[Otataral Toblakai]

This particular thread will, hopefully, contain the best 'quotes' found in the series. Ill start off with what I found as the best quote.

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'Children are dying.'

Lull nodded. 'That's a succinct summary of humankind, I'd say. Who needs tomes and volumes of history? Children are dying. The injustices of the world hide in those three words. Quote me, Duiker, and your work's done.'

The bastard's right. Economics, ethics, the games of the gods - all within that single, tragic statement. I'll quote you, soldier. Be assured of that.

A conversation between Duiker and Lull.

Kindly pitch in and state what you found were the best bunch of sentences in the series. You can post multiple quotes.

This post has been edited by Otataral Toblakai: 07 August 2012 - 09:48 AM

[POOPOO MCBUMFACE]

Quote

"The soul knows no greater anguish than to take a breath that begins with love and ends with grief. But there are other anguishes, many others. They unfold as they will, and to dwell within them is to understand nothing.
"Except, perhaps, this. In love, grief is a promise. As sure as Hood's nod. There will be many gardens, but this last one to visit is so very still Not meant for lovers. Not meant for dreamers. Meant only for a single figure, there in the dark, standing alone.
"Taking a single breath."

There's not many people can condense grief to its raw essence.

More to come, but this is one that always hit me - hit me fucking hard - way before I knew the feelings it addressed. And ain't that the point?

[Otataral Toblakai]

 POOPOO MCBUMFACE, on 06 March 2012 - 01:58 AM, said:

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"The soul knows no greater anguish than to take a breath that begins with love and ends with grief. But there are other anguishes, many others. They unfold as they will, and to dwell within them is to understand nothing.
"Except, perhaps, this. In love, grief is a promise. As sure as Hood's nod. There will be many gardens, but this last one to visit is so very still Not meant for lovers. Not meant for dreamers. Meant only for a single figure, there in the dark, standing alone.
"Taking a single breath."

There's not many people can condense grief to its raw essence.

More to come, but this is one that always hit me - hit me fucking hard - way before I knew the feelings it addressed. And ain't that the point?

'nuff said.

[Otataral Toblakai]

Quote

with five suspected cult leaders greeting the dawn with smiling throats

This post has been edited by Otataral Toblakai: 07 August 2012 - 09:48 AM

[Otataral Toblakai]

Quote

Isolation had many children, and dissolution was but one of them – yet its path was unique, forthat path began when identity was left behind.

This post has been edited by Otataral Toblakai: 07 August 2012 - 09:48 AM

[Otataral Toblakai]

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To live a hard life was to make solid and impregnable every way in, until no openingsremained and the soul hid in darkness, and no one else could hear its screams, its railing at injustice, its long, agonizing stretches of sadness. Hardness without created hardness within.

Sadness was, she well knew, not something that could be cured. It was not, in fact, a failing, not a flaw, not an illness of spirit. Sadness was never without rea­son, and to assert that it marked some kind of dysfunction did little morethan prove ignorance or, worse, cowardly evasiveness in the one making the assertion. As if happiness was the only legitimate way of being. As if those failing at it needed to be locked away, made so porific with medications; as if the causes of sad­ness were merely traps and pitfalls in the proper climb to blissful contentment, things to be edged round or bridged, or leapt across onwings of false elation.

This post has been edited by Otataral Toblakai: 07 August 2012 - 09:49 AM

[Otataral Toblakai]

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Kallor shrugged. 'If that would help. More directly, however, you seem to forget my... experience. For all that I seem to grate upon all of you, I have walkedthis land when the T'lan Imass were but children. I have commanded armies ahundred thousand strong. I have spread the fire of my wrath across entirecontinents, and sat alone upon tall thrones. Do you grasp the meaning of this?'

'Yes.You never learn, Kallor.'

This post has been edited by Otataral Toblakai: 07 August 2012 - 09:50 AM

[Otataral Toblakai]

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From histories and philosophies and religions came an understanding of human motivation, and motivation lay at the heart of tactics and strategy. Just aspeople moved in patterns, so too did their thoughts.

