John Bierce > Quotes

“No matter how complex or advanced magical warfare grew, rocks moving at high speed would always be relevant.”
― John Bierce, The Siege of Skyhold

“Dragons keep their money in banks like everyone else,” Avah said. “Hoards don’t accrue interest.”
― John Bierce, Jewel of the Endless Erg

“Most people who knew of Alustin’s vendetta assumed he had some grand master plan, but there was nothing of the sort. Alustin preferred a far more improvisatory approach— it was best, so far as he was concerned, to have tools to react to any sort of situation, rather than relying on a more fleshed-out plan. That isn’t to say he didn’t have plans at all, of course. Plans were fine so long as you remembered that they were just tools, not goals in and of themselves. People tended to get over-attached to plans, to the point where they would fail to achieve their objective rather than abandoning the plan they’d put so much time and effort into.”
― John Bierce, The Lost City of Ithos

“The only true solutions to complex systemic problems are piecemeal, multi-pronged answers, and they will vary wildly from forest to desert, from city to city, and even between neighborhoods within a single city. Life is messy and civilization even messier.”
― John Bierce, The Siege of Skyhold

“Ah, right. Parades. Another reason I hate empires. There’s little I despise more than military parades, but empires are obsessed with them. Ceaseless, obnoxious parades, dedicated to their own overblown sense of importance and glory.”
― John Bierce, A Traitor in Skyhold

“Any friendship whose end goal isn’t bloody mass revolution seems like a pretty boring friendship to me,” Talia said.”
― John Bierce, The Siege of Skyhold

“But that’s what they do with everything inconvenient in history— either label it as some freak event, or as irrelevant surface details. The only reason their theories even seem consistent is that they’ve presented a version of history rendered into reductive pap, with more lies of omission than facts. They simply can’t allow themselves to acknowledge that history’s basically nothing but messy absurdities, and that there is no inevitable path to it. Every shape will fit into a round hole if you carve it and hammer it enough.”
― John Bierce, The Siege of Skyhold

“All spellforms— for spells, glyphs, wards, and enchantments alike— fundamentally serve the same purpose of guiding mana in specific patterns that generate effects. Each does it in an entirely different frame of reference, however. Spells operate in reference to the self, wards operate in reference to a spatial location, and enchantments operate in reference to the properties of the material they’re worked into.”
― John Bierce, A Traitor in Skyhold

“Failure is an important part of the learning process. You humans seldom value knowledge until you understand its necessity.”
― John Bierce, Jewel of the Endless Erg

“Talia did have to admit that the topic was a little bit ridiculous, of course. It would be absurd to match your weapon to your dress. It made so much more sense to match your dress to your weapon.”
― John Bierce, A Traitor in Skyhold

“The only true solutions to complex systemic problems are piecemeal, multi-pronged answers, and they will vary wildly from forest to desert, from city to city, and even between neighborhoods within a single city. Life is messy and civilization even messier. If your answer is ever any less messy, you’re fooling yourself.”
― John Bierce, The Siege of Skyhold

“I didn’t exactly expect a search for an enchanted city-killing weapon to be a particularly relaxing vacation, Master,” he said.”
― John Bierce, The Lost City of Ithos

“And for the first time in Illana’s life, in the depths of her heart, she cursed her pride. And a crack formed in that pride, and the seed of the curse of wisdom was planted inside it that day.”
― John Bierce, The Wrack

“Careful weapon choice is important!” Talia protested. “You’re going to get invited to a ball some day and bring a spiked flail,” Sabae said. “A flail would be a terrible choice of weapon for a ball,” Talia said. “Dancing would set it to swinging all over the place, and it’d probably hit another dancer, which would be rude.”
― John Bierce, A Traitor in Skyhold

“This is what it means to be a great power,” Alustin continued. “Once you join their games, to stop playing or to stop seeking more power is to die. All power corrupts, Sabae, but absolute personal power, ungoverned by any outside force? It corrupts absolutely and inevitably.”
― John Bierce, The Siege of Skyhold

“You want what? Hugh smiled. I want to form a warlock pact with the Index. One moment. Processing unique request.”
― John Bierce, Into the Labyrinth

“Nations that spend too much gold and mana on enchanted or alchemical weapon production often end up in dangerous spirals of weapons spending. The business interests involved usually end up hijacking their politics, forming a deeply corrupt alliance between industry and their military.”
― John Bierce, The Last Echo of the Lord of Bells

“Deliberately conflating purpose with motive is effective, but annoying,” she said. “I’d appreciate it if we didn’t go down that rabbit hole.”
― John Bierce, Tongue Eater

“Some impossible fights are worth fighting”
― John Bierce, The Siege of Skyhold

“cities as engines that process energy into life and culture,”
― John Bierce, The Last Echo of the Lord of Bells

“The”
― John Bierce, Tongue Eater

“who we are in a crisis isn’t the whole a’ us. It’s not our innermost selves. It’s just a part a’ us, and far from the greater part. With yer long term, considered actions? Yeh get ta’ choose who the rest a’ yerself is goin’ ta' be.”
― John Bierce, Tongue Eater

“If the world was about to be destroyed, and public speaking were the only way to save it, I would let it die,”
― John Bierce, Tongue Eater

“appeared to be made out of liquid water”
― John Bierce, A Traitor in Skyhold

“Avah wanted adventure, but ones of discovery, of visiting natural wonders and ancient ruins. Avah chased the thrill of bargaining with merchants and seeking new trades, not the stress of battle,”
― John Bierce, The Lost City of Ithos

“If the world was about to be destroyed, and public speaking were the only way to save it, I would let it die,” Hugh said.”
― John Bierce, Tongue Eater

“His mana reservoirs were considerable in size for his age,”
― John Bierce, Into the Labyrinth

“Strapping a pair of knitted cat ears to a two-foot long spider really doesn’t make it a cat,” Alustin said. “Precious likes her ears,” the woman retorted”
― John Bierce , The Lost City of Ithos

“Chronicles of Chrestomanci series, Andrew Rowe’s Arcane Ascension series, Will Wight’s Cradle series, Garth Nix’s Abhorsen trilogy, Tamora Pierce’s Protector of the Small”
― John Bierce, Into the Labyrinth

“Gram was just surprised at the ridiculous things cats would lay on top of. It almost seemed like they could understand what was valuable or seizing people’s attention, and that cats lay on those things to reclaim their rightful attention.”
― John Bierce, Tongue Eater