Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City Quotes

“I rarely ask for suggestions, because, when I do, people tend to make them.”
― K.J. Parker, Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City

“I like to let them talk things out, but fact isn’t a democratic process; if a thing isn’t true it isn’t true, even if everybody votes that it is.”
― K.J. Parker, Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City

“Of the people, by the people, for the people. I can’t remember offhand where that quote comes from; it was something to do with some bunch of wild-eyed idealists overthrowing the tyrant so they could become tyrants themselves. No good will have come of it, you can be sure. The people; God help us.”
― K.J. Parker, Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City

“wise man once said, the difference between luck and a wheelbarrow is, luck doesn’t work if you push it.”
― K.J. Parker, Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City

“A wise man once said, it’s not the despair that destroys you, it’s the hope.”
― K.J. Parker, Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City

“I mention this because that’s how the world changes. It’s either so quick that we never know what hit us, or so gradual that we don’t notice.”
― K.J. Parker, Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City

“How can anyone doubt the existence of God when evidence of His sense of humour surrounds us on all sides?”
― K.J. Parker, Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City

“Common sense dictates that any voice you hear inside your head must be just you, thinking; so, if you know it’s just you and you know you’re basically an idiot, what possesses you to do what the stupid voice tells you?”
― K.J. Parker, Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City

“Being, in my own small way, a part of Authority, it never ceases to amaze me how much people believe in it and trust it. I see it from the inside, of course—inefficiencies, stupidities, corruption, bloody-minded ignorance and simple lack of resources to cope with the magnitude of the endless, ever-multiplying problems. But other people see it from the outside. They see the Land Walls. They see the emperor’s head on the coins, with Victory on the reverse. They see the temples. They see soldiers in shining armour. They see, and they believe, that the empire is big, strong, wise, unbeatable.”
― K.J. Parker, Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City

“If there’s one truth in this life, it’s that you simply can’t win. The most you can achieve is to make a nuisance of yourself, for a very short time.”
― K.J. Parker, Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City

“I have strong views about not tempting providence and, as a wise man once said, the difference between luck and a wheelbarrow is, luck doesn’t work if you push it.”
― K.J. Parker, Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City

“An old man I met in the slave camp told me once, always be positive. He died of gangrene, something it’s hard to be positive about, and he spent his last week on earth whimpering, but I’ve always tried to follow his advice, even so.”
― K.J. Parker, Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City

“You can lead the people to water, but you can’t make them think. Nobody, it seems, can do that.”
― K.J. Parker, Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City

“My belief is, either you understand things or you understand people. Nobody can do both. Frankly, I’m happier with things. I understand stuff like tensile strength, shearing force, ductility, work hardening, stress, fatigue. I know the same sort of things happen with people, but the rules are subtly different. And nobody’s ever paid for my time to get to know about people”
― K.J. Parker, Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City

“Everyone keeps telling me what I can’t do, but they’re wrong. The only thing I can’t do is nothing.”
― K.J. Parker, Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City

“Of course, I never beat Ogus at anything, unless I cheated. Which I did, whenever I could. I figure, winning is winning. Cheating is just one of many ways of prevailing; just happens to be the way I’m best at.”
― K.J. Parker, Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City

“I tend to keep my thoughts to myself, which is why I scowl a lot,”
― K.J. Parker, Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City

“It’s how I do things. First, despair. Then hope.”
― K.J. Parker, Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City

“I have my faults. But when I hear bad news that’s palpably true, I don’t argue or ask for proof.”
― K.J. Parker, Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City

“It’s like—all right, supposing there’s a fire. What do you do? You grab everyone and everything you can and you get the hell out of there. You don’t agonise about letting the fire win. Staying alive doesn’t make you the fire’s accomplice.”
― K.J. Parker, Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City

“My guess is, they couldn't sleep, and they had the kind of generous nature that reckons insomnia isn't something you hoard all for yourself, you share it with your friends and loved ones.”
― K.J. Parker, Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City

“The way I see it, the truth is just barren moorland, all useless bog and heather. It’s only when you break it up and turn it over with the ploughshare of the Good Lie that you can screw a livelihood out of it. Isn’t that what humans do? They take a dead landscape and reshape it into what they need, and want, and can use. I’ve never hesitated to adapt the world to suit me, when I can get away with it.”
― K.J. Parker, Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City

“The people turn out to be—well, people; a collective noun for all those individual men and women, none of them perfect, some of them downright vicious, most of them monumentally stupid. As stupid as the emperor, the great hereditary lords, the priestly hierarchs, the General Staff and the Lords of the Admiralty, the merchant princes and the organised crime barons.”
― K.J. Parker, Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City

“A voice in my head said, can’t be helped. Why do I listen to those voices? Common sense dictates that any voice you hear inside your head must be just you, thinking; so, if you know it’s just you and you know you’re basically an idiot, what possesses you to do what the stupid voice tells you?”
― K.J. Parker, Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City

“He looked at me the way the male spider gazes at his beloved. He knows he’s going to get eaten afterwards, but it’ll be worth it. “Deal,” he said.”
― K.J. Parker, Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City

“They’ve heard of sequential numbering in Supply but clearly aren’t convinced that it’d work, so Block 374 is wedged in between Blocks 217 and 434.”
― K.J. Parker, Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City

“In the course of a long (feels that way, anyhow) and eventful life, I’ve learned that nothing encourages good faith, loyalty and a desire to work tirelessly for the common good like blind terror.”
― K.J. Parker, Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City

“fact isn’t a democratic process; if a thing isn’t true it isn’t true, even if everybody votes that it is.”
― K.J. Parker, Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City

“He stared at the coin in his hand, then at me. Then he ran. I’ve seen men running for their lives, but he was faster. Incentive is everything.”
― K.J. Parker, Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City

“My belief is, either you understand things or you understand people. Nobody can do both. Frankly, I’m happier with things.”
― K.J. Parker, Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City