Proverbs is a page for proverbs and other sayings - listed alphabetically - which can be found in the 'Malazan' books of Steven Erikson and Ian C. Esslemont.
One brief definition of proverb is —
"A short, often traditional, saying that expresses some obvious truth or familiar experience".[1]
Some common synonyms of proverb are —
Adage; catchphrase; epigram/epigraph; maxim; motto; precept; saw; or saying.
Sayings can be: common; oracular; pithy; and/or wise in nature.[2]
For those interested, an in-depth discussion of proverb can be found in the Wikipedia article at: Proverb
Contents: | A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z | Notes and references |
A
- Abject misery lies not in what the blanket reveals, but in what it hides.[3]
- A Book of Prophecy opens the door. You need a second book to close it.[4]
- A flower cut from its root quickly dies.[5]
- Age was a demon...It seemed a miserable reward for surviving...which was proof enough that life was a fool's bargain.[6]
- A god walking mortal earth trails blood.[7]
- A half-blood walked the gutter between two worlds, despised by both.[8]
- A life lived is a life of regrets...[9]
- All that breaks
must be discarded
even as the thunder
of faith returns
ever fading
echoes.[10] - Always an even trade.[11]
- An army that waits is soon at war with itself.[12]
- A noble man...[nobility] that's earned, the only kind that means anything.[13]
- An old sword, pitted and blunt and nicked, that cuts clean to the heart.[14]
- Anticipation is the sweetest nectar...[15]
- As vows are sworn, so are they reaped.[16]
- At night ghosts come
In rivers of grief,
To claw away the sand
Beneath a man's feet[17] - A wounded animal is the most dangerous.[18]
B
- Battle is for an army to win or lose; war is for civilization to win of lose.[19]
- Be careful who you invite into your camp.[20]
- Be not too rigid
For you will shatter;
Be not too yielding,
For you will be bowed.[21] - Better to walk into a trap you can see than one you can't.[22]
- Beware the leader who has nothing to lose.[23]
- Blood runs/flows down.[24][25]
- Blood and tribe first. All others are enemy.[26]
- Businesses are the vultures of war...[27]
C
- Call yourself an artist and you can get away with anything.[28]
- Children are dying![29]
- Children from a dark house choose shadowed paths.[30]
- Competence was no gift when it arrived too late.[31]
- Convergence. Power ever draws other power.[32]
D
- Dance by limb, dance by word. Witness![33]
- Death shall be my bridge.[34]
- Does not a teller of tales serve oneself first and last?[35]
E
- East to the sun's rise
North to winter's face
South to where stars are born
West to the road of death.[36] - Even a man who has lived a life of sorrows will ask for one more day.[37]
- Even a mediocre man could climb into greatness by the simple act of dying.[38]
- Even the best laid plans.[39]
- Even the fiercest mask can crack in the heat.[40]
- Every hero needs a poet [to] make them famous...[41]
- Everyone has a price.[42]
- Every throne is an arrow-butt.[43]
- Evil: smelling of sweet lies and bitter truths.[44]
F
- Falsehoods cease being false when enough people believe them.[45]
- Fame is fleeting...[46]
- ...familiarity was the seed of contempt...[47]
- Fear is fear. It has no logic.[48]
- Fear is a potent weapon...but fear can fuel hate...which is far stronger.[49]
- First in, last out.[50][51]
- Five wings will buy you a grovel...[52][53]
- For all the rivers this world over do flow in but one
Direction.[54] - For all the terror waiting in the gloved hands of an assassin, it was as nothing against a professional soldier.[55]
- For there to be rich, there must be poor, and more of the latter than the former.[56]
G
- Generally speaking, people useless at everything else become academics.[57]
- Give an imbecile a torch and you will get a fire.[58]
- ...gods fear mortals more than they do each other.[59]
- Greed is the knife in the sheath of ambition.[60]
H
- HAIL THE MARINES![61]
- He set out, boots crunching on the [frozen] dead.
Returned to the world.
