Proverbs

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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".Adapted from Webster's New World Dictionary (5th edition)
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.Selected from Roget's International Thesaurus (7th edition)
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.Dust of Dreams, Chapter 1, US HC p.39
*A Book of Prophecy opens the door. You need a second book to close it.The Bonehunters, Chapter 21, US HC p.647
*A flower cut from its root quickly dies.Dust of Dreams, Chapter 17, US HC p.544
*Age did such things, feeding the desire then starving the will.Toll the Hounds, Chapter 8, US TPB p.245
*Age was a demon...It seemed a miserable reward for surviving...which was proof enough that life was a fool's bargain.The Wurms of Blearmouth, Section 19
*A god walking mortal earth trails blood.Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 15, US TPB p.389
*A half-blood walked the gutter between two worlds, despised by both.The Bonehunters, Chapter 7, US HC p.288
*A life lived is a life of regrets...Crack'd Pot Trail, Chapter 4, US HC p.118
*All that breaksmust be discardedeven as the thunderof faith returnsever fadingechoes.House of Chains, Chapter 10, US TPB p.300
*Always an even trade.Gardens of the Moon, Chapter 2, US TPB p.63-64/69
*A man who stirs awake the serpent [i.e., Eleint] is a man without fear. A man without fear has forgotten the rules of life.Toll the Hounds, Chapter 2, US TPB p.67
*A man's sword [i.e., erection] never lies.Toll the Hounds, Chapter 8, US TPB p.249
*An army that waits is soon at war with itself.House of Chains, Chapter 7, US TPB p.221
*A noble man...[nobility] that's earned, the only kind that means anything.Memories of Ice, Chapter 25, US TPB p.769
*An old sword, pitted and blunt and nicked, that cuts clean to the heart.Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 12, US TPB p.311
*Anticipation is the sweetest nectar...The Fiends of Nightmaria, Section 10
*As sure as Hood's nodToll the Hounds, Chapter 19, US SFBC p.799
*As vows are sworn, so are they reaped.Return of the Crimson Guard, Book 1 Chapter 1, US TPB p.7
*At night ghosts comeIn rivers of grief,To claw away the sandBeneath a man's feetHouse of Chains, Chapter 9, US TPB p.270
*A wounded animal is the most dangerous.Dancer's Lament, Chapter 15, US HC p.270
===B===
*Battle is for an army to win or lose; war is for civilization to win of lose.Return of the Crimson Guard, Book 2 Chapter 4, US TPB p.364
*Be careful who you invite into your camp.Crack'd Pot Trail, Chapter 6, US HC p.196
*Be not too rigidFor you will shatter;Be not too yielding,For you will be bowed.Stonewielder, Chapter 7, US TPB p.346
*Better to walk into a trap you can see than one you can't.Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 15, US TPB p.395
*Beware gathering men before the battering ram.Reaper's Gale, Chapter 11, US HC p.294
*Beware the leader who has nothing to lose.Dust of Dreams, Chapter 4, US HC p.131
*Blood runs/flows down.Dust of Dreams, Chapter 15, US HC p.483Dust of Dreams, Chapter 17, US HC p.541
*Blood and tribe first. All others are enemy.Deadhouse Landing, Chapter 3, US TPB p.47
*Businesses are the vultures of war...Dust of Dreams, Chapter 5, US HC p.159
===C===
*Call yourself an artist and you can get away with anything.Crack'd Pot Trail, Chapter 3, US HC p.34
*Children are dying!Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 12, US TPB p.311
*Children from a dark house choose shadowed paths.House of Chains, Chapter 1, US TPB p.27
*Competence was no gift when it arrived too late.Toll the Hounds, Chapter 14, US TPB p.465
*Convergence. Power ever draws other power.Gardens of the Moon, Chapter 10, US TPB p.248
===D===
*Dance by limb, dance by word. Witness!Toll the Hounds, Epilogue, US TPB p.829
*Death shall be my bridge.Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 7, US TPB p.173
*Does not a teller of tales serve oneself first and last?Crack'd Pot Trail, Chapter 4, US HC p.78
*Do not trust an easy believer.Toll the Hounds, Chapter 20, US TPB p.664
*Dragons play no games.Toll the Hounds, Chapter 8, US TPB p.274
===E===
*East to the sun's riseNorth to winter's faceSouth to where stars are bornWest to the road of death.Toll the Hounds, Chapter 12, US TPB p.376
