Quotes From "Prince Of Fools" By Mark Lawrence

Humanity can be divided into madmen and cowards. My personal tragedy is in being born into a world where sanity is held to be a character flaw. Mark Lawrence

Cold has its own taste. It tastes of a bitten tongue. It coils around you, a living thing, a beast that means to kill you, not with wrath, not with tooth nor claw, but with the mercy of surrender, with the kindness of letting you go gentle into the long night after such a burden of pain and misery. Mark Lawrence

And that’s how it is in this world, boy. Start a tale, just a little tale that should fade and die–take your eye off it for just a moment and when you turn back it’s grown big enough to grab you up in its teeth and shake you. That’s how it is. All our lives are tales. Some spread, and grow in the telling. Others are just told between us and the gods, muttered back and forth behind our days, but those tales grow too and shake us just as fierce. Mark Lawrence

When you become a father, it changes you." Snorri spoke towards the fire’s glow. "You see the world in new ways. Those who are not changed were not properly men to begin with. Mark Lawrence

Out here you need to live in the moments. Watch the world. You're a young man, Jal, a child who's refused to grow up. Do it now, or you'll die a young man. Mark Lawrence

Men who’ve made choices always feel they own their destiny. Few ever think to ask who shaped and offered up those choices. Who dangles the carrot they think they’ve chosen to follow. Mark Lawrence

I'm a good liar. A great one. And to be a great liar you have to live your lies, to believe them, to the point that when you tell them to yourself enough times, even what's right before your eyes will bend itself to the falsehood. Mark Lawrence

Genuine surprise is a great help when faced with an unwelcome duty. Of course, when it’s the paying of debts you’re forgetting, that can lead to broken fingers. And worse. I guess it’s a form of lying– lying to oneself. And I’m very good at falsehoods. They often say the best liars half-believe their lies– which makes me the very best because if I repeat a lie often enough I can end up believing it entirely, no half measures involved! . Mark Lawrence

To err is human, to forgive is divine... but I’m only a cardinal and cardinals are human, so rather than forgiving you I’m going to err towards beating you with this stick. Mark Lawrence

We all practice self-deception to a degree; no man can handle complete honesty without being cut at each turn. There's not enough room in a man's head for sanity alongside each grief, each worry, each terror that he owns. I’m well used to burying such things in a dark cellar and moving on. Mark Lawrence

It’s often said that cowards make the best torturers. Cowards have good imaginations, imaginations that torment them with all the worst stuff of nightmare, all the horrors that could befall them. This provides an excellent arsenal when it comes to inflicting misery on others. And their final qualification is that they understand the fears of their victim better than the victim does himself. Mark Lawrence

Sometimes our worst fears aren't realized - though in my experience it's only to make room for the fears our imagination was insufficient to house. Mark Lawrence

There are no other choices for you, Prince Jalan, and when there are no choices all men are equally brave. Mark Lawrence

When a course of action is forced upon you it’s best to accept it with grace and milk it for whatever you can get, right up to the moment the first opportunity to weasel out of the deal presents itself. Mark Lawrence

I’ve never seen a man who understands so little about women and yet is so led about by them. Mark Lawrence

I’m a liar and a cheat and a coward, but I will never, ever, let a friend down. Unless of course not letting them down requires honesty, fair play, or bravery. Mark Lawrence

Part of the art of survival as a coward is not letting things get to the point where that cowardice is exposed. Mark Lawrence

Revenge is a business of calculation, best served cold. Rescue holds more of sacrifice, suicidal danger, and all manner of other madness that should have me running in the opposite direction. Mark Lawrence

All the best secrets are told at night. Mark Lawrence

Still, perhaps that's all lives are, all the world is, a collision of vast conflagrations, each sparked from nothing. Mark Lawrence

Better a long ignoble life of shallow pleasures than a short stab at heroism, ending with a short stab. And just because one man plays another doesn’t always mean that it’s not the right direction for both of them. Mark Lawrence

Never having been troubled by a conscience before, I was far from sure what to expect of one, and so when for a minute or two each day at dawn a voice began to whisper to me to be a better man, I decided the shock of recent events had finally woken mine. My conscience had a name– Baraqel. I didn’t like him much. Mark Lawrence

Battles are all about strategy, and strategy pivots on priorities. Since my priorities were Prince Jalan, Prince Jalan, and Prince Jalan, with “looking good” a distant fourth, I took the opportunity to resume running away. I find that the main thing about success is the ability to act in the moment. A hero attacks in the moment; a good coward runs in it. The rest of the world waits for the next moment and ends up as crow food. Mark Lawrence

It's shame that gets us killed. Shame is the anchor, the heaviest burden to carry from the battlefield. Fortunately shame was an affliction I'd never suffered from. Mark Lawrence

It’s always better to sit on your dignity in private than to stand on it in public. Mark Lawrence

You would think it best to save your breath for running, but I often find screaming helps. Mark Lawrence

Keep still and your troubles find you. I might not have known much about the unborn, but I sure as hell knew about running! Mark Lawrence

A sensible man may fear certain possibilities, but don’t let fear turn possibility into certainty. Mark Lawrence