The Wheel of Osheim

Nothing paralyses a man so well as choice.

Courtesy costs nothing, which makes it the ideal gift when you’re as cheap as I am.

Fuck that!" My turn to drop the scroll-case as though it were hot. "...your stewardness." "'Highness' is the correct form of address when the steward is of noble birth... if we're being formal, Jalan." "Fuck that, your highness.

A practised liar gets good at noticing the failings of those with less practice.

I’m a liar and a cheat and a coward, but I will never, ever, rarely let a friend down.

Your dreams are what will tear you apart. Every man is the victim of his own imagination: we all carry the seeds of our own destruction.” He tapped a long finger to his forehead. “It feeds on your fears.

Being on a galloping camel bears several resemblances to energetic sex with an enormously strong and very ugly woman.

Give him what he wants,” Jorg had said. “Then take what you want. Nobody is more vulnerable than in their moment of victory, and you know that whatever you do this man will never let you go while he lives.” I

Steward, it's our place to protect you." "If I die in your absence Prince Jalan is to be demoted to peasant. There, I should be safe enough now?

I’m an amiable drunk. Given enough time I always reach the point where every man is my brother.

Interesting,” I said, by which I meant “shut the fuck up.

I warn you, Captain, God crafted these creatures for three things only. Passing wind from the rear end, passing wind from the front end, and spitting. They spit stomach acid so tell your men, and don't let anyone venture into the hold with a naked flame or you may find yourself the master of a marvelous collection of floating splinters. Also, we'll all drown.

But truly? In my secret heart, Jalan? What drives me is that I will not let that bitch win. She has raised her hand against me and mine. She will die by my own hands. There’s no life everlasting for that one. No new world. This is a war, boy. My war. I am the Red Queen—and I do not lose.” She

It’s an odd thing to be sad about someone in death that you never really cared for in life and a thing that chooses its own moment to sneak up on you—usually

Pride lets a man be skewered on the point of other people’s expectations.

The things that time wants to keep, it buries.

Whilst running away is a great strategy, a good coward always takes the unfair advantage.

perhaps we hurt for the lost opportunities, for the conversation that would have released all the unspoken words, for the way it should have been. “Where

A man’s first taste of the poppy gives him something glorious and wonderful, something that he strives to recapture with each return to the resin, but in the end he needs to smoke it just to feel human. Life is the same for many of us—a few scant years of golden youth when everything tastes sweet, every experience new and sharp with meaning. Then a long slow grind to the grave, trying and failing to recapture that feeling you had when you were seventeen and the world rolled out before you.

Never drink small if it’s at someone else’s expense.

I had dug myself into Hell by not having the bravery to admit my cowardice. I resolved not to get into a similar situation again.

Your dreams are what will tear you apart. Every man is the victim of his own imagination: we all carry the seeds of our own destruction.’ He tapped a long finger to his forehead. ‘It feeds on your fears.

The key if one wishes to avoid dwelling on unpleasant memories or inconvenient truths is to keep yourself occupied.

A life lived well is one you’re not prepared to compromise just in order to draw it out for another day.” “Well

It strikes me that in this Hell a man of sufficient will, a man willing to sacrifice anything, might bend the world itself around his desire and create of himself whatsoever he wished. It also strikes me that I am not such a man. Snorri’s

It doesn’t take long in Hell before your definition of “good company” reduces to “not dead.” For

Interesting,” I said, by which I meant “shut the fuck up.” Why

A coward can forgive himself anything given the right excuse,