Top 500 Steven Erikson Quotes (2024 Update)
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201. “Humanity’s crisis is, it seems, its inability to appreciate gifts freely given.”

— Steven Erikson

202. “Do not flee us. Do not flee this moment, this scene. Do not confuse dislike and abhorrence with angry denial of truths you do not wish to see. I accept your horror and expect no forgiveness. But if you deny, I name you coward. And I have had my fill of cowards.”

— Steven Erikson

203. “There is power in nature,’ Ilgast replied, ’and what is often forgotten is that nature lies within us as much as it does out there, amidst high grasses or shoreline. To heal is to draw across the divide; that and nothing more.”

— Steven Erikson

204. “Where history means nothing. Lessons are forgotten. Memories – of humanity, of all that is humane – are lost.”

— Steven Erikson

205. “War is not a natural state. It is an imposition, and a damned unhealthy one. With its rules, we willingly yield our humanity.”

— Steven Erikson

206. “And so we weep for the fallen. We weep for those yet to fall, and in war the screams are loud and harsh and in peace the wail is so drawn-out we tell ourselves we hear nothing.”

— Steven Erikson

207. “Around Karsa Orlong, I suspect, only Karsa Orlong has his way.”

— Steven Erikson

208. “When one loves all things of the world, when one has that gift of joy, it is not the armour against grief that you might think it to be. Such a person stands balanced on the edge of sadness – there is no other way for it, because to love as he does is to see clearly.”

— Steven Erikson

209. “The first law of the multitude is conformity. Civilization is the mechanism of controlling and maintaining that multitude. The more civilized a nation, the more conformed its population, until that civilization’s last age arrives, when multiplicity wages war with conformity. The former grows ever wilder, ever more dysfunctional in its extremities; whilst the latter seeks to increase its measure of control, until such efforts acquire diabolical tyranny.”

— Steven Erikson

210. “The frog atop the stack of coins dares not jump.”

— Steven Erikson

211. “Peace is the time of waiting for war. A time of preparation, or a time of wilful ignorance, blind, blinkered and prattling behind secure walls.”

— Steven Erikson

212. “The tall, leaning buildings to either side shrouded the narrow passage in shadow.”

— Steven Erikson

213. “Darkness was anathema to shadows.”

— Steven Erikson

214. “The final aspect of Kruppe to complete this dream’s array of those faces facing him which are Kruppe’s own. Or so you would proclaim. You are Humility but, as everyone knows, Humility has no place in Kruppe’s life, remember that. So here you will stay.”

— Steven Erikson

215. “Beware of shadows bearing gifts.”

— Steven Erikson

216. “The closest held secret is the one that never sours with age.”

— Steven Erikson

217. “Men. It’s all about saving face. Every argument, every duel, every battle, every war. You would level a world to keep from being made to look a fool. And so you shall.”

— Steven Erikson

218. “God, my children, is the wilderness.”

— Steven Erikson

219. “The stars, they are as the sun. Each star. Every star. And those spheres- they are worlds, realms, each one different yet the same.”

— Steven Erikson

220. “Some roads, once set out upon, reveal no possible path but forward. Every other track is blocked by snarls of thorns, steaming fissures or rearing walls of stone. What waits at the far end of the forward path is unknown, and since knowledge itself may prove a curse, the best course is simply to place one foot in front of the other, and think not at all of fate or the cruel currents of destiny.”

— Steven Erikson

221. “A soldier knows but one truth, and that truth is, without faith, you are already as good as dead. Faith in the soldier at your side. But even more important – and no matter how delusional it is in truth – there is the faith that you cannot be killed. Those two and those two alone – they are the legs holding up every army.”

— Steven Erikson

222. “There is only one thing worse than arguing with a drunk,’ Faradan Sort said, ’and that’s arguing with a drunk who’s right.”

— Steven Erikson

223. “And perhaps that is the final, most devastating truth. The gods care nothing for ascetic impositions on mortal behaviour. Care nothing for rules of conduct, for the twisted morals of temple priests and monks. Perhaps indeed they laugh at the chains we wrap around ourselves – our endless, insatiable need to find flaws within the demands of life. Or perhaps they do not laugh, but rage at us. Perhaps our denial of life’s celebration is our greatest insult to those whom we worship and serve.”

— Steven Erikson

224. “She was thinking about how a mind could turn to stone, the patterns solid and immovable in the face of seemingly unbearable pressures, and the way dust trickled down faint as whispers, unnoticed by any.”

— Steven Erikson

225. “Is that all we mortals are? The victims of tortured irony to amuse an insane murder of gods?’ ‘A murder of crows, a murder of gods – I like that, lass. As for tortured irony, more like exquisite irony.”

— Steven Erikson

226. “Lost ages are neither more nor less profound than the one we live in right now.”

— Steven Erikson

227. “Indolence takes many forms, but it comes to every civilization that has outlived its will. You know that as well as I. In this case it was an indolence characterized by a pursuit of knowledge, a frenzied search for answers to everything, no matter the value of such answers. A civilization can as easily drown in what it knows as in what it doesn’t know.”

