Top 180 Scott Lynch Quotes (2024 Update)
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101. “Arms out, falling backward, staring up into the hot near-noon sky with the confident assurance of all twelve of his years that death and injury were things reserved solely for people that weren’t Bug.”

— Scott Lynch

102. “I think I can stand up, though!” He demonstrated the questionable optimism of this pronouncement by falling on his face.”

— Scott Lynch

103. “It is possible,” said Locke with a sheepish grin, “that I have been slightly too bold.”

— Scott Lynch

104. “You’re a lever and a fulcrum, you two, looking for a city to turn upside down.”

— Scott Lynch

105. “Singua solus.” “What’s that?” said Jenora. “It’s an old Camorri tradition for when a bunch of people are planning something stupid,” said Locke. “Actually, we have a lot of traditions for that. You’ll find out.”

— Scott Lynch

106. “He was bewildered at how quickly he had escaped his old life and fallen into this new one with strangely pleasant crazy people.”

— Scott Lynch

107. “After all, poison is only contagious at dinner parties.”

— Scott Lynch

108. “Your moral education’s over.” Jean stared up into the sky as the dockside receded and Bug took them out into the canal’s heart. “Now you’re going to learn a thing or two about war.”

— Scott Lynch

109. “Surely, your readings must have taught you that when men and women of arms have bled to secure a time of peace, the very people who most benefit from that peace are also the most likely to forget the bleeding.”

— Scott Lynch

110. “This web of lies was growing so convoluted, so branching, and so delicate that a moth’s fart might knock it to pieces –.”

— Scott Lynch

111. “Age has a way of exagerrating the physical traits of those who live to feel its strains; the round tend to grow rounder, and the slim tend to waste away.”

— Scott Lynch

112. “Ezri, if you need to hit me, then by the gods hit me. If that’s what you need, I won’t fight you for a second. Not ever. Just... tell me what you want.”

— Scott Lynch

113. “What good’s slacking all the time if the ship comes apart beneath you while you sleep?”

— Scott Lynch

114. “Why do you assume it’s something you’ve done, and something you can undo at will? I’m not some arithmetic problem just waiting for you to show your work properly, Locke. Did.”

— Scott Lynch

115. “That’s great, Jean. I’m not just exiled; I’m being plumped up for slaughter.”

— Scott Lynch

116. “Twenty’s good and proper.” While Locke gestured for Calo and Galdo to help him set.”

— Scott Lynch

117. “You seem to have a real talent for improvised dishonesty.”

— Scott Lynch

118. “Probably Verrari,” muttered the senior, who was methodically torturing a piece of ivory with a slender carving knife. He wanted it to come out like a sculpted terrace he’d seen at the Temple of Iono, alive with lovely relief and fantastical representations of drowned men taken by the Lord of the Grasping Waters. What he seemed to be producing more closely resembled a lump of white dogshit, life-size. “Sooner trust a sailing ship to a blind drunkard with no hands than a Verrari.”

— Scott Lynch

119. “I wouldn’t call it looming, madam. Some of us simply aren’t built for looming,” said Locke.”

— Scott Lynch

120. “And I correct you again. Difficult. ‘Difficult’ and ‘impossible’ are cousins often mistaken for one another, with very little in common.”

— Scott Lynch

121. “In time, you’ll come to understand that a state like ours cannot afford to offer up a show of weakness for honesty’s sake.”

— Scott Lynch

122. “That’s a sweet piece,” said Jean, briefly forgetting to be aggravated. “You didn’t snatch that off a street.” “No,” said Locke, before taking another deep draught of the warm water in the decanter. “I got it from the neck of the governor’s mistress.” “You can’t be serious.” “In the governor’s manor.” “Of all the – ” “In the governor’s bed.” “Damned lunatic!” “With the governor sleeping next to her.”

— Scott Lynch

123. “I’m very pleased. Very, very pleased. But I really must ask – why the hell have men and women been throwing money in my kettle for the past half hour, telling me they’re sorry for what happened in the Videnza?” “It’s because they’re sorry for what happened in the Videnza,” said Galdo.”

— Scott Lynch

124. “Get used to gaps in your comprehension,” said Sabetha. “The rest of us certainly have.”

