In time, you’ll come to understand that a state like ours cannot afford to offer up a show of weakness for… — Scott Lynch

You can’t help being young, but it’s past time that you stopped being stupid.

Hard lessons were handed out. As many men learned to their sorrow, it’s impossible to be intimidating when one angry woman has your cock between her teeth and another is holding a stiletto to your kidneys.

“Advice,” chuckled Doña Vorchenza. “The years play a sort of alchemical trick, transmuting one’s mutterings to a state of respectability. Give advice at forty and you’re a nag. Give it at seventy and you’re a sage.”