— Steven Erikson

228. “The two men, Tiste and Azathanai, had begun forging something between them, and whatever it was, it was unafraid of truths.”

— Steven Erikson

229. “As he made his way back to his estate, Baruk recalled his lone meeting with Vorcan, only a few nights after her awakening. She had entered the chamber with her usual feline grace. The wounds she had borne were long healed and she had found a new set of clothes, loose and.”

— Steven Erikson

230. “Never mind the truth. The past is what I say it is. That is the freedom of teaching the ignorant.”

— Steven Erikson

231. “Finally, be ready to disarm with a smile, even as you cut deep with words.”

— Steven Erikson

232. “Love changes, aye, in the manner of growing to encompass as much of its subject as possible. Virtues, flaws, limitations, everything – love will fondle them all, with child-like fascination.’ She.”

— Steven Erikson

233. “No, in an existence bound with true meaning and purpose, oblivion should ever arrive unexpected, unanticipated and unseen. One moment racing full tilt, the next, gone.”

— Steven Erikson

234. “History meant nothing, because the only continuity was human stupidity.”

— Steven Erikson

235. “You are frowning. Why?’ ‘Well, I’ve already killed a god today,’ Iron Bars said. ‘If I’d known this was going to be a day for killing gods, I might have paced myself better.”

— Steven Erikson

236. “There’s little value in seeking to find reasons for why people do what they do, or feel the way they feel. Hatred is a most pernicious weed, finding root in any kind of soil. It feeds on itself.’ ‘With words.’ ‘Indeed, with words. Form an opinion, say it often enough and pretty soon everyone’s saying it right back at you, and then it becomes a conviction, fed by unreasoning anger and defended with weapons of fear. At which point, words become useless and you’re left with a fight to the death.”

— Steven Erikson

237. “Introspection was an act of supreme courage, one that few could manage. But when all one had left to stir was a heap of crumbled bones, there was nothing else one could do. Fleeing the scene only prolonged the ordeal. Memories clung to the horrors in his wake, and the only true escape was a plunge into madness – and madness was not a thing he could simply choose for himself. More’s the pity. No, the sharper the inner landscape, the fiercer the sanity.”

— Steven Erikson

238. “Keep repeating the exercise of grief and it loses meaning, it becomes rote, false, a game of self-delusion, self-indulgence. A way of never getting over anything, ever.”

— Steven Erikson

239. “When next you see Anomander, tell him this from me: he chose wisely. Each time, he chose wisely. Tell him, then, that of all whom I ever met, there is but one who has earned my respect, and he is that one.”

— Steven Erikson

240. “Why can’t I have normal friends?’ Stonny demanded. ‘Ones without tiger stripes and cat eyes? Ones without a hundred thousand souls riding their backs? Here comes a rider from that other lagging company – maybe he’s normal! Hood knows, he’s dressed like a farmer and looks inbred enough to manage only simple sentences. A perfect man! Hey! You! No, what are you hesitating for? Come to us, then! Please!”

— Steven Erikson

241. “Every body that darted within his reach he grasped, twisted, bent and broke.”

— Steven Erikson

242. “Bad tactics, and whoever this Caladan Brood is, he’s shown himself adept at making us pay for our mistakes.” “Caladan Brood,” Calot murmured. “I swear I’ve heard that name somewhere before. Odd that I’ve never given it much thought.” Tattersail’s eyes narrowed on Tayschrenn. Calot was right: the name of the man commanding the Tiste Andii alongside the Crimson Guard did sound familiar – but in an old way, echoing ancient legends, perhaps, or some epic poem.”

— Steven Erikson

243. “Somewhere above this foul temple, crows danced with sparks above the mouth of a chimney, virtually unseen in the darkness. Each one carried a word, but the sparks were deaf. Too busy with the ecstasy of their own bright, blinding fire. At least, until they went out.”

— Steven Erikson

244. “It was pathetic, the raving accusations of an ego blind to its own lies.”

— Steven Erikson

245. “Is your friendship such a burden, then?” “Some burdens are willingly embraced.”

— Steven Erikson

246. “It is a fool’s curse, to measure oneself in endless dissatisfaction.”

— Steven Erikson

247. “Kill, thought Ditch, nodding, kill, yes, I understand. I do. Kill, for her. Kill. And he found that the word itself, yes, the word itself, knew how to smile.”

— Steven Erikson

248. “Some things went beyond a single man’s life, and maybe justice existed outside the minds of humanity, beyond even the hungry eyes of gods and goddesses, a thing shining and pure and final.”

— Steven Erikson

249. “Life was a war against a thousand enemies, from the sustenance carved from nature to the insanity of a people’s will to do wrong in the name of right.”

— Steven Erikson

250. “Names are not for the asking, mortal. Names are earned.”

— Steven Erikson