The look he gave her made her turn away for a moment. Sometimes you couldn’t look too closely at another person’s pain.

Is this some sort of test? Everything that doesn't kill you is. Mind you, he added, surviving doesn't always mean you passed.

i'm never going to understand the Barrani. You needn't sound so morose, Lord Kaylin. They are unlikely to understand you either. Yes, but I'm unlikely to try to kill them for fun.

Hope is often bitter, but it drives us, and we cling.

There is not a man born among us who dreams—at first—of service, although in the end, many are bent that way.

What humans do when they're desperate is just an expression of fear. What they do when they feel safe is a better indication of whether or not you can trust them.

Stop judging your life only by the failures.

It was true: hope could be unkind. You opened yourself up to the worst of wounds because you wanted to believe that something good could finally happen. But if you didn't? You missed this. This intense and prefect moment in which, while the world was almost literally going to hells all around you, hope and reality blended in a single, perfect note.

There wasn't a colloquial phrase, or curse, that went something like, May your day be full of angry dragons or, May every dragon you meet today be pissed off. But, there should have been.

You are an... animal? A talking animal? Without missing a beat, Teela said, Of course not. She's much, much harder to train.

Not all of our heartless plans work as we intend nor do all of our good intentions. We are where we are, and we can rarely predict where we will go, no matter how firm our beliefs.

I hate being the only mortal in a gathering full of Immortals who think killing each other cleverly is the height of good manners.

We all fail. But none of us fail all the time.

Kaylin is not known for her punctuality. She is known, in fact, for her lack--even by those outside of the Hawklord's command.

Sanabalis never seemed to eat, and he deflected most of her questions about Dragon cuisine. Then again, he deflected most of her questions about Dragons, period. Which was annoying because he was one, and could in theory be authorative.

Manners,[...] are severly underappreciated in my opinion. Oh? Where practiced well, they remove the probability that someone in my position will be forced to go through the effort of killing someone in yours. Belive that on occasion that much death can become tedious.