Grimdark Quotes

“The day will come when you need them to respect you, even fear you a little. Laughter is poison to fear.”
― George R.R. Martin, A Game of Thrones

“The hard truths are the ones to hold tight. - Old Bear”
― George R.R. Martin, A Game of Thrones

“She’s dressed in a white her soul doesn’t reflect, a drop-dead beauty with drop-dead morals.”
― Halo Scot, Echoes of Blood

“We play with the gifts the Gods bestow upon us . And who are they to us? Either carpets to our thrones or casualties on the way.”
― Gourav Mohanty, Sons of Darkness

“The worlds need your words. The stars need your stories.”
― Halo Scot, The Mortality Experiment: A Grimdark Science-Fiction Novel

“The man had committed genocide. She knew she could trust him.”
― Gourav Mohanty, Sons of Darkness

“Nothing works out how we want, but everything works out for the best.”
― Halo Scot, The Mortality Experiment: A Grimdark Science-Fiction Novel

“Though I built a beautiful tomorrow, yesterday came crashing down.”
― Halo Scot, The Mortality Experiment: A Grimdark Science-Fiction Novel

“Some books burn.”
― Halo Scot, The Mortality Experiment: A Grimdark Science-Fiction Novel

“I’d like to travel, to see strange worlds and live strange lives, full of strange tomorrows. And I’d like to live this life…with you.”
― Halo Scot, The Mortality Experiment: A Grimdark Science-Fiction Novel

“...it was strange how circumstances would rarely let one be the hero, however much one might want to be. However much one might deserve to be.”
― Joe Abercrombie, The Wisdom of Crowds

“. A truly successful leader is a reluctant leader. Not one whose every word is greeted with frenzied cheering either—after all, what happens to the mind of such a leader, after such scenes are repeated again and again? A growing certainty, a belief in one’s own infallibility, and onward goes the march into disaster.”
― Steven Erikson, Midnight Tides

“Myriam gritted her teeth and extinguished every one of her thoughts except one: glory. She roared with the fury of every woman who had ever been scorned by the world of man, and even though she wanted nothing more than to hold her wife, she forced her mind to stoically accept the present moment and filled herself with fearless rage.

“Come, Hunter! Come and taste my blades and know that you are not the most terrifying monster on Earth. I am!” Myriam screamed, her rasping voice a trophy proving that Hunters had every right to fear her.”
― E.S. Fein, Mendel's Ladder

“Say you release the Custodians from their vigil here. They say there are ten thousand of them. The enemy numbers in the billions. A lion is a poor hunter to set against so many jackals.”
― Chris Wraight, The Emperor's Legion

“Once chipping away at empire commenced, it became unthinkable to not see politicos, of now or centuries past, for exactly what they were: soulless, bloated, necrophagan creatures glutting on decay of their own assembly.”
― Sfarda L. Gül, Non Serviam

“Because I’m empty without rage. I don’t know how else to live.”
― Sfarda L. Gül, Non Serviam

“[She] said ‘blood does not wash off’ and she was right. Blood does not forget, either. Blood congealed and crusted and stained evermore. Blood knew what it was like to be free.”
― Sfarda L. Gül, Non Omnis Moriar

“Savor the little moments, that’s my advice. They’re what life is. All the little things that happen while you’re waiting for something else.”
― Joe Abercrombie, The Heroes

“There is no 'right side of history', there is only their side, and yours.”
― Holden R. Snow, Darker Skies Ahead

“It’s all over now, came that lonesome voice. You have to let it go.
Vasily searched the heavens. But how can I let it go, and still hold onto you?
As always, the winking stars stayed silent.”
― S. A. Matey, Prince of Glass: Remastered

“Shank off, you faithless skiv!”
“Then say my name,” Taein said as he rose and adjusted his coat. “You know exactly who I am.”
“You’re the Unkillable Kid—” The mugger said through a froth of blood, his squirming growing weaker.
Taein picked him up by the lapels and drew the mugger’s face so close he could see the broken blood vessels in his eyes. “Say. My. Name.”
“Taein,” Big said, and he burst into tears.