Draconus.[62] - History comforts the dull-witted.[63]
- History consists of nothing more than the lies we tell ourselves to justify the present.[64]
- How many times...will you walk the same path?[65]
I
- I am not yet done.[66]
- If righteousness was easy...it would not shine like gold.[67]
- "I have had...enough...of...your...justice!"[68]
- I have reached an age when youth itself is beauty.[69]
- In a land where
Seven cities rose in gold,
Even the dust has eyes.[70] - In for a penny, in for a crown [a coin].[71]
- In for a pinch in for a pound [a unit of weight].[72]
- In life's last days, the white and the cold will lie in the bed of the old.[73]
- In war we punish our children with a broken legacy of blood.[74]
- I ride the Whirlwind![75]
- Is it not so that better...ancients had been men and women of worth than to possess things of worth?[76]
- Is there anything more worthless than excuses?[77]
- It don't fair the wind to spit in the sea.[78]
- It is the horror of war that, with each newly arrived generation, the nightmare is reprised by innocents.[79]
- It is the wise wolf that follows every spoor, no matter how slight.[80]
K
- Know your enemy better than they know themselves.[81]
L
- Last in, looking around...[82]
- Lead us, Warleader.[83]
- Leave murder to those whose souls are already stained.[84]
- Let sleeping dogs lie.[85]
- Light strikes
Dark smothers
Shadow goes round.[86] - Like attracts like.[87]
- Looking back
is a flame in the eyes.
Best not to linger like flies
in the refuse we have made.[88]
M
- Madness is simply a state of mind.[89]
- Memories are not the truth of the past.[90]
- Memories are woven tapestries hiding hard walls.[91]
- Mockery is just hate's patina, and every laugh is vicious.[92]
N
- Never bargain with a man who has nothing to lose.[93]
- Not even the dead know the end to war.[94]
- "...not yet done..."[95]
- No tyrant could thrive where every subject said no.[96]
O
- Of all the weapons we turn upon ourselves, guilt is the sharpest...[97]
- ...one can never carry too much rope.[98]
- One good betrayal deserves another.[99]
- Only an Ascendant could slay another Ascendant.[100]
- Only the dead should be certain of anything.[101]
- Open to them your hand to the shore, watch them walk into the sea.[102][103]
- Out of death comes life.[104]
P
- Paranoia's the assassin's bedmate.[105]
- People in charge always survive, when everyone else gets slaughtered.[106]
- Poetry and sorcery were the twin edges to the knife in every man's heart.[107]
- Positing a question does not magically create an answer.[108]
- Power ever draws other power.[109]
- Prod and pull.[110][111]
- Push and pull.[112]
Q
R
- ...regrets are as nothing. The value lies in how they are answered.[114]
- Revelry is a flight, a frenzied fleeing from the misery of daily existence.[115]
S
- Sail today to fight tomorrow.[116]
- Salt of the earth.[117]
- Scholars make a career of not agreeing on anything.[118]
- Shadow is ever besieged...whilst darkness devours and light steals.[119]
- Sha'ik Reborn![120]
- ...shaved knuckle in the hole.[121][122]
- Show me a man who can't smoke and you're looking at the end of civilization.[123]
- Sieges are like being thrust into the fire . . . they have a way of changing people.[124]
- Some things never do change.[125]
- Speak truth, grow still, until the water is clear between us.[126]
- Strong as the walls of Heng.[127]
T
- That is one curse we all share - the will to live.[128]
- The beetle that walks slowly has nothing to fear.[129]
- The dead do not sleep. While the living do not live.[130]
- The dead never interrupt, they but arrive.[131]
- The end of the world is announced with a kind word.[132]
- The frog atop the stack of coins dare not jump.[133]
- The harder the world, the fiercer the honour.[134]
- The miracle of hindsight is how it transforms great military geniuses of the past into incompetent idiots, and incompetent idiots of the present into great military geniuses.[135]
- The more laws a land has, the more corrupt it is.[136]
- The object of justice is to drain the world of colour.[137]
- The only real curse is when you find yourself the last of your kind.[138]
- The people in charge never listen to the people in the know.[139]
- The problem with paths is that once you have chosen one,
You cannot choose the others.[140] - The purest book
is the one never opened.[141] - There are folds in this shadow...hiding entire worlds.[142]
- There are tides beneath every tide
And the surface of water
Holds no weight.[143] - There is no death in light.[144]
- There is no struggle too vast, no odds too overwhelming, for even should we fail — should we fall — we will know that we have lived.[145]
- There will always be innocent victims in the pursuit of evil.[146]
- The role of victim in nature is ephemeral, and that which is fed upon in time feed upon the feeders...[147]
- ...the sea...does not dream of you.[148]
- The sea was like a drunk's mouth: there was no telling what might come out of it. Or go back in.[149]
- ...the scent is ever sweeter over the garden wall.[150]
- The shore is blind to the sea.[151]
- The slower the river, the redder it runs.[152]
- The stars wheel. Let us ride.
