Steven Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen: The Bonehunters

"He had seen crystals growing up in a single night from the desert floor, facet after facet revelead like the petals of an opening flower, and it seemed to him that brutality behaved in a like manner. One incident leading to another, until a conflagration burgeoned, swallowing everyone in its path."
~Mappo Runt, pg. 69

"It's not 'know your enemy'. That's simplistic and facile. No, it's 'know your enemies'. There's a big difference, Apsalar, because one of your enemies could be the face in the silver mirror."
~Captain Ganoes Paran, pg. 175

"Compassion existed when and only when one could step outside oneself, to suddenly see the bars from inside the cage."
~Bottle, pg. 290

"There were times, Paran reflected, when a man could believe in nothing. No path taken could alter the future, and the future remained ever-unknown, even by the gods. Sensing those currents, the tumult that lay ahead, achieved little except the loss of restful sleep, and a growing suspicion that all his efforts to shape that future were naught but conceit."
~Captain Gaones Paran, pg. 302

"Modest Relevance. I would tell yo ua tale, brother. Early in the clan's history, many centuries past, there arose, like a breath of gas from the deep, a new cult. Chosen as its representative god was the most remote, most distant of gods among the pantheon. A god that spoke naught to any mortal, that intervened never in mortal affairs. Morbid. The leaders of the cult proclaimed themselves the voice of that god. They wrote down laws, prohibitions, ascribances, propitations, blasphemies, punishments for nonconformity, for dispute and derivations. This was but rumor, said details maintained in vague fugue, until such time as the cult achieved domination, and with domination, absolute power.
"Terrible enforcement, terrible crimes committed in the name of the silent god. Leaders came and went, each further twisting words already twisted by mundane ambition and the zeal for unity. Entire pools were poisoned. Others drained and the silts seeded with salt. Eggs were crushed. Mothers dismembered. And our people were plunged into a paradise of fear, the laws made manifest and spilled blood the tears of necessity. False regret with chilling gleam in the centre eye. No relief awaited, and each generation suffered more than the last."
"What happened?"
"Seven great warriors from seven clans set out to find the silent god, set out to see for themselves if this god had indeed blessed all that had come to pass in its name."
"And did they find the silent god?"
"Yes, and too, they found the reason for its silence. The god was dead. It had died with the first drop of blood spilled in its name."
"I see, and what is the relevance of this tale of yours, however modest?"
"Perhaps this. The existence of many gods conveys true complexity of mortal life. Conversely, the assertion of but one god leads to a denial of complexity, and encourages the need to make the world simple. Not the fault of the god, but a crime committed by its believers."
"If a god does not like what is done its name, then it should act."
"Yet, if each crime committed in its name weakens it... Very soon, I think, it has no power left and so cannot act, and so, ultimately, it dies."
"You come from a strange world, Greyfrog."
"Yes."
"I find your tale most disturbing."
"Yes."
~Greyfrog and L'oric, pg. 457

"Fanaticism breeds fanaticisim, aye. 'In proclamation, one defines his enemy for his enemy.'"
~Mappo Runt, quoting Kellanved, pg. 523

"Discipline is the greatest weapon against the self-righteous. We must measure the virtue of our own controlled response when answering the atrocities of fanatics. And yet, let it not be claimed, in our own oratory of piety, that we are without our own fanatics; for the self-righteous breed wherever tradition holds, and most often where there exists the perception that tradition is under assault. Fanatics can be created as easily in an environment of moral decay (whether real or imagined) as in an environment of legitimate inequity or under the banner of a common cause.
Discipline is as much facing the enemy within as the enemy before you; for without critical judgement, the weapon you wield delivers--and let us not by coy here--naught but murder.
And its first victim is the moral prbity of your cause."
~Mortal Sword Brukhalian's words to the Adherents, pg. 619

"It is useful, on occasion, to halt upon a path, and to turn and walk back some distance."
"Achieving what?"
"An understanding of motivations."
~Adjunct Tavore and Mallick Rel, pg. 727