'The demands of the self have primacy, mistress. Always, else there would be no champions. There would be no hierarchy at all. The Seguleh would be ruled by mewling martyrs blindly trampling the helpless in their lust for the common good. Or we would be ruled by despots who would hide behind an army to every challenge, creating of brute force a righteous claim to honour. We know ofother lands, mistress. We know much more than you think.'

This post has been edited by Otataral Toblakai: 07 August 2012 - 09:50 AM

[Otataral Toblakai]

As usual, Erikson's philosophical dialogues are breathtaking - and thesis worthy.

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"I must perforce make the linkage plain, of sufficient simplicity to permit youruneducated mind to grasp all manner of significance. Desire for goodness, Mister Reese, leads to earnestness. Earnestness in turn leads to sanctimonious self-righteousness, which breeds intolerance, upon which harsh judgment quickly follows, yielding dire punishment, inflicting general terror and paranoia, eventually culminating in revolt, leading to chaos, then dissolution, and thus, the end of civilisation."

He slowly turned, looked down upon Emancipor.

"And we are creatures dependent upon civilisation. It is the only environment inwhich we can thrive."

Emancipor frowned. "The desire for goodness leads to the end of civilisation?"

"Precisely, Mister Reese."

"But if the principal aim is to achieve good living and health among the populace, what is the harm in that?"

Bauchelain sighed. "Very well, I shall try again. Good living and health, as you say, yielding well-being. But well-being is a contextual notion, a relative notion. Perceived benefits are measured by way of contrast. In any case, the result is smugness, and from that an overwhelming desire to deliver conformity among those perceived as less pure, less fortunate—the unenlightened, if you will. But conformity leads to ennui, and then indifference. From indifference, Mister Reese, dissolution follows as a natural course, and with it, once again, theend of civilisation."

"Allright all right, Master, we are faced with the noble task of confounding the end of civilisation."

"Well said, Mister Reese. I admit I find the ethical aspects of our mission surprisingly . . . refreshing."

This post has been edited by Otataral Toblakai: 07 August 2012 - 09:52 AM

[The Swordbearer]

Wide eyed stupid.

[Salt-Man Z]

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The unnamed soldier is a gift. The named soldier—dead, melted wax—demands a response among the living...a response no one can make. Names are no comfort, they're a call to answer the unanswerable. Why did she die, not him? Why do the survivors remain anonymous—as if cursed—while the dead are revered? Why do we cling to what we lose while we ignore what we still hold?

Name none of the fallen, for they stood in our place, and stand there still in each moment of our lives. Let my death hold no glory, and let me die forgotten and unknown. Let it not be said that I was one among the dead to accuse the living.

[Phaedrus]

There is something profoundly cynical, my friends, in the notion of paradise after death. The lure is evasion. The promise is excusative. One need not accept responsibility for the world as it is, and by extension, one need do nothing about it. To strive for change, for true goodness in this mortal world, one must acknowledge and accept, within one's own soul, that this mortal reality has purpose in itself, that its greatest value is not for us, but for our children and their children. To view life as but a quick passage along a foul, tortured path - made foul and tortured by our own indifference - is to excuse all manner of misery and depravity, and to exact cruel punishment upon the innocent lives to come. I defy this notion of paradise beyond the gates of bone. If the soul truly survives the passage, then it behooves us - each of us, my friends - to nurture a faith in similitude: what awaits us is a reflection of what we leave behind, and in the squandering of our mortal existence we surrender the opportunity to learn the ways of goodness, the practice of sympathy, empathy, compassion and healing - all passed by in our rush to arrive at a place of glory and beauty, a place we did not earn, and most certainly do not deserve.

-The Apocryphal teachings of Tanno Spiritwalker Kimloc

EDIT: Also I cant forgot....

"I am not yet done."

This post has been edited by Phaedrus: 19 March 2012 - 12:31 PM

[Trull's spearmaker]

Samar Dev saw Rhulad Sengar bare his teeth in an ugly smile. 'Another giant,' he said. 'How many times shall you kill me? You, with the blood of my kin already on your hands. Twice? Three times? It will not matter. It will not matter! '

Karsa Orlong, bold with his claims, brazen in his arrogance, uttered but five words in reply: 'I will kill you . . . once.'

