Yarvi Quotes & Sayings

Does a king let his friends die for him?" Yarvi glanced guiltily across at Shadikshirram's sword, and remembered the feeling, punching, punching, the red knife in his red hand, and shivered under his stolen cloak. "Does a king stab women in the back?" The tears were still wet on Nothing's wasted face. "A good one sacrifices everything to win, and stabs whom he must however he can. The great warrior is the one who still breathes when the crows feast. The great king is the one who watches the carcasses of his enemies burn. Let Father Peace spill tears over the methods. Mother War smiles upon results." "That's what my uncle would have said." "A wise man, then, and a worthy enemy. Perhaps you will stab him in the back and we can watch him burn together. — Joe Abercrombie

If you change your mind about the knife,' Grom called after him, smiling all the while, 'you can seek me out.'
[ ... ]
'Last time we met ... you offered me a knife' Yarvi fixed Grom with his eye. On his knees, ragged and bloodied, but fixed him still. 'You told me to seek you out if I changed my mind. Will you give it to me now? — Joe Abercrombie

It would be a foolish high representative who worked that way. — Paddy Ashdown

You are lucky, Thorn. You are very lucky."
"Doubtless. Not every girl gets to be stabbed through the face."
"And by a duke of royal blood too! — Joe Abercrombie

Do you want this bauble?' He drew is knife now and held it out to Yarvi by the bright blade.
Then take it. But know that Mother War breathed upon me in my crib, it has been foreseen that no man kill me. — Joe Abercrombie

Give Yarvi the knife since he has just one hand to hold it. One hand, perhaps, but the blood of kings in his veins!"
"It's keeping it there that worries me," said Yarvi under his breath. — Joe Abercrombie

What's his story?' asked Yarvi.
'I don't know his name. Nothing, we all call him. When I was first brought to the South Wind he pulled an oar. One night, off the coast of Gettland, he tried to escape. Somehow he got free of his chain and stole a knife. He killed three guards and cut another's knee so he never walked again, and he gave our captain that scar before she and Trigg put a stop to him.'
Yarvi blinked at the shambling scrubber. 'All that with a knife?'
'And not a large one. — Joe Abercrombie

They passed lands that had no name, where fens of mirror pools stretched into unknown distances, thousands of fragments of sky sprinkled across this bastard offspring of earth and sea, lonely birds calling out over the desolation, and Yarvi breathed deep the salt chill and longed for home. — Joe Abercrombie

You are as wise as you are beautiful, Thorn Bathu. — Joe Abercrombie

Where do we find allies?"
Father Yarvi smiled. "Among our enemies, where else? — Joe Abercrombie

I'm no high judge of righteousness."
"Who is?"
"But I find this to be a good thing."
"Don't let anyone know, it might ruin my reputation."
Yarvi saw an old woman glaring at him from across the square, and he smiled back, and waved, and watched her scuttle away.
"It seems I've become the villain of this piece. — Joe Abercrombie

A man who gives all his thought to doing good, but no thought to the consequences ... " Father Yarvi lifted his withered hand and pressed its one crooked finger into Brand's chest. "That is a dangerous man. — Joe Abercrombie

The most civilized place in the world," murmured Father Yarvi. "Though that mostly means folk prefer to stab each other in the back than in the front. — Joe Abercrombie

Fuck." He stares at me for a long time. "You're the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. This is the most beautiful thing I've ever felt."
And those are the most beautiful words that have ever been said to me. — L. H. Cosway

And Yarvi realized that Death does not bow to each person who passes her, does not sweep out her arm respectfully to show the way, speaks no profound words, unlocks no bolts. The key upon her chest is never needed, for the Last Door stands always open. She herds the dead through impatiently, needles of rank or fame or quality. She has an ever-lengthening queue to get through. A blind procession, inexhaustible. — Joe Abercrombie

Ah, I have kept Him waiting when I ought not, but He has waited even then. Always waiting - so patient with my foolishness, my weakness, my fear. Our fellowship is with God, and fellowship is friendship, and friendship means that partnership which, on His part, is the accommodating of His strength to my weakness. — G. Campbell Morgan

You may need two hands to fight someone, but only one to stab them in the back. (Yarvi) — Joe Abercrombie

