“The truth is like salt. Men want to taste a little, but too much makes everyone sick.”

“Sometimes it doesn't matter too much what choice you make, as long as you make it quick and stick to it.”

“I've been on jobs like that before, everyone stuck on the money not the work, watching their backs every minute. Bad for your health and your business. We'll do this civilised, or not at all. What do you say?"I say civilised," said Shenkt. "For pity's sake, let's kill like honest men.”

“The skies make no special dispensation for Magi, boy, they piss on everyone the same.”

“You can never have too many knives, his father had told him. Unless they're pointed at you, and by people who don't like you much. ”

“Don’t deceive yourself. Everyone is guilty of something, and even the innocent can be a threat. Perhaps it takes small crimes to prevent bigger ones, Colonel West, but it’s up to bigger men than us to decide.”

“Strange, isn't it,' mused Glokta as he watched him struggle for air. 'Big men, small men, thin men, fat men, clever men, stupid men, they all respond the same to a fist in the guts. One minute you think you're the most powerful man in the world. The next you can't even breathe by yourself.”