*Even a drunk knows a fool.Toll the Hounds, Chapter 1, US TPB p.42
*Even a man who has lived a life of sorrows will ask for one more day.The Crippled God, Chapter 22, US HC p.646
*Even a mediocre man could climb into greatness by the simple act of dying.The Wurms of Blearmouth, Section 9
*Even the best laid plans.Deadhouse Landing, Prologue, US TPB p.1
*Even the fiercest mask can crack in the heat.Dust of Dreams, Chapter 14, US HC p.435
*Every hero needs a poet [to] make them famous...The Fiends of Nightmaria, Section 14
*Everyone has a price.Kellanved's Reach, Chapter 8, US TPB p.132
*Every throne is an arrow-butt.Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 21, US TPB p.541
*Evil: smelling of sweet lies and bitter truths.The Wurms of Blearmouth, Section 17
===F===
*Falsehoods cease being false when enough people believe them.Dust of Dreams, Chapter 15, US HC p.465
*Fame is fleeting...The Fiends of Nightmaria, Section 14
*...familiarity was the seed of contempt...The Fiends of Nightmaria, Section 7
*Fear is fear. It has no logic.Deadhouse Landing, Chapter 15, US TPB p.284
*Fear is a potent weapon...but fear can fuel hate...which is far stronger.Kellanved's Reach, Chapter 7, US TPB p.120
*First in, last out.Memories of Ice, Book 4 Epigraph, US TPB p.576Reaper's Gale, Chapter 24, US TPB p.756
*Five wings will buy you a grovel...Midnight Tides, Chapter 12, US TPB p.293Midnight Tides, Chapter 24, US TPB p.550
*For all the rivers this world over do flow in but oneDirection.Toll the Hounds, Chapter 7, US TPB p.194
*For all the terror waiting in the gloved hands of an assassin, it was as nothing against a professional soldier.The Bonehunters, Chapter 23, US SFBC p.916
*For there to be rich, there must be poor, and more of the latter than the former.Reaper's Gale, Chapter 2, US TPB p.61
===G===
*Generally speaking, people useless at everything else become academics.Dust of Dreams, Chapter 1, US HC p.47
*Give an imbecile a torch and you will get a fire.Dancer's Lament, Chapter 16, US HC p.295
*...gods fear mortals more than they do each other.Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 12, US TPB p.330
*Greed is the knife in the sheath of ambition.Dust of Dreams, Chapter 17, US HC p.555
===H===
*HAIL THE MARINES!Dust of Dreams, Chapter 23, US HC p.779
*He set out, boots crunching on the [frozen] dead.Returned to the world.Draconus.Dust of Dreams, Chapter 18, US HC p.590
*History comforts the dull-witted.Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 3, US TPB p.82
*History consists of nothing more than the lies we tell ourselves to justify the present.Stonewielder, Chapter 6, US TPB p.273
*How many times...will you walk the same path?House of Chains, Chapter 15, US TPB p.411
===I===
*I am not yet done.Memories of Ice, Chapter 16, US TPB p.428
*If righteousness was easy...it would not shine like gold.Crack'd Pot Trail, Chapter 6, US HC p.161
*"I have had...enough...of...your...justice!"The Crippled God, Chapter 23, US HC p.779
*I have reached an age when youth itself is beauty.Dust of Dreams, Chapter 17, US HC p.522
*In a land whereSeven cities rose in gold,Even the dust has eyes.Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 4, US TPB p.102
*In for a penny, in for a crown [a coin].Deadhouse Landing, Chapter 15, US TPB p.298
*In for a pinch in for a pound [a unit of weight].Crack'd Pot Trail, Chapter 3, US HC p.40
*In life's last days, the white and the cold will lie in the bed of the old.Crack'd Pot Trail, Chapter 3, US HC p.54
*In war we punish our children with a broken legacy of blood.Dust of Dreams, Prologue, US HC p.34
*I ride the Whirlwind!Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 9, US TPB p.228
*Is it not so that better...ancients had been men and women of worth than to possess things of worth?Orb Sceptre Throne, Chapter 9, US TPB p.265
*Is there anything more worthless than excuses?Dust of Dreams, Chapter 10, US HC p.305
*It don't fair the wind to spit in the sea.Blood Follows, Section 4
*It is the horror of war that, with each newly arrived generation, the nightmare is reprised by innocents.House of Chains, Chapter 8, US TPB p.245
*It is the wise wolf that follows every spoor, no matter how slight.Gardens of the Moon, Chapter 6, UK MMPB p.202
===K===
*Know your enemy better than they know themselves.Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 18, US TPB p.478