[f4nat1c]

It was about to begin. And, suddenly, each breath filling his lungs tasted sweeter than the last, and all that his eyes fixed upon seemed to throb with life. He looked upon things and thought that he had never before seen such colours, such textures--the world was made anew on all sides, but had he come too late to it? Only moments left to savour this gift of glory?
Vedith prepared to lead his first army into battle, and in that moment he hated Warleader Gall, who forced this upon him. He did not want to command a thousand warriors. He did not want the weight of their gazes, the crushing awarness of their faith in him.
He wished he had the courage to flee.
But he did not.
For Gall had chosen well.
-----

Fiddler snorted. "Sapper, listen to me. It's easy to listen and even easier to hear wrongly, so pay attention. I'm no wise man, but in my life I've learned that knowing something--seeing it clearly--offers no real excuse for giving up on it. And when you put what you see into words, give 'em to somebody else, that ain't no invitation neither. Being optimistic's worthless if it means ignoring the suffering of this world. Worse than worthless. It's bloody evil. And being pessimistic, well, that's just the first step on that path, and it's a path that might take you down Hood's road, or it takes you to a place where you can settle into doing what you can, hold fast in your fight against that suffering. And that's an honest place, Cuttle."


"Its the place, Fiddler," said Brys, "where heroes are found."


But the sergeant shook his head. "That don't matter one way or the other. It might end up being as dark as the deepest valley at the bottom of your ocean, Commander Beddict. You do what you do, because seeing true doesn't always arrive in a burst of light. Sometimes what you see is black as a pit, and it just fools you into thinking that you're blind. You're not. You're the opposite of blind."

This post has been edited by f4nat1c: 21 March 2012 - 02:43 PM

[f4nat1c]

Sunrise smiled to himself at hearing Sweetlard try out that Malazan way of talking. "Aye." It's a good word, I think. More a whole attitude than a word, really. With lots of meaning in it, too. A bit of 'yes' and a bit of 'well, fuck' and maybe some 'we're all in this mess together.' So, a word to sum up the malazans. He uttered his own sigh and settled his head back. "Aye," he said.And the others nodded. He knew they did, and he didn't even have to look. We're tightening up. Just like Dead Hedge said we would. Just like that, aye.

[Salt-Man Z]

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The Queen hesitated, and then said, "When you spoke of your people's opinions...of these marines of the Malazan Empire, was there truth to your words?"

He straightened. "Highness, although the great Coltaine of the Crow Clan had many Wickans with him, he also possessed marines. Together, they escorted thirty thousand refugees across a third of a continent, and each step of the journey was war."

"Have I not misunderstood then, Warleader? Did not Coltaine fail? Did he not die? And everyone with him?"

The warrior's eyes were suddenly old. "He did. They all died—the Wickans, the marines."

"Then I do not—"

"They died, Highness, even as they delivered those thirty thousand refugees to safety. They died, but they won."

[Oddball]

"Witness."

[f4nat1c]

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"Somethings are more real than others. For everyone. Each one, different, always different. What's the most real to you? What you believe has to do with surviving. It doesn't go any further, does it? What if I told you that it used to be that for almost everybody? Before the cities, before people invented being rich. Before some people found other things to believe in. Before they made those things more real than anything else. Before they decided it was all right even to kill for them. Or enslave people. Or keep them stupid and poor."

"Wisdom grows by stripping away beliefs, until the last tether is cut, and suddenly you float free. Only, because your eyes are wide open, you see right away that you can't float in what you're in. You can only sink. That's why the meanest religions work so hard at keeping their followers ignorant. Knowledge is poison. Wisdom is depthless. Staying ignorant keeps you in the shallows."

- Sinn

[bcarson]

"That's not nice"

Ublala Pung when finding Calm kneeling over the dead Mappo.

[Kanese S's]

Freedom had been won... at the cost of everything.