Aye, but do they really kneel to him, or to the elf-weapons his guards carry?" "What matters is that they kneel." "Are fear and respect really the same?" "Of course not," said Yarvi, walking on and leaving more of his many guards to clear away the crowd. "Respect soon blows away in a storm. Fear has far deeper roots." Teams of — Joe Abercrombie

It is the surface I am interested in. Because the surface is the inside. — Lisette Model

Grom-gil-Gorm," she said softly as she rode between Laithlin and Yarvi. "Breaker of Swords." Mother Isriun's horse shied back out of her way. "Maker of Orphans." Thorn reined in beside him, his frowning face lit red by the blazing light of her elf-bangle, and she leaned from her saddle to whisper.
"Your death comes. — Joe Abercrombie

Tobin's just a guy - like a ton of guys. Even as I run those words through my head, trying to convince myself, I know it's a lie. Tobin will never be just a guy. Not to me. And he shouldn't be just a guy to anyone who meets him or to anyone else that's lucky enough to love him. — Jolene Perry

Gold and silver is everything to everyone. Some of us have enough of it to pretend otherwise. — Joe Abercrombie

A bitter ending' said Yarvi.
'Many sweet stories have them', said Jaud. — Joe Abercrombie

First Peter 4:12 says, "Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you ... " Rise to the occasion - do what the trial demands of you. It does not matter how much it hurts as long as it gives God the opportunity to manifest the life of Jesus in your body. — Oswald Chambers

Whatever have you been feeding her?"
"Fire and whetstones," said Yarvi, smiling. — Joe Abercrombie

Glorious victories make fine songs, Yarvi, but inglorious ones are no worse once the bards are done with them. Glorious defeats, meanwhile, are just defeats. — Joe Abercrombie

Yarvi soon learned only to sip the results, since unwrapping to piss in that cold was an act of heroism that earned grunted congratulations from the others, all the more heartfelt since everyone knew sooner or later they would have to present their own nethers to the searing wind. — Joe Abercrombie

Did you see it?" asked Yarvi.
"I had that questionable privilege."
"What do you think?"
"She is wretched. She is all pride and anger. She has too much confidence and too little. She does not know herself." The figure pushed back her hood. A black-skinned old woman with a face lean as famine and hair shaved to gray fuzz. She picked her nose with one long forefinger, carefully examined the results, then flicked them away "The girl is stupid as a stump. Worse. Most stumps have the dignity to rot quietly without causing offense."
"I'm right here," Thorn managed to hiss from her hands and knees.
"Just where the drunk boy put you." The woman flashed a smile at Brand that seemed to have too many teeth. "I like him, though: he is pretty and desperate. My favorite combination. — Joe Abercrombie

Yarvi: 'If we had known the hardship of it, we might have chosen another.'
Shidwala: 'So it is with many choices.'
Yarvi: 'All we can do now is see it through.'
Shidwala: 'So it is with many choices. — Joe Abercrombie

These boots are worth more than you, damn it!'
Shadikshirram was sitting on her bed, eyes shining wet, straining forward and trying to grab her foot but so drunk she kept missing. When she saw him she sagged back.
'Give me a hand, eh?'
'As long as you don't need two,' said Yarvi.
She gurgled with laughter. 'You're a clever little crippled bastard, aren't you? I swear the gods sent you. Sent you ... to get my boots off. — Joe Abercrombie

Fear not, my doves!" Thorn jumped as someone flung an arm around her shoulders. The strange woman who had watched Thorn fight Brand a few days before thrust her gray-stubbled skull between her and her mother. "For the wise Father Yarvi has placed your daughter's education in my dextrous hands."
Thorn hadn't thought her spirits could drop any lower, but the gods had found a way. "Education?"
The woman hugged them tighter, her smell a heady mix of sweat, incense, herbs and piss. "It's where I teach and you learn."
"And who ... " Thorn's mother gave the ragged woman a nervous look, "or what ... are you?"
"Lately, a thief." When that sharpened nervousness into alarm she added brightly, "but also an experienced killer! — Joe Abercrombie

And to go forward, you need to get rid of your anger. And in order to do that, you need to go back to the past," Mike said.
"You sound like a fortune cookie. — Amy Lignor