Lead us, Warleader.
The stars wheel. Lead us Warleader, into glory.[153] - The truth of then is not the truth of now.[154]
- The wise learn more from their enemies than fools learn from their friends.[155]
- Time makes of us believers. Timelessness makes of us unbelievers.[156]
- Time promised everything and delivered nothing.[157]
- To be Shake was to know grief.[158]
- Truth hides in colourless clothes.[132]
- Twice as far as you think
Half the distance you fear[159] - Tyranny has no sense of humor.[160]
- Tyranny remains because the weak and fearful seek it.[161]
U
- Unwitnessed : (we shall be our own witness).[162]
W
- War forged bonds closer knit than those of bloodkin.[163]
- Warrior, fix your gaze outward![164]
- War with Nom Purge is just the Talians keeping in practice.[165]
- Wealth yields little succour when the soul spends too freely...[166]
- We cannot learn without pain.[167]
- We cling to the foolish belief that simple solutions exist.[168]
- We lie about our past to make peace with the present.[169]
- We walk the same path, some farther along, some further back, but still and for ever more the same path.[170]
- We were never what people could be.
We were only what we were.[171] - What is an old man but a pile of fading leaves?[172]
- What is the Deck of Dragons
But where one bends to look
For reflections
Of all things unseen?[173] - What the soul can house, flesh cannot fathom.[174]
- When a ruler is murdered, a thousand blades are drawn, and the weak become savage.[175]
- When the gods of dust were young
They swam in blood.[176] - When the host weakens, the parasites fatten.[177]
- When you do not recognize the wrongs of the past, the future takes its revenge.[178]
- Where hides the gravest threat? Why, the one you invite into your camp.[179]
- Where pleasure is not possible...neither is pain.[180]
- Who needs swords when we have our tongues?[181]
- Wide-eyed stupid.[182]
- Wisdom comes from the country [i.e., from a rural area].[183]
- Wisdom lives only in hindsight.[184]
- Wisdom unfurls like a flower in a pile of dung.[185]
- Witness![186][187]
- Words of wisdom [come] from a child.[188]
Y
- You can heal wounds of the flesh well enough, but it's the other ones that can bleed out a soul.[189]
- You cannot be remade unless you are first broken...[190]
Notes and references
- ↑ Adapted from Webster's New World Dictionary (5th edition)
- ↑ Selected from Roget's International Thesaurus (7th edition)
- ↑ Dust of Dreams, Chapter 1, US HC p.39
- ↑ The Bonehunters, Chapter 21, US HC p.647
- ↑ Dust of Dreams, Chapter 17, US HC p.544
- ↑ The Wurms of Blearmouth, Section 19
- ↑ Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 15, US TPB p.389
- ↑ The Bonehunters, Chapter 7, US HC p.288
- ↑ Crack'd Pot Trail, Chapter 4, US HC p.118
- ↑ House of Chains, Chapter 10, US TPB p.300
- ↑ Gardens of the Moon, Chapter 2, US TPB p.63-64/69
- ↑ House of Chains, Chapter 7, US TPB p.221