===L===
*Last in, looking around...Reaper's Gale, Chapter 24, US TPB p.756
*Lead us, Warleader.House of Chains, Chapter 2, US TPB p.63
*Leave murder to those whose souls are already stained.Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 17, US TPB p.462
*Let sleeping dogs lie.The Fiends of Nightmaria, Section 8
*Light strikesDark smothersShadow goes round.Return of the Crimson Guard, Book 3 Epigraph, US TPB p.539
*Like attracts like.Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 17, US TPB p.460
*Looking backis a flame in the eyes.Best not to linger like fliesin the refuse we have made.Stonewielder, Chapter 9, US TPB p.449
===M===
*Madness is simply a state of mind.Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 14, US TPB p.384
*Memories are not the truth of the past.Blood and Bone, Chapter 7, US HC p.280
*Memories are woven tapestries hiding hard walls.Memories of Ice, Chapter 1, US TPB p.33
*Mockery is just hate's patina, and every laugh is vicious.Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 7, US TPB p.200
===N===
*Never bargain with a man who has nothing to lose.The Bonehunters, Chapter 7, US HC p.221
*Not even the dead know the end to war.The Crippled God, Chapter 19, US HC p.541
*Nothing lasts for ever. Not violence, not peace. Not sorrow...nor rage.Toll the Hounds, Chapter 6, US TPB p.176
*Nothing was fair. Nothing.Toll the Hounds, Chapter 8, US TPB p.267
*"...not yet done..."Memories of Ice, Chapter 16, US TPB p.428
*No tyrant could thrive where every subject said no.Toll the Hounds, Chapter 10, US TPB p.330
===O===
*Of all the weapons we turn upon ourselves, guilt is the sharpest...Memories of Ice, Chapter 21, US TPB p.578
*...one can never carry too much rope.Dancer's Lament, Prelude, US HC p.2
*One cannot murder in the name of justice.Toll the Hounds, Chapter 12, US TPB p.384
*One good betrayal deserves another.Dancer's Lament, Chapter 15, US HC p.272
*One salient fact that labourers well know, but appears to be lost on those who fanatically exercise, is that the body, its organs, its muscles and its bones, will inevitably wear out.The Healthy Dead, Section 30
*Only an Ascendant could slay another Ascendant.Dancer's Lament, Chapter 15, US HC p.270
*Only the dead should be certain of anything.Return of the Crimson Guard, Book 2 Chapter 5, US TPB p.420
*Open to them your hand to the shore, watch them walk into the sea.Reaper's Gale, Chapter 20, US TPB p.627Reaper's Gale, Chapter 21, US TPB p.628
*Out of death comes life.Deadhouse Landing, Chapter 2, US TPB p.30
===P===
*Paranoia's the assassin's bedmate.Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 17, US TPB p.454
*People in charge always survive, when everyone else gets slaughtered.The Lees of Laughter's End, Section 30
*Poetry and sorcery were the twin edges to the knife in every man's heart.Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 11, US TPB p.280
*Positing a question does not magically create an answer.Blood and Bone, Chapter 2, US HC p.99
*Power ever draws other power.Gardens of the Moon, Chapter 10, US TPB p.248
*Prod and pull.Gardens of the Moon, Chapter 1, US TPB p.32Gardens of the Moon, Chapter 18, US TPB p.183
*Push and pull.Memories of Ice, Chapter 25, US TPB p.712
===Q===
*Quon pays so that Tali can fight.Kellanved's Reach, Chapter 8, US TPB p.129
===R===
*Rage in battle was...a gift of the gods.Toll the Hounds, Chapter 8, US TPB p.255
*...regrets are as nothing. The value lies in how they are answered.House of Chains, Chapter 6, US TPB p.211
*Revelry is a flight, a frenzied fleeing from the misery of daily existence.The Fiends of Nightmaria, Section 5
===S===
*Sail today to fight tomorrow.Deadhouse Landing, Prologue, US TPB p.3
*Salt of the earth.Kellanved's Reach, Chapter 3, US TPB p.43
*Scholars make a career of not agreeing on anything.Dust of Dreams, Chapter 6, US HC p.205
*Shadow is ever besieged...whilst darkness devours and light steals.House of Chains, Chapter 20, US TPB p.504
*Sha'ik Reborn!Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 18, US TPB p.478
*...shaved knuckle in the hole.Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 1, US TPB p.46Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 11, US TPB p.301
