Nicomo Cosca Quotes

Conscience and the cock-rot are hardly equivalent,' snapped Lorsen.
'Indeed,' said Cosca, significantly. 'The cock-rot is rarely fatal. ~ Joe Abercrombie

Conscience can be painful but so can the cock-rot. A grown-up should suffer his afflictions privately and not allow them to become an inconvenience for friends and colleagues.' - The Magnificent Nicomo Cosca ~ Joe Abercrombie

My name is Nicomo Cosca, famed solider of fortune, and I am here for dinner. ~ Joe Abercrombie

Shy South comes home to her farm to find a blackened shell, her brother and sister stolen, and knows she'll have to go back to bad old ways if she's ever to see them again. She sets off in pursuit with only her cowardly old step-father Lamb for company. But it turns out he's hiding a bloody past of his own. None bloodier. Their journey will take them across the lawless plains, to a frontier town gripped by gold fever, through feuds, duels, and massacres, high into unmapped mountains to a reckoning with ancient enemies, and force them into alliance with Nicomo Cosca, infamous soldier of fortune, a man no one should ever have to trust ... ~ Joe Abercrombie

Unsheathe your swords!' He considered that. 'Or cheaper weapons! Let us ... do some good! ~ Joe Abercrombie

You are a gentleman, sir,' muttered Cosca. 'I am a murderer.' 'I see no reason why a man cannot be both . . . ~ Joe Abercrombie

Inquisitor Lorsen's thin lip curled. "There is truly nothing in you of what separates man from animal, is there? You are bereft of conscience. An utter absence of morality. You have no principle beyond the selfish."
Cosca's face hardened as he leaned forwards. "Perhaps when you have faced as many disappointments and suffered as many betrayals as I, you will see it - there is no principle beyond the selfish, Inquisitor, and men are animals. Conscience is a burden we choose to bear. Morality is the lie we tell ourselves to make its bearing easier. There have been many times in my life when I have wished it was not so. But it is so. ~ Joe Abercrombie

I don't trust a man who drinks,' he growled, not bothered about dressing it up. 'A man takes to drinking, then he gets weak, then his mind goes.' Cosca sadly shook his head. 'You have it back to front. A man's mind goes, then he gets weak, then he takes to drink. The bottle is the symptom, not the cause. ~ Joe Abercrombie

Belief without evidence is the very hallmark of the savage. ~ Joe Abercrombie

Lorsen shook his head in amazement. 'You truly are disgusting.'
'I would be the last to disagree, but you fail to see that you are worse. No man capable of greater evil than the one who thinks himself in the right. No purpose more evil than the higher purpose. I freely admit I am a villain. That's why you hired me. But I am no hypocrite. ~ Joe Abercrombie