- ↑ Memories of Ice, Chapter 25, US TPB p.769
- ↑ Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 12, US TPB p.311
- ↑ The Fiends of Nightmaria, Section 10
- ↑ Return of the Crimson Guard, Book 1 Chapter 1, US TPB p.7
- ↑ House of Chains, Chapter 9, US TPB p.270
- ↑ Dancer's Lament, Chapter 15, US HC p.270
- ↑ Return of the Crimson Guard, Book 2 Chapter 4, US TPB p.364
- ↑ Crack'd Pot Trail, Chapter 6, US HC p.196
- ↑ Stonewielder, Chapter 7, US TPB p.346
- ↑ Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 15, US TPB p.395
- ↑ Dust of Dreams, Chapter 4, US HC p.131
- ↑ Dust of Dreams, Chapter 15, US HC p.483
- ↑ Dust of Dreams, Chapter 17, US HC p.541
- ↑ Deadhouse Landing, Chapter 3, US TPB p.47
- ↑ Dust of Dreams, Chapter 5, US HC p.159
- ↑ Crack'd Pot Trail, Chapter 3, US HC p.34
- ↑ Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 12, US TPB p.311
- ↑ House of Chains, Chapter 1, US TPB p.27
- ↑ Toll the Hounds, Chapter 14, US TPB p.465
- ↑ Gardens of the Moon, Chapter 10, US TPB p.248
- ↑ Toll the Hounds, Epilogue, US TPB p.829
- ↑ Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 7, US TPB p.173
- ↑ Crack'd Pot Trail, Chapter 4, US HC p.78
- ↑ Toll the Hounds, Chapter 12, US TPB p.376
- ↑ The Crippled God, Chapter 22, US HC p.646
- ↑ The Wurms of Blearmouth, Section 9
- ↑ Deadhouse Landing, Prologue, US TPB p.1
- ↑ Dust of Dreams, Chapter 14, US HC p.435
- ↑ The Fiends of Nightmaria, Section 14
- ↑ Kellanved's Reach, Chapter 8, US TPB p.132
- ↑ Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 21, US TPB p.541
- ↑ The Wurms of Blearmouth, Section 17
- ↑ Dust of Dreams, Chapter 15, US HC p.465
- ↑ The Fiends of Nightmaria, Section 14
- ↑ The Fiends of Nightmaria, Section 7
- ↑ Deadhouse Landing, Chapter 15, US TPB p.284
- ↑ Kellanved's Reach, Chapter 7, US TPB p.120
- ↑ Memories of Ice, Book 4 Epigraph, US TPB p.576
- ↑ Reaper's Gale, Chapter 24, US TPB p.756
- ↑ Midnight Tides, Chapter 12, US TPB p.293
- ↑ Midnight Tides, Chapter 24, US TPB p.550
- ↑ Toll the Hounds, Chapter 7, US TPB p.194
- ↑ The Bonehunters, Chapter 23, US SFBC p.916
- ↑ Reaper's Gale, Chapter 2, US TPB p.61
- ↑ Dust of Dreams, Chapter 1, US HC p.47
- ↑ Dancer's Lament, Chapter 16, US HC p.295
- ↑ Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 12, US TPB p.330
- ↑ Dust of Dreams, Chapter 17, US HC p.555
- ↑ Dust of Dreams, Chapter 23, US HC p.779
- ↑ Dust of Dreams, Chapter 18, US HC p.590
- ↑ Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 3, US TPB p.82
- ↑ Stonewielder, Chapter 6, US TPB p.273
- ↑ House of Chains, Chapter 15, US TPB p.411
- ↑ Memories of Ice, Chapter 16, US TPB p.428
- ↑ Crack'd Pot Trail, Chapter 6, US HC p.161
- ↑ The Crippled God, Chapter 23, US HC p.779
- ↑ Dust of Dreams, Chapter 17, US HC p.522
- ↑ Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 4, US TPB p.102
- ↑ Deadhouse Landing, Chapter 15, US TPB p.298
- ↑ Crack'd Pot Trail, Chapter 3, US HC p.40
