Quotes from Best Served Cold

“You were a hero round these parts. That's what they call you when you kill so many people the word murderer falls short.”
― Joe Abercrombie, quote from Best Served Cold

“You should laugh every moment you live, for you'll find it decidedly difficult afterwards.”
― Joe Abercrombie, quote from Best Served Cold

“I've made peace with myself.
Good for you. That's the hardest war of all to win.
Didn't say I won. Just stopped fighting.”
― Joe Abercrombie, quote from Best Served Cold

“That was the difference between a hero and a villain, a soldier and a murderer, a victory and a crime. Which side of a river you called home.”
― Joe Abercrombie, quote from Best Served Cold

“My name is Nicomo Cosca, famed solider of fortune, and I am here for dinner.”
― Joe Abercrombie, quote from Best Served Cold

“Have a smile for breakfast, you'll be shitting joy by lunch.”
― Joe Abercrombie, quote from Best Served Cold

“Sometimes men change for the better. Sometimes men change for the worse. And often, very often, given time and opportunity . . .’ He waved his flask around for a moment, then shrugged. ‘They change back.”
― Joe Abercrombie, quote from Best Served Cold

“Things aren't what they used to be' is the rallying cry of small minds. When men say things used to be better, they invariably mean they were better for them, because they were young, and had all their hopes intact. The world is bound to look a darker place as you slide into the grave.”
― Joe Abercrombie, quote from Best Served Cold

“Shivers heaved out a sigh. “Just trying to make tomorrow that bit better than today is all. I’m one of those … you’ve got a word for it, don’t you?”

“Idiots?”

He looked sideways at her. “It was a different one I had in mind.”

“Optimists.”

“That’s the one. I’m an optimist.”

“How’s it working out for you?”

“Not great, but I keep hoping.”

“That’s optimists. You bastards never learn.”
― Joe Abercrombie, quote from Best Served Cold

“What do the dice say?"
Dice say nothing. They are dice."
Why roll'em, then?"
They are dice. What else would I do with them?”
― Joe Abercrombie, quote from Best Served Cold

“Love is a fine cushion to rest upon, but only hate can make you a better person.”
― Joe Abercrombie, quote from Best Served Cold

“One cannot grow without pain. One cannot improve without it. Suffering drives us to achieve great things.”
― Joe Abercrombie, quote from Best Served Cold

“Good steel bends, but never breaks. Good steel stays always sharp and ready. Good steel feels no pain, no pity, and above all, no remorse”
― Joe Abercrombie, quote from Best Served Cold

“You ever have the feeling you were in the wrong place? That if you could just get over the next hill, cross the next river, look down into the next valley, it'd all...fit. Be right."

"All my life, more of less"

“All your life spent getting ready for the next thing. I climbed a lot of hills now. I crossed a lot of rivers. Crossed the sea even, left everything I knew and came to Styria. But there I was, waiting for me at the docks when I got off the boat, same man, same life. Next valley ain’t no different from this one. No better anyway. Reckon I’ve learned … just to stick in the place I’m at. Just to be the man I am.”
― Joe Abercrombie, quote from Best Served Cold

“They've strengthened the walls since last year. I wouldn't fancy trying to storm the place."
"Don't pretend you'd have the guts to storm the place"
"I wouldn't fancy telling someone else to storm the place"
"Don't pretend you'd have the guts to give the orders"
"I wouldn't fancy watching you tell someone else to storm the place."
"No.”
― Joe Abercrombie, quote from Best Served Cold

“The dead can forgive. The dead can be forgiven. The rest of us have better things to do. (Monza Murcatto)”
― Joe Abercrombie, quote from Best Served Cold

“The sunrise was the colour of bad blood. It leaked out of the east and stained the dark sky red, marked the scraps of the cloud with stolen gold. Underneath it the road twisted up the mountainside towards the fortress of Fontezarmo - a cluster of sharp towers, ash-black again the wounded heavens. The sunrise was red, black and gold.
The colours of their profession.”
― Joe Abercrombie, quote from Best Served Cold

“A man can forgive all manner of faults in beautiful women that in ugly men he find entirely beyond sufferance”
― Joe Abercrombie, quote from Best Served Cold

“You are Shenkt? I expected more.”
“Pray to whatever god you believe in that you never see more.”
“I do not pray.”
Shenkt leaned close, and whispered in his ear. “I advise you to start.”
― Joe Abercrombie, quote from Best Served Cold

“Still, it was better to swear an oath and never follow through than not even to bother with the oath. Wasn't it?”
― Joe Abercrombie, quote from Best Served Cold

“One last chance. That’s all I’m asking.” He had lost count of the number of last chances he had wasted. “Just one more. God!” He had never believed in God for an instant. “Fates!” He had never believed in Fates either. “Anyone!” He had never believed in anything much beyond the next drink. “Just one… more… chance.”