*Show me a man who can't smoke and you're looking at the end of civilization.The Wurms of Blearmouth, Section 3
*Sieges are like being thrust into the fire . . . they have a way of changing people.Dancer's Lament, Chapter 10, US HC p.203
*Someone wanting their bowl filled will take whatever is poured into it.Toll the Hounds, Chapter 20, US TPB p.664
*Some things never do change.Return of the Crimson Guard, Book 1 Chapter 5, US TPB p.196
*Speak truth, grow still, until the water is clear between us.Toll the Hounds, Prologue, US TPB p.17
*Strong as the walls of Heng.Dancer's Lament, Chapter 1, US HC p.15
===T===
*That is one curse we all share - the will to live.Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 15, US TPB p.401
*The beetle that walks slowly has nothing to fear.Dust of Dreams, Chapter 6, US HC p.185
*The dead are beyond shame.The Wurms of Blearmouth, Section 17
*The dead do not sleep. While the living do not live.Memories of Ice, Chapter 21, US TPB p.589
*The dead never interrupt, they but arrive.Gardens of the Moon, Chapter 11, US TPB p.251
*The end of the world is announced with a kind word.Midnight Tides, Chapter 6, US SFBC p.218
*The frog atop the stack of coins dare not jump.Midnight Tides, Chapter 12, US TPB p.293
*The harder the world, the fiercer the honour.Memories of Ice, Chapter 8, US TPB p.228
*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.Toll the Hounds, Chapter 6, US TPB p.161
*The more laws a land has, the more corrupt it is.Orb Sceptre Throne, Chapter 17, US TPB p.468
*The object of justice is to drain the world of colour.Dust of Dreams, Chapter 5, US HC p.166
*The only real curse is when you find yourself the last of your kind.Dust of Dreams, Prologue, US HC p.29
*The people in charge never listen to the people in the know.Dust of Dreams, Chapter 7, US HC p.233
*The problem with paths is that once you have chosen one,You cannot choose the others.Orb Sceptre Throne, Chapter 1, US TPB p.33
*The purest bookis the one never opened.The Crippled God, Book 1 Epigraph, US HC p.2
*There are folds in this shadow...hiding entire worlds.House of Chains, Chapter 5, US TPB p.176
*There are tides beneath every tideAnd the surface of waterHolds no weight.Midnight Tides, Chapter 4, US TPB p.99
*There is no death in light.House of Chains, Chapter 21, US TPB p.526
*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.Toll the Hounds, Chapter 24, US TPB p.781
*There is plenty of room for guilt in the heart of hate.Toll the Hounds, Chapter 8, US TPB p.275
*There will always be innocent victims in the pursuit of evil.Crack'd Pot Trail, Chapter 1, US HC p.7
*The role of victim in nature is ephemeral, and that which is fed upon in time feed upon the feeders...Dust of Dreams, Chapter 1, US HC p.39
*...the sea...does not dream of you.Reaper's Gale, Chapter 21, US TPB p.628
*The sea was like a drunk's mouth: there was no telling what might come out of it. Or go back in.The Wurms of Blearmouth, Section 11
*...the scent is ever sweeter over the garden wall.Crack'd Pot Trail, Chapter 5, US HC p.155
*The shore is blind to the sea.Reaper's Gale, Chapter 12, US TPB p.324/337/339
*The slower the river, the redder it runs.House of Chains, Chapter 1, US TPB p.26
*The soul knows no greater anguish than to take a breath that begins with love and ends with grief.Toll the Hounds, Chapter 19, US TPB p.627/656
*The stars wheel. Let us ride.Lead us, Warleader.The stars wheel. Lead us Warleader, into glory.House of Chains, Chapter 1, US TPB p.35
*The truth of then is not the truth of now.Blood and Bone, Chapter 7, US HC p.280
*The tyrant thrives when the first fucking fool salutes.Toll the Hounds, Chapter 10, US TPB p.331
*...the water is clear between us/them...Toll the Hounds, Prologue, US TPB p.17Toll the Hounds, Chapter 24, US TPB p.811/812
*The wise learn more from their enemies than fools learn from their friends.Return of the Crimson Guard, Book 2 Chapter 2, US TPB p.283
*The wolf does not smell the bear's anus.Toll the Hounds, Chapter 12, US SFBC p.476
*Time makes of us believers. Timelessness makes of us unbelievers.Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 12, US TPB p.332
*Time promised everything and delivered nothing.Toll the Hounds, Chapter 8, US TPB p.270
*To be Shake was to know grief.Reaper's Gale, Chapter 12, US TPB p.324
*Truth hides in colourless clothes.
