K.J. Parker > Quotes

“The easiest way to do anything is properly.”
― K. J. Parker, The Proof House

“He turned away, and suddenly she thought about the old children's story, where the stupid girl opens the box that God gave her, and all the evils of the world fly out, except Hope, which stays at the bottom; and she wondered what Hope was doing in there in the first place, in with all the bad things. Then the answer came to her, and she wondered how she could've been so stupid. Hope was in there because it was evil too, probably the worst of them all, so heavy with malice and pain that it couldn't drag itself out of the opened box.”
― K.J. Parker, Sharps

“Secretly, deep down, everybody on Earth believes they can write poetry, apart from the members of the Poets' Guild, who know they can't.”
― K.J. Parker, Devices and Desires

“Death is to be feared because of the pain and loss it inflicts through love, and for no other reason.”
― K. J. Parker

“Basic fact of life: no matter how far you run, you always take yourself with you.”
― K.J. Parker, The Hammer

“A wise man once said that any human being is capable of infinite achievement, so long as it’s not the work they’re supposed to be doing.”
― K.J. Parker, Blue and Gold

“I rarely ask for suggestions, because, when I do, people tend to make them.”
― K.J. Parker, Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City

“The world is full of annoyances, none more infuriating than a fool with a valid point.”
― K.J. Parker, Devices and Desires

“I like to let them talk things out, but fact isn’t a democratic process; if a thing isn’t true it isn’t true, even if everybody votes that it is.”
― K.J. Parker, Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City

“War is an admission of failure”
― K.J. Parker, The Folding Knife

“wise man once said, the difference between luck and a wheelbarrow is, luck doesn’t work if you push it.”
― K.J. Parker, Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City

“I mention this because that’s how the world changes. It’s either so quick that we never know what hit us, or so gradual that we don’t notice.”
― K.J. Parker, Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City

“Of the people, by the people, for the people. I can’t remember offhand where that quote comes from; it was something to do with some bunch of wild-eyed idealists overthrowing the tyrant so they could become tyrants themselves. No good will have come of it, you can be sure. The people; God help us.”
― K.J. Parker, Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City

“A wise man once said, it’s not the despair that destroys you, it’s the hope.”
― K.J. Parker, Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City

“The quickest way to a man`s heart,' said the instructor, 'is proverbially through his stomach. But if you want to get into his brain, I recommend the eye-socket.”
― K.J. Parker, Devices and Desires

“It’s a bizarre but widespread myth that only heroes have good qualities, and the only qualities heroes have are good; villains are, by definition, all bad. Bullshit.”
― K.J. Parker, Prosper's Demon

“Common sense dictates that any voice you hear inside your head must be just you, thinking; so, if you know it’s just you and you know you’re basically an idiot, what possesses you to do what the stupid voice tells you?”
― K.J. Parker, Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City

“Libraries are the granary of the spirit, without which we could not survive the siege.”
― K.J. Parker, The Big Score

“How can anyone doubt the existence of God when evidence of His sense of humour surrounds us on all sides?”
― K.J. Parker, Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City

“We live in a miserable world, where the best we can honestly hope for is that one empty, meaningless day will follow another without things getting actively worse.”
― K.J. Parker, Prosper's Demon

“Personally, I always feel that survival is cheap at any price and it puzzles me that so many men in authority don’t seem to see it that way.”
― K.J. Parker, How to Rule an Empire and Get Away with It

“Memories are tricky; there’s what you remember, and what you think you remember, the editions and redactions of memory, the corrections and amendations and blundered readings and the whole apparatus criticus of the conscious mind trying to make bread out of soup.”
― K.J. Parker, Prosper's Demon

“If the world is a book, are you the hero, or just a walk-on part?”
― K.J. Parker, The Hammer

“I have strong views about not tempting providence and, as a wise man once said, the difference between luck and a wheelbarrow is, luck doesn’t work if you push it.”
― K.J. Parker, Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City

“…if medical science is geography, then mankind as a species has a map with three towns marked on it and a lot of blank space with drawings of sea serpents.”
― K. J. Parker, Sharps

“If there’s one truth in this life, it’s that you simply can’t win. The most you can achieve is to make a nuisance of yourself, for a very short time.”
― K.J. Parker, Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City

“It`s remarkable the truly stupid things people can do because it`s expected of them, or they think it`s expected of them.”
― K.J. Parker, Devices and Desires

“Being, in my own small way, a part of Authority, it never ceases to amaze me how much people believe in it and trust it. I see it from the inside, of course—inefficiencies, stupidities, corruption, bloody-minded ignorance and simple lack of resources to cope with the magnitude of the endless, ever-multiplying problems. But other people see it from the outside. They see the Land Walls. They see the emperor’s head on the coins, with Victory on the reverse. They see the temples. They see soldiers in shining armour. They see, and they believe, that the empire is big, strong, wise, unbeatable.”
― K.J. Parker, Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City

“There is no absolute right or wrong, good or evil, but there are good manners and common decency.”
― K.J. Parker, The Devil You Know

“Besides, if imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, plagiarism is practically a declaration of love.”
― K.J. Parker, A Practical Guide to Conquering the World