- ↑ Crack'd Pot Trail, Chapter 3, US HC p.54
- ↑ Dust of Dreams, Prologue, US HC p.34
- ↑ Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 9, US TPB p.228
- ↑ Orb Sceptre Throne, Chapter 9, US TPB p.265
- ↑ Dust of Dreams, Chapter 10, US HC p.305
- ↑ Blood Follows, Section 4
- ↑ House of Chains, Chapter 8, US TPB p.245
- ↑ Gardens of the Moon, Chapter 6, UK MMPB p.202
- ↑ Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 18, US TPB p.478
- ↑ Reaper's Gale, Chapter 24, US TPB p.756
- ↑ House of Chains, Chapter 2, US TPB p.63
- ↑ Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 17, US TPB p.462
- ↑ The Fiends of Nightmaria, Section 8
- ↑ Return of the Crimson Guard, Book 3 Epigraph, US TPB p.539
- ↑ Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 17, US TPB p.460
- ↑ Stonewielder, Chapter 9, US TPB p.449
- ↑ Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 14, US TPB p.384
- ↑ Blood and Bone, Chapter 7, US HC p.280
- ↑ Memories of Ice, Chapter 1, US TPB p.33
- ↑ Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 7, US TPB p.200
- ↑ The Bonehunters, Chapter 7, US HC p.221
- ↑ The Crippled God, Chapter 19, US HC p.541
- ↑ Memories of Ice, Chapter 16, US TPB p.428
- ↑ Toll the Hounds, Chapter 10, US TPB p.330
- ↑ Memories of Ice, Chapter 21, US TPB p.578
- ↑ Dancer's Lament, Prelude, US HC p.2
- ↑ Dancer's Lament, Chapter 15, US HC p.272
- ↑ Dancer's Lament, Chapter 15, US HC p.270
- ↑ Return of the Crimson Guard, Book 2 Chapter 5, US TPB p.420
- ↑ Reaper's Gale, Chapter 20, US TPB p.627
- ↑ Reaper's Gale, Chapter 21, US TPB p.628
- ↑ Deadhouse Landing, Chapter 2, US TPB p.30
- ↑ Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 17, US TPB p.454
- ↑ The Lees of Laughter's End, Section 30
- ↑ Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 11, US TPB p.280
- ↑ Blood and Bone, Chapter 2, US HC p.99
- ↑ Gardens of the Moon, Chapter 10, US TPB p.248
- ↑ Gardens of the Moon, Chapter 1, US TPB p.32
- ↑ Gardens of the Moon, Chapter 18, US TPB p.183
- ↑ Memories of Ice, Chapter 25, US TPB p.712
- ↑ Kellanved's Reach, Chapter 8, US TPB p.129
- ↑ House of Chains, Chapter 6, US TPB p.211
- ↑ The Fiends of Nightmaria, Section 5
- ↑ Deadhouse Landing, Prologue, US TPB p.3
- ↑ Kellanved's Reach, Chapter 3, US TPB p.43
- ↑ Dust of Dreams, Chapter 6, US HC p.205
- ↑ House of Chains, Chapter 20, US TPB p.504
- ↑ Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 18, US TPB p.478
- ↑ Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 1, US TPB p.46
- ↑ Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 11, US TPB p.301
- ↑ The Wurms of Blearmouth, Section 3
- ↑ Dancer's Lament, Chapter 10, US HC p.203
- ↑ Return of the Crimson Guard, Book 1 Chapter 5, US TPB p.196
- ↑ Toll the Hounds, Prologue, US TPB p.17
- ↑ Dancer's Lament, Chapter 1, US HC p.15
- ↑ Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 15, US TPB p.401
- ↑ Dust of Dreams, Chapter 6, US HC p.185
