Badassery Quotes

“My name's Jean Tannen, and I'm the ambush.”
― Scott Lynch, The Lies of Locke Lamora

“Please!’
That word didn’t make sense to Nico. The Underworld had no mercy. It only had justice.
‘You’re already dead,’ Nico said. ‘You’re a ghost with no tongue, no memory. You won’t be sharing any secrets.”
― Rick Riordan, The Blood of Olympus

“Fight back, Laia. For Darin. For Izzi. For every Scholar this beast has abused. Fight. A scream bursts from me, and I claw at Marcus’s face, but a punch to my stomach takes the wind out of my lungs. I double over, retching, and his knee comer up into my forehead. The hallway spins, and I drop to my knees. Then I hear him laughting, a sadistic chuckle that stokes my defiance.

Sluggishly, I throw myself at his legs. It won’t be like before, like during the raid when I let that Mask drag me about my own house like some dead thing.

This time, I’ll fight. Tooth and nail, I’ll fight.”
― Sabaa Tahir, An Ember in the Ashes

“You have made me give up the hair Father gave me, the eyes Mother left me, the Color I was born to, so I will keep the name they granted me, and you can make it work.”
― Pierce Brown, Red Rising

“We match each other stroke for stroke until I get a hit on her right arm.

She tries to switch sword arms, but I jab my scim at her wrist faster than she can parry. Her scim goes flying, and I tackle her. Her white-blonde hair tumbles free of her bun.

“Surrender!” I pin her down at the wrists, but she trashes and rips one arm free, scrabbling for a dagger at her waist. Steel stabs at my ribs, and seconds later, I am on my back with a blade at my throat.

“Ha!” She leans down, her hair falling around us like a shimmering silver curtain.”
― Sabaa Tahir, An Ember in the Ashes

“Two dozen--and yet you killed all but one?" The provost arched a brow and set her quill down again as if unwilling to record a falsehood.

"Dear lady, I killed them from youngest child to oldest woman, and when I was done I blunted three axes dismembering their corpses. I am Jorg of Ancrath--I burned ten thousand in Gelleth and didn't think it too many.”
― Mark Lawrence, Emperor of Thorns

“Everything's going to be okay', because that's what I wanted him to say and it's what he wanted to say and that's what you do when the curtain is falling — you give the line that the audience wants to hear.”
― Rick Yancy

“I'm many things, and the least impressive of them is lovely.”
― Laura Thalassa, The Queen of All that Dies

“They always always understimate women”
― Susan Ee, World After

“Standing in front of him I wipe his liquid from the corner of my mouth and stare deeply. I can see the panic in his eyes. I can smell his fear, deep, rich and growing, and for the first time tonight I’m actually aroused.”
― Dennis Sharpe, Blood & Spirits

“My daughter isn’t going to grow up as fragile flower, incapable of taking care of herself. She will train as she fights, and she will fight as she trains. She will be raised to be total bad ass. Because everyone loves a bad ass. - Raising A Strong Daughter: What Fathers Should Know by Finlay Gow JD and Kailin Gow MA”
― Kailin Gow

“You are a badass. You were one when you came screaming onto this planet and you are one now. The Universe wouldn't have bothered with you otherwise. You can't screw up so majorly that your badassery disappears. It is who you are. It's who you always will be. It's not up for negotiation.”
― Jen Sincero

“True stability results when presumed order and presumed disorder are balanced. A truly stable system expects the unexpected, is prepared to be disrupted, waits to be transformed.”
― Tom Robbins

“I try to keep in mind” I recite dryly as I run the front sight of my pistol over his face, “that my life is only as significant, as I am to the lives of others.”
He’s sobbing and won’t look up from the floor so I lean close to his ear and ask softly, “Would you say that I’m significant to your life?”
― Dennis Sharpe, Blood & Spirits

“God must think her a badass because he’d handed her this moment, and he didn’t dole out shit she couldn’t handle. That was a fact taught long ago by that miserable bitch called life.”
― Cristin Harber, Savage Secrets

“You don’t even know me, or what I am capable of, boy.”
― S.R. Crawford, No Secrets: Remastered

“What are you? The pregnant MacGyver?” “Best compliment I’ve had in a while.”
― Cristin Harber, Live Wire

“I'm the kind of girl you don't want to fuck with.”
― Riley Sager, Lock Every Door

“I don't usually tell people to go to hell, but when I do I'm happy to give directions.”
― Ant Richards, In Your Dreams

“It's not your job to like me, it's mine”
― Bryon Katie

“Don't know about my knives, but my gun's made of pain.”
― Devon Monk, Dead Iron

“God, woman.” He closed his fist, not bothering to count off the dozens of other things she shouldn’t do. “You give me heartburn.”
“No. Those are orgasms I give you, baby.”
― Cristin Harber, Live Wire

“You know my work. One more step and I'll set to work on you, you fucking swollen pig.”
― Joe Abercrombie, The Blade Itself

“While I was strong enough to handle just about any damn thing that came my way, it felt good to have a little something to hold onto during the darkest times.”
― Colleen Vanderlinden, Home

“There weren’t many amulet smugglers around these parts. They mostly served Regime territory down south, where the so-called “demons” reigned. If you didn’t want a monster for a child, you’d pay a pretty penny for one of those necklaces. And if you were caught smuggling them, well, you’d pay with your pretty head.”
― Dean F. Wilson, Coilhunter

