bond either snaps, or pulls back. I am fortunate. I have been pulled back.

I don't know" "When a man says that, it usually means, "No, I won't but from time to time, I'll toy with the idea, so I can pretend i eventually intend to do it.

That night I grasped another piece of the puzzle that Burrich had always been to me. For there is a very strange peace in giving over your judgment to someone else, to saying to them, “You lead and I will follow, and I will trust entirely that you will not lead me to death or harm.