“Alright. One more.”

Cosca blinked. “God? Is that… you?”

Someone chuckled. A woman’s voice, and a sharp, mocking, most ungodlike sort of a chuckle. “You can kneel if you like, Cosca.”
― Joe Abercrombie, quote from Best Served Cold

“I've been on jobs like that before, everyone stuck on the money not the work, watching their backs every minute. Bad for your health and your business. We'll do this civilised, or not at all. What do you say?
"I say civilised," said Shenkt. "For pity's sake, let's kill like honest men.”
― Joe Abercrombie, quote from Best Served Cold

“When God means to punish a man He sends him stupid friends and clever enemies.”
― Joe Abercrombie, quote from Best Served Cold

“I have seen hell, it is a great city under siege.”
― Joe Abercrombie, quote from Best Served Cold

“To have a good enemy, choose a friend: he knows where to strike.”
― Joe Abercrombie, quote from Best Served Cold

“A man without discipline is no better than a dog. A soldier without discipline is no better than a corpse. Worse, in fact. A corpse is no threat to his comrades.”
― Joe Abercrombie, quote from Best Served Cold

“Are you entirely sure of that knot?' asked Morveer. 'There is no place in the plan for a lengthy drop'.
'Twenty-eight strides', said Friendly.
'What?'
'The drop'.
A brief pause, 'That is not helpful'.”
― Joe Abercrombie, quote from Best Served Cold

“It was what you gave out that made a man, not what you got back.”
― Joe Abercrombie, quote from Best Served Cold

“To the starving man, bread is beautiful. To the homeless man, a roof is beautiful. To the drunkard, wine is beautiful. Only those who want for nothing else need find beauty in a lump of rock. “Stolicus”
― Joe Abercrombie, quote from Best Served Cold

“You keep your guard too low, I am afraid. You are full of passion, but passion without discipline is no more than a child’s tantrum.”
― Joe Abercrombie, quote from Best Served Cold

About the author

Popular quotes

“Paintings may serve a spiritual purpose for Catholics, but remember too that Protestants see God everywhere, in everything. By painting everyday things—tables and chairs, bowls and pitchers, soldiers and maids—are they not celebrating God’s creation as well?” I”
― Tracy Chevalier, quote from Girl with a Pearl Earring

“right in this moment, I can´t even remember what unhappy feels like.”
― Maggie Stiefvater, quote from Shiver

“It seemed a place where heroes could fitly feast after victory, where weary harvesters could line up in scores along the table and keep their Harvest Home with mirth and song, or where two or three friends of simple tastes could sit about as they pleased and eat and smoke and talk in comfort and contentment.”
― Kenneth Grahame, quote from The Wind in the Willows

“Mama's love had always been the kind that acted itself out with soup pot and sewing basket. But now that these things were taken away, the love seemed as whole as before. She sat in her chair at the window and loved us. She loved the people she saw in the street-- and beyond: her love took in the city, the land of Holland, the world. And so I learned that love is larger than the walls which shut it in. ”
― Corrie ten Boom, quote from The Hiding Place: The Triumphant True Story of Corrie Ten Boom

“There's a Polar Bear
In our Frigidaire--
He likes it 'cause it's cold in there.
With his seat in the meat
And his face in the fish
And his big hairy paws
In the buttery dish,
He's nibbling the noodles,
And munching the rice,
He's slurping the soda,
He's licking the ice.
And he lets out a roar
If you open the door.
And it gives me a scare
To know he's in there--
That Polary Bear
In our Fridgitydaire.”
― Shel Silverstein, quote from A Light in the Attic

Interesting books

About BookQuoters

BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.