Quotes from The Black Company

Glen Cook ·  319 pages

Rating: (31.3K votes)


“Evil is relative…You can’t hang a sign on it. You can’t touch it or taste it or cut it with a sword. Evil depends on where you are standing, pointing your indicting finger.”
― Glen Cook, quote from The Black Company


“If one chooses sides on emotion then the rebel is the guy to go with. He is fighting for everything men claim to honour, freedom, independance, truth, the right.......all the subjective illusions. All the eternal trigger words. We are minions of the villan of the piece. We confess the illusion and deny the substance.”
― Glen Cook, quote from The Black Company


“Any man who barely sustains an armistice with himself has no business poking around in an alien soul.”
― Glen Cook, quote from The Black Company


“Consider little children. There are not many of them not cute and lovable and precious, sweet as whipped honey and butter. So where do all the wicked people come from?”
― Glen Cook, quote from The Black Company


“Only a conquerer bothers to honor a fallen foe.”
― Glen Cook, quote from The Black Company



“You who come after me, scribbling these Annals, by now realize that I shy off portraying the whole truth about our band of blackguards. You know they are vicious, violent, and ignorant. They are complete barbarians, living out their cruelest fantasies, their behavior tempered only by the presence of a few decent men. I do not often show that side because these men are my brethren, my family, and I was taught young not to speak ill of kin. The old lessons die hardest.”
― Glen Cook, quote from The Black Company


“I was my usual charming morning self, threatening blood feud with anyone fool enough to disturb my dreams.”
― Glen Cook, quote from The Black Company


“Still, the best augurs are those who divine from the portents of the past. They compile phenomenal records.”
― Glen Cook, quote from The Black Company


“Ah, the smell of mystery and dark doings, of skulduggery and revenge. The meat of a good tale.”
― Glen Cook, quote from The Black Company


“I damned myself for my earlier romanticism. That Croaker who had come north, so thoroughly bemused by the mysterious Lady, was another man. A stripling, filled with the foolish ignorances of youth. Yeah. Sometimes you lie to yourself just to keep going.”
― Glen Cook, quote from The Black Company



“One endured with humble dignity the consequences of youthful folly.”
― Glen Cook, quote from The Black Company


“The price of order,” I muttered. I tried to run the dog off. It wouldn’t budge.
“The cost of chaos,” Tom-Tom countered. Thump on his drum. “Not quite the same thing, Croaker.”
― Glen Cook, quote from The Black Company


“A herd of minuscule lightning bugs poured out of One-Eye's nostrils. Good soldiers all, they fell into formation, spelling out the words Goblin is a Poof.
― Glen Cook, quote from The Black Company


“Back to the company. Back to business. Back to the parade of years. Back to the annals. Back to fear.”
― Glen Cook, quote from The Black Company


“Nevertheless, four hours after dawn they began dying for their cause.”
― Glen Cook, quote from The Black Company



“Closer at hand, the wheeling gulls were as surly and lackadaisical as the day promised to make most men.”
― Glen Cook, quote from The Black Company


“The Hanged Man stopped gesturing and struck a pose: man listening.”
― Glen Cook, quote from The Black Company


“One-Eye’s handicap in no way impairs his marvelous hindsight. Lightning”
― Glen Cook, quote from The Black Company


“Okay, Croaker. What the hell happened?”
“I don't know. The falling sickness?”
“Give him some of his own soup,” somebody suggested. “Serve him right.” A tin cup appeared. We forced its contents down his throat.
His eye clicked open. “What are you trying to do? Poison me? Feh! What was that? Boiled sewage?”
“Your soup,” I told him.”
― Glen Cook, quote from The Black Company


About the author

Glen Cook
Born place: in The United States
Born date July 9, 1944
See more on GoodReads

Popular quotes

“Inflation had spun out of control as a direct result of the land invasions. In breaking its own laws and dispossessing its own citizens, the state not only destroyed the sector of the economy that provided 50 percent of its foreign revenue, but it also frightened away foreign investors. Without foreign currency to pay its bills, the government simply started printing money. Then more money. And still more. Once they started, they couldn’t stop; it became an addiction.”
― quote from The Last Resort: A Memoir of Zimbabwe


“The ancient Egyptians believed the god Anubis met each of us on the other side, and that he stood before a great scale on which our hearts were set. There each was weighed, tested, for its worth.
Was this the heart I wanted measured?”
― Victor LaValle, quote from Big Machine


“I can’t stand it. I have my circle and that’s it. I don’t want to tell people outside the circle. I don’t want them to have to find out. I don’t let anyone in…”
“And yet,” I said, gulping air, getting a hold of myself. “Here I am.”
“Here you are…” He said, his eyes roaming my face. “Believe me, I didn’t want to let you in. But it was almost as if…”
“What?” I whispered.
“As if I didn’t have a choice,” He said. “I tried to keep [my] walls up, keep to my routine… But you got in anyway.” He gently swiped a tear from my chin. “You feel it too, right?”
I nodded. “Yes.”
― Emma Scott, quote from Full Tilt


“The Monster’s crimes were so horrific that a mere man could not possibly have committed them. Satan, in the end, had to be invoked.”
― Douglas Preston, quote from The Monster of Florence


“My plainness of speech makes them hate me, and what is their hatred but a
proof that I am speaking the truth.”
― Plato, quote from Apology


Interesting books

The Invisible Circus
(4.9K)
The Invisible Circus
by Jennifer Egan
Saddled and Spurred
(5.8K)
Saddled and Spurred
by Lorelei James
An Enemy of the People
(6.5K)
An Enemy of the Peop...
by Henrik Ibsen
Brother Odd
(54.5K)
Brother Odd
by Dean Koontz
Dark Kiss
(7.7K)
Dark Kiss
by Michelle Rowen
The Lost Years
(16K)
The Lost Years
by T.A. Barron

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.