Alec Hutson > Quotes

“People don’t change, they only get better at hiding themselves.”
― Alec Hutson, The Shadows of Dust

“A book is the pinnacle of arrogance for it demands to be heard, but it cannot listen. It desires to communicate, yet it refuses conversation.”
― Alec Hutson, The Crimson Queen

“We make our own destiny. Believing otherwise abdicates responsibility for what happens, and I refuse to do that.”
― Alec Hutson, The Crimson Queen

“The arrogance of writing comes not from the finished creation, but from the very act itself. What hubris is required for a single mind to believe that its thoughts should populate the world? What unbridled arrogance is it to disperse ideas like the petals of a dandelion in the wind, allowing them to float free, to germinate in the minds of others like an invasive weed?”
― Alec Hutson, The Crimson Queen

“That is the danger, he mused, of living in such an immutable place. Change, when it did come, seemed too hurried, too discourteous.”
― Alec Hutson, The Crimson Queen

“Have you ever run from a fight?”
Nel snorted a laugh, quieting the chirping of the birds in the gilded cages hanging from the branches above them. “I’ve run from more fights than I’ve fought. It’s why I’m still alive. Men who carry weapons tend to have a strange belief that it is better to die honorably than live to fight another day. Foolish. If the odds are against me I flee – and I’ve never felt any shame doing just that.”
― Alec Hutson, The Crimson Queen

“There are no gods, paladin. There is no afterlife, no eternal reward. You, in fact, are a slave to a creature you cannot even comprehend.” Demian stabbed the stick he still held into the ground. “All that a man has in this world is his own will, the freedom to do what he desires. Taking away that is the greatest crime one can inflict upon another. Murder – it is terrible. But it is over in an instant and the dead never can truly understand what has happened to them. They are simply gone. But slavery – day after day, year after year shackled to another’s whims – it is the most heinous of crimes.”
― Alec Hutson, The Crimson Queen

“This isn’t a game, Kerin! If you want to survive you need to keep your head down. No one will care about you if you’re just a random streamsurfer, an old friend of mine from a previous life. But keep talking loudly here, of all places, and you’ll bring down attention you do not want, I promise you.”
― Alec Hutson, The Shadows of Dust

“There are no gods, paladin. There is no afterlife, no eternal reward. You, in fact, are a slave to a creature you cannot even comprehend.”
― Alec Hutson, The Crimson Queen

“I would say . . . around one hundred.
Kerin fumbled with his spyglass, nearly dropping it.
A hundred? A hundred war krakens?
My estimate is on the lower end. I was trying not to depress you.
That . . . is an armada. We’re being pursued by the largest Mandate fleet in the tributary.
Yes. Congratulations. None of your ancestors ever managed to aggravate an entire interstellar empire before. It’s really quite impressive.”
― Alec Hutson, The Shadows of Dust

“Pride was an illusion, an artifice that could be set aside when circumstances warranted.”
― Alec Hutson, The Crimson Queen

“If there’s one thing I’ve learned in all my years, Demian, it’s never to rely on prayer.”
― Alec Hutson, The Crimson Queen

“He’d come awake clawing for breath, filled with the same helpless fear he’d felt all those years ago. No matter how big he grew, no matter how good with a sword, that smiling face was always watching from the shadows, waiting for the day when he’d be alone again.”
― Alec Hutson, The Shadows of Dust

“Ah, he had such a weakness for strong and clever women.”
― Alec Hutson, The Crimson Queen

“Why was it that those with the least often showed the most kindness?”
― Alec Hutson, The Silver Sorceress

“All that a man has in this world is his own will, the freedom to do what he desires. Taking away that is the greatest crime one can inflict upon another. Murder - it is terrible. But it is over in an instant and the dead never can truly understand what has happened to them. They are simply gone. But slavery - day after day, year after year shackled to the whims of another - it is the most heinous of crimes.”
― Alec Hutson, The Crimson Queen

“a book is the pinnacle of arrogance for it demands to be heard, but it cannot listen. It desires to communicate, yet it refuses conversation. I thought that was the extent of its profundity.”
― Alec Hutson, The Crimson Queen

“Effulgent”
― Alec Hutson, The Silver Sorceress

“Please. I have noticed little difference between eating in a thieves’ den or around a royal dinner table. Nicer table-settings, maybe – the quality of the company is about the same.”
― Alec Hutson, The Crimson Queen

“I already hated squids, and then this one had to go and wreck my beautiful shell.
You were too pretty before. And I bet female turtles love scars.
Kerin imagined he saw the edges of Drifter’s huge mouth twitch. You’re right about that, luckily. Easier to see I’m a true warrior now.
Nala’s tail thumped his leg. “What is Drifter saying?”
“He’s telling me that these new battle scars might help him find a mate.”
She snorted. “Males.”
― Alec Hutson, The Shadows of Dust

“It seemed that every city and town they'd passed through on the way to Herath venerated different gods and spirits. How to know which one was the truth? Or did they all exist side by side, yet intangible to each other, like reflections in a hall of mirrors?”
― Alec Hutson, The Crimson Queen

“Men were fools, whole or not.”
― Alec Hutson, The Crimson Queen

“It implies that we are all part of some grand tale, directed by some higher power for the whims of others.”
― Alec Hutson, The Crimson Queen