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By Force Alone QUOTES

By Force Alone QUOTES

1 " the twins always sets him on edge. He once saw them strangle the waiter just for spilling a drop of their drink. They just did it for fun. They are that sort of guy. But they’re made guys, they are part of a crew. The crew. They are knights of the Round Table. Fuck but he’d kill to be made. Five fucking years and he hasn’t even come close to counting in this town. "

― Lavie Tidhar , By Force Alone

2 " The temple's been abandoned for a century at least. But Merlin can sense it. The residue of worship. People had come here. They had poured their hopes and fears and dreams into this air. They murdered pigs here and the hot blood spilled and stained the ground. It's in the roots and in the bark. "

― Lavie Tidhar , By Force Alone

3 " In this Britannia, first you get the money, then you get the power, then you get the women—this is what they say, and laugh, and dream of big-bosomed girls "

― Lavie Tidhar , By Force Alone

4 " This is no matter of guilt or innocence. To be a king the innocents must die, to be a king the guilty live, to be a king is to be judge and executioner both, and rule by force alone. Merlin can understand that. There are two types of men, those with swords and those without, and Merlin likes the men with swords. You know where you are with one of those. "

― Lavie Tidhar , By Force Alone

5 " I grow old and fat, my Lady "

― Lavie Tidhar , By Force Alone

6 " This island is a wild country, a host of warring tribes who scrabble for scraps in the ruins of civilisation. It’s each man for himself, and a man with the right attitude – and the right arms – can make or lose a fortune. "

― Lavie Tidhar , By Force Alone

7 " where they say a thousand thousand books are held in the Imperial Library, where they say the emperor’s palace has fabulous automatons of hummingbirds and flowering trees. Merlin dreams of mechanics and artifice. "

― Lavie Tidhar , By Force Alone

8 " It occurs to him that this sort of patter will never quite fail. Perhaps in centuries hence, a millennium from now, this sort of crap would still light up people’s hearts. Hatred, after all, is so very comforting to have. ‘Foreigners!’ he says, savouring the words and their effect on his captive audience. ‘Angles and Saxons, coming over here, to fight and pillage and – and rape! "

― Lavie Tidhar , By Force Alone

9 " Guinevere and Arthur, facing each other on the bank in the light of a silvery moon. Their faces close together. ‘I’m no good, you know,’ he tells her. ‘I think I could have been once but that path is closed.’ She nestles closer into him. ‘I’m bad all over and inside,’ she says, ‘And I keep killing people. "

― Lavie Tidhar , By Force Alone

10 " Fuck ’em if they can’t take a joke. —Aristophanes of Athens (431 BC) "

― Lavie Tidhar , By Force Alone

11 " Britain?’ He still couldn’t take it seriously. ‘But there’s nothing there! No one’s even been there for, well, years! It’s just some backwater shithole former colony the legions left just as soon as they could. I bet there isn’t even a decent toilet. "

― Lavie Tidhar , By Force Alone

12 " A sword is wielded, and it has one use. And war is but the use of violence in service of the state. "

― Lavie Tidhar , By Force Alone

13 " You mustn’t underestimate the power of this new church out of Rome. They have their own fanatics, worse than druids, and they’re as fond of a sword as any greedy knight. "

― Lavie Tidhar , By Force Alone

14 " These men of the Round Table all have that in common: they are unholy sneaks and thieves and liars to a man, and will connive and scheme and murder to pursue their goals. No wonder they all flock to Camelot. It is that great cesspool into which all the loungers and idlers of the kingdom are irresistibly drained. "

― Lavie Tidhar , By Force Alone

15 " I try not to miss things in the past. It’s a place you can’t get back to. "

― Lavie Tidhar , By Force Alone