Phil Tucker > Quotes

“The wheel of fortune lifts us up and brings us down. You must free your happiness from its vagaries. Expect nothing, and everything is a gift.”
― Phil Tucker, The Path of Flames

“In failure, may we find dignity. In loss, may we find wisdom. In pain, may we find growth. May our souls rise. Ever rise. May our weakness”
― Phil Tucker, The White Song

“We women have within us a depth, a capacity for striving, that men for all their swords and wars don't comprehend. We can endure where they are brittle, we can persevere where they snap. It is our unique form of grace. And we will endure. We will persevere.”
― Phil Tucker, The Path of Flames

“Cast your magics at me, human, and I will punch your face into the back of your skull.”
― Phil Tucker, The White Song

“trying to suck sand up through a straw.”
― Phil Tucker, Bastion

“Only when you’re calm and clear and collected, with all those emotions passing through you like the wind through these branches, only then will you be on your way to being a real fighter. Master yourself, girl. Stop thinking so much. Calm down. Be in your skin, and open your mind to the world around you.”
― Phil Tucker, The Path of Flames

“No," said Asho, his voice hollow. "I remember now. Something the demon said. This time 'round, he's not returning to the Black Gate when he's done cleansing the Hold. He's going to keep on. He said he would sweep out across the land and drown everything in flame and shadow." "Well, fuck," said Brocuff. He stood again, and this time he did stalk off. Ser”
― Phil Tucker, The Black Shriving

“Hannus' face was clear of concern, unriven by the cruel lines wrought by grief and loss. A young face. A blank sheet on which time would write its woes.”
― Phil Tucker, The Black Shriving

“My Lady," said Asho, stepping forward to kneel once more. "I ask that you let me serve you as your knight. I know your Lord regretted bringing my sister and me out of Bythos, and had no intention of letting me ever have the honor. But I'm a knight now, regardless, and I swear to dedicate my every breath and thought to guarding your family and your honor. I may be a Bythian, but I swear that I shall do my utmost to protect you. If you will have me, I will be your knight.”
― Phil Tucker, The Path of Flames

“As corruption gains a foothold, so does our ability to discern the truth become warped, resulting in an inability to diagnose the very malady against which we must guard--”
― Phil Tucker, The Path of Flames

“YOU CLAWED YOUR WAY BACK FROM THE ABYSS. YOU SOUGHT TO REFORGE YOUR SPIRIT ON THE ANVIL OF YOUR WILL.”
― Phil Tucker, The Iron Circlet

“Athos”
― Phil Tucker, The Siege of Abythos

“There is no right or wrong. There is only the kind of man you wish to be.”
― Phil Tucker, The Siege of Abythos

“we may hope for love,” the Ascendant said tremulously. “Yet, too often we pass it by, distracted as we are by the vagaries of life.”
― Phil Tucker, The White Song

“No? Fair enough. I’ve gone through long periods of time where I haven’t, either. But in the end I find myself returning to it, time and again. It gives me comfort. It helps me find peace in this awful world of ours.” Asho”
― Phil Tucker, The Siege of Abythos

“there are no right or wrong decisions. No better or worse choices." Orishin watched Tiron's face carefully. "There are only opportunities for you to define what manner of man you are in this world. Are you a man who steals when he's hungry, or continues to search for work? Are you a man who sleeps with that plump, tantalizing neighbor, or who remains faithful to your wife of fifteen years?”
― Phil Tucker, The Siege of Abythos

“We cannot fight injustice by hiding. You cannot fight injustice by waiting. You cannot hope for others to fight injustice for you. The time to fight injustice is always today, the way to fight injustice is always by taking the higher ground, and the person to fight injustice is always you.”
― Phil Tucker, One By One

“He hobbled across half the room to loom over her. “I won’t let people discard me like trash. I won’t let them decide my worth. I won’t watch as they do it to others, or pull them into these rotten systems while they don’t know any better. I’ll fight!” And blinded by his fury, he hammered the base of his fist into the wall. Pain lanced up his forearm, sprang bright across his wrist. Grimacing, he shoved his hand into his armpit.”
― Phil Tucker, Bastion

“Stories. Narratives. They were what led armies to war, what toppled empires, what raised one man and ground another under the heel of destiny.”
― Phil Tucker, Chronicles of the Black Gate: Complete Series

“breath.”
― Phil Tucker, LastRock

“What, then, is better than training?” she asked. He blinked a drop of sweat out of his eye. “A real fight?” She nodded. “And if that is the best way to advance, why bother with training?” For a moment he couldn’t figure out why. “Because,” she said, smile cold and cutting, “you must fight a superior opponent to benefit. And in a real fight, that’ll mean your death.” And with that, she stood up and backed away.”
― Phil Tucker, Bastion

“It was such a basic, primal thing, to fill one's stomach. Place a man in an alien floating evil castle, and then hand him a bottle of wine, and all was well once more.”
― Phil Tucker, Chronicles of the Black Gate: Complete Series

“One day I’m sure you’ll be in a position to help another. You are not your circumstances.”
― Phil Tucker, Bastion

“Life is a mineshaft, and its only ore is disappointment.”
― Phil Tucker, Escape from Bythos

“Vic sighed. “We are all of us complex beings, Sam. Well. Some of us more so than others. You’ll get there. Think of people as mirrors. When they are born, they reflect the world with unblemished, naive perfection. But life is all hammers. Sooner or later, we’re hurt, broken, sundered into hundreds of fragments, both large and small. We become wounded, bitter, resentful, suspicious. We stop being one person, and become a dozen. One version with our friends, another with our employer, a third with our lover. The harder the blow, the greater the fragmentation. I’ve heard it said that one’s goal in life shouldn’t be power or wealth, but repairing one’s mirror and becoming whole once more. To be the same no matter in whose company one finds oneself in.”
― Phil Tucker, Throne Hunters #2

“There must be doubt for faith to have meaning. Nobody is lauded for believing in a stone they can hold in their hand.”
― Phil Tucker, The Iron Circlet

“people who needed him. For them, he would give his last living breath, even if they in turn”
― Phil Tucker, The White Song

“He who seeks to control others loses himself, and in so doing becomes at once less than he was”
― Phil Tucker, Chronicles of the Black Gate: Complete Series

“answer?”
― Phil Tucker, The Rascor Plains

“Place a man in an alien floating evil castle, and then hand him a bottle of wine, and all was well once more. Bogusch”
― Phil Tucker, The Black Shriving