Tower Lord Quotes

“Beware the seduction of the quick conclusion. Do not indulge in the answer you desire until you know all you need to know.”
― Anthony Ryan, Tower Lord

“It’s always the way with great men, they can’t see the knives of those who live in their shadow.”
― Anthony Ryan, Tower Lord

“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.”
― Anthony Ryan, Tower Lord

“Mercy is the sweetest wine and the bitterest wormwood,” Eliss, the mother, said. “For it rewards the merciful and shames the guilty.”
― Anthony Ryan, Tower Lord

“Is a lie really a lie if it is honestly believed?”
― Anthony Ryan, Tower Lord

“Cruelty is in all of us,” he said. “But they made it a virtue.”
― Anthony Ryan, Tower Lord

“He doesn’t address you properly,” she said. “Because I told him not to. Seems a little silly to stand on ceremony with a man who’s had his finger up your arse.”
― Anthony Ryan, Tower Lord

“I may not be the best Fief Lord, but I’m resolved to be the best uncle. And as a present to my niece I intend to find this priest and watch when you gut him. Would you like that?”
― Anthony Ryan, Tower Lord

“Your realm is an insane place. In Volaria, no-one goes hungry, slaves are no use when they starve. Those freeborn too lazy or lacking in intelligence to turn sufficient profit to feed themselves are made slaves so they can generate wealth for those deserving of freedom, and be fed in return. Here, your people are chained by their freedom, free to starve and beg from the rich. It's disgusting.”
― Anthony Ryan, Tower Lord

“You hide it well, but I can see it, Lord Verniers. You hate us. We have beaten you to obedience but it's still there, like dry tinder waiting for a spark.”
― Anthony Ryan, Tower Lord

“Nobility is a lie. A pretence that high standing comes from anything more than money or martial prowess. Any dolt can play the noble, and as you'll discover in time, daughter, it's mostly dolts who do.”
― Anthony Ryan, Tower Lord

“What is broken remains so, it is the way of things.”
― Anthony Ryan, Tower Lord

“Divinity retains the appearance of insight, when in reality it celebrates ignorance. Its tenets are so much clay, and when the clay sets, it becomes dogma.”
― Anthony Ryan, Tower Lord

“You mistake purpose for cruelty, and I have always had a purpose. I am not mindless.”
― Anthony Ryan, Tower Lord

“Lord Antesh,” Uncle Sentes said. “I see no recognisable flag of truce, do you?” Antesh pursed his lips and shook his head. “Can’t say as I do, my lord.” “Well then.” “. . . swift transportation to any land of your choice,” the Volarian was saying, the scroll held in front of his eyes. “Plus one hundred pounds in gol—” He choked off as Antesh’s arrow punched through the scroll and the breastplate beyond. He tumbled from the saddle and lay still, the scroll pinned to his chest. “Right,” the Fief Lord said, turning away. “Let me know when the rest get here.”
― Anthony Ryan, Tower Lord

“Deceit,’” she said to the Reader, “‘is the hardest sin to divine, for many a lie is spoken in kindness, and many a truth in cruelty.”
― Anthony Ryan, Tower Lord

“Is a lie really a lie if it is honestly believed? Your people sought to make sense of the world’s many mysteries with their Faith. Misguided perhaps, but based on a truth not fully revealed.”
― Anthony Ryan, Tower Lord

“Divinity retains the appearance of insight,’” she read one evening, brows creased with a deep frown. “‘When in reality it celebrates ignorance. Its tenets are so much clay, and when the clay sets, it becomes dogma.”
― Anthony Ryan, Tower Lord

“Throw again . . . Again and again until you hit. Then you know how.”
― Anthony Ryan, Tower Lord