Robin Hobb

Cruelty is a skill taught not only by example, but also by experience of it.

When you cut pieces from the truth to avoid sounding like a fool, you end up sounding like a moron instead.

One devoted to his cat would not leave it long alone. A cat’s loyalty is not a thing to be taken for granted, but courted day by day.

Some speak of the savagery of beasts. I will ever prefer that to the thoughtless contempt some men have toward animals.

Death is not the opposite of life, but the opposite of choice.

Truth can well out of a man like blood from a wound, and it can be just as disconcerting to look at.

One man armed with the right word may do what an army of swordsmen cannot.

But change proves that you are still alive. Change often measures our tolerance for folk different from ourselves. Can we accept their languages, their customs, their garments, and their foods into our own lives? If we can, then we form bonds, bonds that make wars less likely. If we cannot, if we believe that we must do things as we have always done them, then we must either fight to remain as we are, or die.

We are the sum of all we have done added to the sum of all that has been done to us.

You seek a false comfort when you demand that I define myself for you with words. Words do not contain or define any person. A heart can, if it is willing.

If love doesn't come first and linger after, if love can't wait and endure disappointment and seperation, then it's not love.

It's all connected. When you save any part of the world, you've saved the whole world. In fact, that's the only way it can be done.

Remember with your heart. Go back, go back, and go back. The skies of this world were always meant to have dragons. When they are not there, humans miss them. Some never think of them, of course. But some children, from the time they are small, they look up at a blue summer sky and watch for something that never comes. Because they know. Something that was supposed to be there faded and vanished.

Fouinot (son chien) était mort. Je crois qu'il avait donné sa vie librement, en se rappellant notre affection mutuelle lorsque nous étions chiots. Les hommes ne pleurent pas leurs morts avec l'intensité des chiens. Mais nous pleurons de longues années.

Après cet épisode, Burrich veilla soigneusement à ce que je n'aie jamais l'occasion de me lier à un autre animal.
[...]
Cependant, je ne me sentais pas protégé, mais confiné. Il était le gardien qui assurait mon isolement avec une ferveur fanatique. C'est à cette époque que la graine de la solitude absolue fut plantée en moi, et elle enfonça de profondes racines dans mon être. (Fizz)

Regretter ne sert pas à grand-chose, mais je n'ai rien de mieux à offrir.

On l'eût dit si seul que toute relation un peu étroite devenait de l'amitié dans son esprit.

Quelle étrange impression d'être aimé simplement pour ce que j'étais !

Chaque fois que je crois avoir un peu grandi, je me surprends à me conduire encore comme un gamin.

Nous aurions pu vivre toute notre vie sans avoir cette conversation. Tu viens de nous condamner à ne jamais l'oublier.