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Ah? A small aversion to menial labor?" The doctor cocked an eyebrow. "Understandable, but misplaced. One should treasure those hum-drum tasks that keep the body occupied but leave the mind and heart unfettered.
Tad Williams
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'I have not slept well since I first entered my brother’s dungeons. While my comfort has improved since then, worry has taken the place of hanging in chains as a denier of rest.''There are many kinds of imprisonment,' Jarnauga nodded.
Tad Williams
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A king’s son has nothing but inferiors, each one a potential assassin.
Tad Williams
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Ambitious men never believe others aren’t the same.
Tad Williams
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Thank you for your news, Princess. It is none of it happy, but only a fool desires cheerful ignorance and I try not to be a fool. That is my heaviest burden.
Tad Williams
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She had been dressed in her sky-blue gown and had been suddenly almost terrible in her completeness-so different from the ragged serving girl who had slept on his shoulder. And yet, the very same girl had been inside that blue dress.
Tad Williams
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Damn everyone to Hell. And damn the bloody forest. And God, too, for that matter.He looked up fearfully from his chill handful of water, but his silent blasphemy went unpunished.
Tad Williams
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'Do you get tired, singing?' she asked.Gan Itai laughed quietly. 'Does a mother grow tired raising her children? Of course, but it is what I do.'
Tad Williams
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People in science fiction flicks always seemed to know useful things about the places time travel took them. But what if the time traveler had been only an average history student? What then?
Tad Williams
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Sometimes you men are like lizards, sunning on the stones of a crumbled house, thinking: 'what a nice basking-spot someone built for me.'
Tad Williams
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'It would please me your not being obsequious. That is a trait of marketplace people who are selling shoddy goods. I am sure to prefer endless, stupid questions to that.''Ob...obseek...?''Obsequious. Flattering with oiliness. It is not liked by me. In Yiqanuc we say: ‘Send the man with the oily tongue to go and lick the snowshoes.’'
Tad Williams
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'Now, boy, now...' he said bewilderedly, 'what is all this talk of glory? Have you caught the sickness, too? Curse me for a blind beggar, I should have seen. This fever has cankered even your simple heart, hasn’t it, Simon? I’m sorry. It takes a strong will or practiced eye to see through the glitter to the rotten core.'
Tad Williams
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To fight a war, you must believe it can accomplish something. We fight this one to save John’s kingdom, or perhaps even to save all of mankind...but isn’t that what we always think? That all wars are useless-except the one we’re fighting now?
Tad Williams
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'You have something that might be more use to me than either gold or power-something that in fact brings both in its train.''And what is that?'The count leaned forward. 'Knowledge.'
Tad Williams
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She had little doubt that whatever happened to her on this drifting ship was of scant interest to a God who could allow her to reach this sorry state in the first place.
Tad Williams
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If you have not noticed, we are preparing for war. I’m sorry if that inconveniences you.
Tad Williams
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No charm is proof against a dagger in the back.
Tad Williams
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She realized now that she knew little about people outside the courts of Nabban and Erkynland, although she had always thought herself a shrewd judge of humanity. However, it was a larger and much more complicated world on the other side of the castle walls than she had ever suspected.
Tad Williams
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He who is certain he knows the ending of things when he is only beginning them is either extremely wise or extremely foolish; no matter which is true, he is certainly an unhappy man, for he has put a knife in the heart of wonder.
Tad Williams
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The last thing a drunkard loses, you see, is his cunning: it outlasts his soul by a long season.
Tad Williams
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You show me what someone listens to, I’ll tell you everything you want to know about his soul. (For instance, a bunch of Nickelback albums would have indicated he never had a soul in the first place.)
Tad Williams
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You can never tell when princes will get squinty on you. You can never tell when they might suddenly feel their blood and go all royal.
Tad Williams
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Nothing is without cost. There is a price to all power, and it is not always obvious.
Tad Williams
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'Thank you, Duke,' the troll said seriously. 'May your god be blessing us indeed. We go into unknown places.''As do all mortals,' Josua added. 'Sooner or later.'
Tad Williams
