“Get what you can with words, because words are free, but the words of an armed man ring that much sweeter.”
More from Joe Abercrombie on Wisdom
“But you know what they say - old milk turns sour but old scores just get sweeter.”
“It was what you gave out that made a man, not what you got back.”
“You want to be merciful. To stand in the light. I understand it. I admire it. But, my queen...Only the victors can be merciful.”
“To have a good enemy, choose a friend: he knows where to strike.”
“The best steel doesn't always shine the brightest.”
“Remember, though, that you are the king's observer, not the king's champion.”
“Travel brings wisdom only to the wise. It renders the ignorant more ignorant than ever.”
“I have learned all kinds of things from my many mistakes. The one thing I never learn is to stop making them.”
“The gods hate those who plan badly, and help those with good friends, good swords, and good sense.”
Others on Wisdom
Sun Tzu
30 quotes“A clever general, therefore, avoids an army when its spirit is keen, but attacks it when it is sluggish and inclined to...”
Dalai Lama
22 quotes“A disciplined mind leads to happiness, and an undisciplined mind leads to suffering.”
Cervantes
20 quotes“Honesty's the best policy.”
Aesop
19 quotes“Do not waste your pity on a scamp.”
Confucius
19 quotes“If a man take no thought about what is distant he will find sorrow near at hand.”
Ben Franklin
18 quotes“Never ruin an apology with an excuse.”
Napoleon
16 quotes“One must change one's tactics every ten years if one wishes to maintain one's superiority.”
Cicero
15 quotes“Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others.”
George Washington
14 quotes“I hold the maxim no less applicable to public than to private affairs, that honesty is always the best policy.”
Khalil Gibran
14 quotes“A little knowledge that acts is worth infinitely more than much knowledge that is idle.”
Rudyard Kipling
14 quotes“One paid for one's knowledge with one's skin.”
William Penn
14 quotes“Speak properly, and in as few words as you can, but always plainly; for the end of speech is not ostentation, but to be...”