The best Quotes from Raven's Shadow

"Mercy is the sweetest wine and the bitterest wormwood," Eliss, the mother, said. "For it rewards the merciful and shames the guilty."

Is a lie really a lie if it is honestly believed?

War is always an adventure to those who've never seen it.

A fool is any man who doesn't think he's a fool.

I cannot believe the path to victory lies in staining our souls so black we become indistinguishable from those we fight.

But people are still people, however comfortable their surroundings. They lie, they feud, they betray and however much you give them, they always want more.

A man doesn't know his true strength until he fears for his life.

Give them the right lie and they'll believe it.

Choice is a lie. The greatest of lies.

A historian is a hunter, my lord. Seeking out signs in the undergrowth of correspondence and memoir, tracking prey via the spoor of memory.

It's always the way with great men, they can't see the knives of those who live in their shadow.

It was a curious effect of pain that time became infinite, every instant of agony prolonged to the ultimate.

"If the stars in the sky are not fixed, then nothing is fixed. Nothing is eternal, all is temporary and ever-changing." She turned away from the stars, meeting his gaze. "Nothing is fixed, my lord. No course is so set it cannot be changed."

"Cruelty is in all of us," he said. "But they made it a virtue."

"Put more than one philosopher together and you'll birth an argument," Erlin commented. "A truism I've observed the world over. In fact, I once saw one argue with himself, it got quite violent in the end."

Only in war does the madman become sane.

Lies are comforting. Truth is painful.

People find it far easier to forgive others for being wrong than being right.

Oh, great warrior? Wars not make one great.

Who's the more foolish? The fool or the fool who follows him?

Success is one part inspiration, nine parts desperation.

It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.

Historians from England will say I am a liar, but history is written by those who have hanged heroes.

To achieve anything great in life you must be willing to make a sacrifice.

The saddest thing about betrayal is that it never comes from enemies, it comes from those you trust the most.

How do you pick up the threads of an old life? How do you go on, when in your heart you begin to understand... there is no going back? There are some things that time cannot mend. Some hurts that go too deep, that have taken hold.

Even the smallest person can change the course of the future.