- ↑ Memories of Ice, Chapter 21, US TPB p.589
- ↑ Gardens of the Moon, Chapter 11, US TPB p.251
- ↑ 132.0 132.1 Midnight Tides, Chapter 6, US SFBC p.218
- ↑ Midnight Tides, Chapter 12, US TPB p.293
- ↑ Memories of Ice, Chapter 8, US TPB p.228
- ↑ Toll the Hounds, Chapter 6, US TPB p.161
- ↑ Orb Sceptre Throne, Chapter 17, US TPB p.468
- ↑ Dust of Dreams, Chapter 5, US HC p.166
- ↑ Dust of Dreams, Prologue, US HC p.29
- ↑ Dust of Dreams, Chapter 7, US HC p.233
- ↑ Orb Sceptre Throne, Chapter 1, US TPB p.33
- ↑ The Crippled God, Book 1 Epigraph, US HC p.2
- ↑ House of Chains, Chapter 5, US TPB p.176
- ↑ Midnight Tides, Chapter 4, US TPB p.99
- ↑ House of Chains, Chapter 21, US TPB p.526
- ↑ Toll the Hounds, Chapter 24, US TPB p.781
- ↑ Crack'd Pot Trail, Chapter 1, US HC p.7
- ↑ Dust of Dreams, Chapter 1, US HC p.39
- ↑ Reaper's Gale, Chapter 21, US TPB p.628
- ↑ The Wurms of Blearmouth, Section 11
- ↑ Crack'd Pot Trail, Chapter 5, US HC p.155
- ↑ Reaper's Gale, Chapter 12, US TPB p.324/337/339
- ↑ House of Chains, Chapter 1, US TPB p.26
- ↑ House of Chains, Chapter 1, US TPB p.35
- ↑ Blood and Bone, Chapter 7, US HC p.280
- ↑ Return of the Crimson Guard, Book 2 Chapter 2, US TPB p.283
- ↑ Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 12, US TPB p.332
- ↑ Toll the Hounds, Chapter 8, US TPB p.270
- ↑ Reaper's Gale, Chapter 12, US TPB p.324
- ↑ Reaper's Gale, Chapter 7, US TPB p.159
- ↑ Reaper's Gale, Chapter 3, US TPB p.84
- ↑ Orb Sceptre Throne, Chapter 15, US TPB p.421
- ↑ Reaper's Gale, Chapter 13, US TPB p.357-358
- ↑ Dust of Dreams, Chapter 17, US HC p.549
- ↑ Dust of Dreams, Chapter 10, US HC p.314
- ↑ Kellanved's Reach, Chapter 1, US TPB p.9
- ↑ Crack'd Pot Trail, Chapter 2, US HC p.11
- ↑ Stonewielder, Chapter 12, US TPB p.575
- ↑ Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 23, US TPB p.580
- ↑ Dust of Dreams, Chapter 17, US HC p.535
- ↑ Toll the Hounds, Chapter 11, US TPB p.375
- ↑ The Crippled God, Epilogue Two, US HC p.909
- ↑ Stonewielder, Chapter 1, US TPB p.43
- ↑ Orb Sceptre Throne, Chapter 5, US TPB p.136
- ↑ Memories of Ice, Chapter 17, US TPB p.429
- ↑ Dust of Dreams, Chapter 15, US HC p.482
- ↑ Midnight Tides, Chapter 25, US TPB p.570
- ↑ Dancer's Lament, Chapter 10, US HC p.194
- ↑ Stonewielder, Chapter 11, US TPB p.533
- ↑ Crack'd Pot Trail, Chapter 6, US HC p.191
- ↑ The Fiends of Nightmaria, Section 10
- ↑ Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 15, US TPB p.410
- ↑ Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 19, US TPB p.497
- ↑ Kellanved's Reach, Chapter 3, US TPB p.44
- ↑ Return of the Crimson Guard, Book 2 Chapter 5, US TPB p.465
- ↑ Midnight Tides, Chapter 7, US SFBC p.227
- ↑ Reaper's Gale, Chapter 1
- ↑ Toll the Hounds, Epilogue, US TPB p.829
- ↑ Dancer's Lament, Chapter 5, US HC p.106
- ↑ Reaper's Gale, Chapter 13, US TPB p.355
- ↑ Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 15, US TPB p.408