— Scott Lynch

125. “I sometimes think that ‘friend’ is just a word I use for all the people I haven’t murdered yet.”

— Scott Lynch

126. “Of course they were your friends, Locke. They were your very good friends. Because they’re going to teach you that when you kill someone, there are consequences. It is one thing to kill in a duel, to kill in self-defense, to kill for vengeance. It is another thing entirely to kill simply because you are careless.”

— Scott Lynch

127. “I assure you that in all matters of discretion not involving food, we make etiquette tutors look like slobbering barbarians.”

— Scott Lynch

128. “I’m just... enjoying the floor. It was kind enough to catch me when I fell.”

— Scott Lynch

129. “I don’t want to spend the rest of the day interrupting your questions, so I’m going to temporarily forget how to make words come out of my mouth.”

— Scott Lynch

130. “You were talking to her before, right?” “Yeah. It was going well. Now it’s all strange.” “Have you considered extreme, desperate measures like talking to her again?”

— Scott Lynch

131. “The world moved in horrifying slow motion; Locke, who was no stranger to a beating, was cursed with the uncanny ability to recognize one just before it ceased to be theoretical.”

— Scott Lynch

132. “Bearded peasant goes in one end of an alley, clean-shaven gentleman comes out the other? Really?” “It’s a classic!”

— Scott Lynch

133. “So, uh, just to be clear,” said Calo, “none of us are going to be fighting Jean?” “Not unless you’re inconceivably stupid.”

— Scott Lynch

134. “Gods. So this is what a command is. Staring consequences in the eye and pretending not to flinch.”

— Scott Lynch

135. “Well, hell. It’s been five years. Maybe she’s learned to lose gracefully. Maybe she’s out of practice.” “Maybe trained monkeys will climb out of my ass and pour me a glass of Austershalin brandy,” said Jean.”

— Scott Lynch

136. “The ghouls leered at her, unbreathing, their flesh crisply necrotic like rice paper pressed over old oozing wounds.”

— Scott Lynch

137. “I more proudly take a speck from a man with empty pockets,” said Sabetha, “than riches from a man whose purse stays heavy.”

— Scott Lynch

138. “Once a Big Lie was let out in the world, it seemed to grow on its own and needed little tending or worry to bend to the situation.”

— Scott Lynch

139. “I don’t get it,’ said Locke, gently tugging at the scruff of Regal’s neck. ‘I never even liked cats all that much.’ ‘Surely you realize,’ said Patience, ’that cats are no great respecters of human opinion.”

— Scott Lynch

140. “Maybe the one real advantage to getting older is that you have the time to pull your head a little bit farther out of your ass.”

— Scott Lynch

141. “Just as you and I speak by forming words, the natural, private discourse of the Sanza twins appears to consist entirely of farts and savage beatings. What.”

— Scott Lynch

142. “If what Locke is doing were larking about, corpses could get jobs as acrobats.”

— Scott Lynch

143. “The fact Locke didn’t die instantly may be taken as proof that a human male can survive having every last warm drop of blood within his body rush instantly to the vicinity of his cheeks.”

— Scott Lynch

144. “But this is silly – we could sit here all night contrasting cock-lengths. I say mine is five feet long, you say yours is six, and shoots fire upon command.”

— Scott Lynch

145. “When someone like you pushes the world, the world pushes back. Other people are likely to get hurt. Am I clear?”

— Scott Lynch

146. “What thieves of wonder are these poor senses.”

— Scott Lynch

147. “Hey,” said Locke, scratching his stubble absently with his quill. “That sounds suspiciously like wisdom, damn your eyes. Why must you always flounce about being wiser than me?” “Doesn’t require much conscious effort.”

— Scott Lynch

148. “How would you be able to detect a fart over your natural odor, Sanza?” “For shame,” said Galdo. “There’s no Sanzas here, remember? I’m an Asino.” “Oh yes,” said Locke with a yawn. “Yes, you certainly are.”

— Scott Lynch

149. “The sunrise sky was creeping over the edge of the city in orange-and-scarlet striations, and the clocks were or were not chiming seven.”

— Scott Lynch

150. “That’s a generous appraisal of our foresight.”

— Scott Lynch