*Twice as far as you thinkHalf the distance you fearReaper's Gale, Chapter 7, US TPB p.159
*Tyranny has no sense of humor.Reaper's Gale, Chapter 3, US TPB p.84
*Tyranny remains because the weak and fearful seek it.Orb Sceptre Throne, Chapter 15, US TPB p.421
===U===
*Unwitnessed : (we shall be our own witness).Reaper's Gale, Chapter 13, US TPB p.357-358
===W===
*War forged bonds closer knit than those of bloodkin.Dust of Dreams, Chapter 17, US HC p.549
*Warrior, fix your gaze outward!Dust of Dreams, Chapter 10, US HC p.314
*War with Nom Purge is just the Talians keeping in practice.Kellanved's Reach, Chapter 1, US TPB p.9
*Wealth yields little succour when the soul spends too freely...Crack'd Pot Trail, Chapter 2, US HC p.11
*We are not born innocent, simply unmeasured.Midnight Tides, Chapter 5, US TPB p.132
*We cannot learn without pain.Stonewielder, Chapter 12, US TPB p.575
*We cling to the foolish belief that simple solutions exist.Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 23, US TPB p.580
*We lie about our past to make peace with the present.Dust of Dreams, Chapter 17, US HC p.535
*We walk the same path, some farther along, some further back, but still and for ever more the same path.Toll the Hounds, Chapter 11, US TPB p.375
*We were never what people could be.We were only what we were.The Crippled God, Epilogue Two, US HC p.909
*What is an old man but a pile of fading leaves?Stonewielder, Chapter 1, US TPB p.43
*What is the Deck of DragonsBut where one bends to lookFor reflectionsOf all things unseen?Orb Sceptre Throne, Chapter 5, US TPB p.136
*What the soul can house, flesh cannot fathom.Memories of Ice, Chapter 17, US TPB p.429
*When a ruler is murdered, a thousand blades are drawn, and the weak become savage.Dust of Dreams, Chapter 15, US HC p.482
*When the gods of dust were youngThey swam in blood.Midnight Tides, Chapter 25, US TPB p.570
*When the host weakens, the parasites fatten.Dancer's Lament, Chapter 10, US HC p.194
*When you do not recognize the wrongs of the past, the future takes its revenge.Stonewielder, Chapter 11, US TPB p.533
*Where hides the gravest threat? Why, the one you invite into your camp.Crack'd Pot Trail, Chapter 6, US HC p.191
*Where pleasure is not possible...neither is pain.The Fiends of Nightmaria, Section 10
*Who needs swords when we have our tongues?Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 15, US TPB p.410
*Wide-eyed stupid.Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 19, US TPB p.497
*Wisdom comes from the country [i.e., from a rural area].Kellanved's Reach, Chapter 3, US TPB p.44
*Wisdom lives only in hindsight.Return of the Crimson Guard, Book 2 Chapter 5, US TPB p.465
*Wisdom unfurls like a flower in a pile of dung.Midnight Tides, Chapter 7, US SFBC p.227
*Without followers, civilization would never have been born.Toll the Hounds, Chapter 8, US TPB p.276
*Witness! Reaper's Gale, Chapter 1Toll the Hounds, Epilogue, US TPB p.829
*Words of wisdom [come] from a child.Dancer's Lament, Chapter 5, US HC p.106
===Y===
*You can heal wounds of the flesh well enough, but it's the other ones that can bleed out a soul.Reaper's Gale, Chapter 13, US TPB p.355
*You cannot be remade unless you are first broken...Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 15, US TPB p.408
==Notes and references==
Category:Culture
Category:Miscellany