And Taein he was, after all.
He was the prince of purloining, scourge of the streets, survivor against all natural odds, reckless to the point of delusion. He was Taein, survivor of the BlackBlades, the Unkillable Kid himself, (or unkillable as far as he knew, at least), and if a good thrashing was all that could beat back the numbness anymore, even just for a few adrenaline-soaked moments, so be it. It was better to feel anything other than his usual state of abysmal emptiness—even pain—because that emptiness haunted him like a starving child, dogging his heels every waking minute, leaching through his very bloodstream as a hard frost crawls along a windowpane. 
He was Taein—terror of thieves, conductor of chaos, sweetheart of spite—and if brushing hands with death was all that could shake him halfway to life anymore, so be it.”
― S. A. Matey, Prince of Glass: Remastered

“What made Taein the Unkillable Kid was more than surviving the war that tore his realm apart and the hunt for his life that followed. It was more than almost starving to death in the wilds, it was more than the addictions that still hungered for his life. More than his time in the Blackblades, more than evading the Garrison, more than all the thrashings and scraps and botched brawls he’d ever gotten himself into. What made Taein the Unkillable Kid was the truth—that he literally could not die. 
And Taein knew that for a fact, because he had tried to die more times than he could count. ”
― S. A. Matey

“Herein lies a story all creatures know
The root of the root, the seed left to sow
A history of yearning, of great sorrow and pain
Told to me as a warning, told to you just the same. 
In the beginning, the Father-Graven had two sons
Who tore the boundless heavens apart 
In salted stardust, Geiin birthed a world
And Mithre corrupted its heart.
The world fell to a night deep and starless 
The spirits of men filled fully with darkness
Geiin ascended and in his wake
Left four brothers, each an Anathema remade:

A Father to rule dumb creatures
A Father to keep Ieris living and green 
A Father to be mankind’s healer 
& a Father to balance, sort, and cleave. 

What was faultless turned to rust 
A world once beautiful turned to dust 
At the end of all things but this stands true
All spirits return to one of two
Geiin or Mithre, holy or shrewd
Until the end we will slay what has strayed
Hear this song and be afraid
Never again let Anathema see light of day.”
― S. A. Matey, Prince of Glass: Remastered

“...helplessness would not win Vasily a war. Helplessness had to be turned to rage. The kind that could topple mountains, the kind that could dethrone kings, the kind that could burn a whole realm down to the ground.
The kind that never, ever went away.
Heavy is the head that wears the crown, many said about men of power. But Vasily knew a different kind of truth.
Heavier still, was the hand that wields the sword.”
― S. A. Matey, Prince of Glass: Remastered

“When they were well out of her earshot, Taein swiveled back and glowered at Vince. “You’ve got to throw those away.”
Vince, bouncing awkwardly in the saddle as his draft kept time with Lorrin, looked aghast. “Taein, she gave us muffins.”
“She probably poisoned them, you imbecile,” Taein hissed. 
“Why would she do that?” Vince asked, fumbling to keep a hold of his reins and manage a pair of blueberry-dotted muffins at the same time. 
“Because she knows I’m the one that stole from her, years back!”
Vince paused before popping an entire muffin into his mouth. “You’re far too paranoid, Taein,” he said as he chewed. “These are blueberry muffins. Suit yourself, but I ain’t throwing these away even if they are poisoned.” 
“Well, don’t go blaming me when you keel over. You were duly warned.”
“Me, paying recompense for your poorly-executed crimes? When has that ever happened?” Vince chuckled.”
― S. A. Matey, Prince of Glass: Remastered

“Hours passed in that dark space. 
It seemed as if time itself had separated from them, as if it’d become some strange, stalking creature Vasily had left behind at the door, a selfish thief he never wanted to find again. If time was a thing of flesh and bone he would’ve killed it right then and there, burned it and the whole world too for just another moment, for just another day to say all these precious unsaid things clogging his chest that he hadn’t the courage to say in the rapidly-fading now. 
But now was all they had, just the barest whisper of a few stray moments, all so quick to slip through his fingers and fall to the floor. 
Now was not enough.”
― S. A. Matey, Prince of Glass: Remastered

“Taein was bleeding in ways that no man could sustain for long, but he had a job to do. The path ahead had to be finished, before all this blood like water ran out and the grave closed over him at last.”
― S. A. Matey, Prince of Glass: Remastered

“Taein couldn’t feel much anymore, but he could still feel Vasily’s presence in his very bones. The old unbreakable tether between them. That unrelenting grudge.
The thief turned and faced the hunter, the path ended at last”
― S. A. Matey, Prince of Glass: Remastered

“There is no 'right side of history', there is only their side, and yours”
― Holden R. Snow, Darker Skies Ahead

“To break with ritual is to break with faith, brother...”
― Alec Worley, Stormseeker