“I'm a free agent. I don't like anybody. And nobody likes me. Half the mages out there are convinced I'm some sort of demon and the other half think I have an undead army waiting to march down Wilshire."
"Are you listening to yourself? People are fucking terrified of you?"
"Which is exactly what keeps me out of this shit."
"No. It is exactly what pulls you in. WHen you were twenty you created a huge power vacuum by murdering, the fuck was his name?"
"Jean Boudreau," I say.
"Right. A man who had been untouchable until you-What did you do anyway?"
"Packed a car with a bunch of propane canisters and a brick on the accelerator. Ran it into him and set off the propane. Then I dragged him to the dead side and fed him to ghosts."
Amanda stares at me and then finally remembers to blink. "My dad's right about you. You're fucking psychotic.”
― Stephen Blackmoore, Suicide Kings

“Ivy looked up, clearly embarrassed. "I'm sorry about your men at the car. I didn't recognize them. They tried to stop me from coming in."

My eyebrows rose, and Rynn Cormel's laughter shocked both Ivy and me. "If you bested them, they deserved it and needed the reminder. Thank you for correcting their poor interpretation of your skills."

Ivy licked her lips. It was a nervous habit I didn't see often, and my tension rose. "Um," she hedged, trying to tuck her short hair behind an ear. "I think I ought to call an ambulance. I broke a few things.”
― Kim Harrison, The Outlaw Demon Wails

“A persona was developing in her mind, someone who would wear these breeches and this jacket with these boots. The boots sharpened her focus. A ridiculous situation was surely no hindrance with boots like these. She could kick her way out of anything.”
― Rachel Hartman, Tess of the Road

“The gelding had a broad back, making for a comfortable ride. Yedan rode at a canter. Ahead, the hills thickened with scrub, and beyond was a forest of white trees, branches like twisted bones, leaves so dark as to be almost black. Just before them and running the length of the wooded fringe rose dolmens of grey granite, their edges grooved and faces pitted with cup-shaped, ground-out depressions. Each stone was massive, twice the height of a grown man, and crowding the foot of each one that he could see were skulls.

He slowed his mount, reined in a half-dozen paces from the nearest standing stone. Sat motionless, flies buzzing round the horse’s flickering ears, and studied those grisly offerings. Cold judgement was never short of pilgrims. Alas, true justice had no reason to respect secrets, as those close-fisted pilgrims had clearly discovered. A final and fatal revelation.

Minute popping sounds in the air announced the approach of dread power, as the buzzing flies ignited in mid-flight, black bodies bursting like acorns in a fire. The horse shied slightly, muscles growing taut beneath Yedan, and then snorted in sudden fear.

‘Hold,’ Yedan murmured, his voice calming the beast.

Those of the royal line among the Shake possessed ancient knowledge, memories thick as blood. Tales of ancient foes, sworn enemies of the uncertain Shore. More perhaps than most, the Shake rulers understood that a thing could be both one and the other, or indeed neither. Sides possessed undersides and even those terms were suspect. Language itself stuttered in the face of such complexities, such rampant subtleties of nature.

In this place, however, the blended flavours of compassion were anathema to the powers that ruled.

Yet the lone figure that strode out from the forest was so unexpected that Yedan Derryg grunted as if he had been punched in the chest. ‘This realm is not yours,’ he said, fighting to control his horse.

‘This land is consecrated for adjudication,’ the Forkrul Assail said. ‘I am named Repose. Give me your name, seeker, that I may know you—’

‘Before delivering judgement upon me?’

The tall, ungainly creature, naked and weaponless, cocked his head. ‘You are not alone. You and your followers have brought discord to this land. Do not delay me—you cannot evade what hides within you. I shall be your truth.’

‘I am Yedan Derryg.’

The Forkrul Assail frowned. ‘This yields me no ingress—why is that? How is it you block me, mortal?’

‘I will give you that answer,’ Yedan replied, slipping down from the horse. He drew his sword.

Repose stared at him. ‘Your defiance is useless.’

Yedan advanced on him. ‘Is it? But, how can you know for certain? My name yields you no purchase upon my soul. Why is that?’

‘Explain this, mortal.’

‘My name is meaningless. It is my title that holds my truth. My title, and my blood.’

The Forkrul Assail shifted his stance, lifting his hands. ‘One way or another, I will know you, mortal.’

‘Yes, you will.’

Repose attacked, his hands a blur. But those deadly weapons cut empty air, as Yedan was suddenly behind the Forkrul Assail, sword chopping into the back of the creature’s elongated legs, the iron edge cutting between each leg’s two hinged knees, severing the buried tendons—Repose toppled forward, arms flailing.

Yedan chopped down a second time, cutting off the Assail’s left arm. Blue, thin blood sprayed on to the ground.

‘I am Shake,’ Yedan said, raising his sword once more. ‘I am the Watch.’

The sudden hiss from Repose was shortlived, as Yedan’s sword took off the top of the Forkrul Assail’s head.”
― Steven Erikson, Dust of Dreams

“I don't get off on flaunting my badassery; I'm a humble woman.”
― Erika M. Weinert, Cursing with Style: A Dicktionary of Expletives