Thief

Miscellaneous Quotes

• "The essence of balance is detachment. To embrace a cause, to grow fond or spiteful, is to lose one's balance, after which, no action can be trusted. Our burden is not for the dependent of spirit." -Mayar, Third Keeper
  • Source: Mission I: A Keeper's training

• "The most promising acolyte left us, not out of the lesser folly of sentiment, but the greater folly of anger. His heart was clouded, and his balance was lost, but his abilities were unmatched. Even then, we knew to watch him most carefully." -Keeper Annals
  • Source: Mission II: Lord Bafford's Manor

• "Before death came, the liars were made to feast upon the hands of the thieves, and the thieves were made to ingest the tongues of their liar brothers, and we praised the Master Builder for his judgements." -The Hammer Book of Tenets
  • Source: Mission III: Break from Cragscleft Prison

• "...And the manfools piled rock on rocks and raised a treesie roof, hammers saws tear the skin of goodsie wood... ...and laughs at the Woodsie Lord. ...And when learns the Lord of this, He sends His beastesses to the manfools... ...who attacks and hammers saws their useless fleshes, and build him a house of they rotting skins." -Unattributed Trickster song
  • Source: Mission IV: Down in the Bonehoard

• "The ancient corruption was again contained. To do more would have upset the balance, but we knew to remain ever vigilant lest it resurface. Neither the Hammers nor the pagans could be trusted not to meddle." -Keeper Annals
  • Source: Mission V: Assassins

• "In the beginning we lived as thieves, Stealing fur and fang of beasts for survival. Then came the Builder who brought us the Hammer, And with it we forged a new way of life. To reject the Hammer is to denounce the Builder." -The Hammer Book of Tenets
  • Source: Mission 1: Thieves' Guild
  • Note: This mission is in the Gold edition of Thief.

• "Builds your roofs of dead wood. Builds your walls of dead stone. Builds your dreams of dead thoughts. Comes crying laughing singing back to life, takes what you steal, and pulls the skins from your dead bones shrieking." -Clay tablet in an abandoned Trickster temple
  • Source: Mission VI: The Sword

Thief II

Miscellaneous Quotes

• "Reliance upon others
  Is weakness for the strong
  But strength for the weak." -Chronicle of the Metal Age

• "The man who learns only what
  Others know is as ignorant as if he
  Learns nothing. The treasures of knowledge
  Are the most rare, and guarded most harshly." -Chronicle of the First Age

• "Strike Hot Iron And Call Forth Sparks
  Strike A Man And Call Forth Fury
  To Shape Man Or Metal To Thy Will
  Thou Must Strike With Force" -Collected Sermons of Karras

• "Sings We A Dances Of Wolfs, Who Smells Fear And Slays The Coward.
  Sings We A Dances Of Mans, Who Smells Gold And Slays His Brother." -Pagan Saying

• "Bricky Roads They Trappers Grass,
  Stoney Walls They Trappers Wind,
  Iron Stove It Trappers Fire.
  Trappres Is We By The Works Of Hands,
  And Forgets Us We Were Ever Free." -Inked Grass Scroll

• "To Manipulate A Man Is A Careful Project.
  Too Light A Hand, And He Follows His Own Whim;
  Too Heavy A Hand, And He Will Turn On You." -Chronicle of the Metal Age

• "He Who Keeps His Work In Disorder Gives Home To Chaos.
  Let Him Be Struck With Stone And Iron To Forge Away His Flaws." -Collect Sermons of Karras

• "Saws We Them Man O' Moons Faces,
  Rounds O' Glow Brights n Them Summer Night Sky,
  Saids Them To Us That Winter Comes Earlies,
  Summer Is Gone, And The Harvest Is Fled." -From A Pagan Song

• "The Builder Has Gifted Thee
  With The Greatest Of All Treasures - The Future!
  But Thine Own Will Forges The Key That Opens The Lock." -Karras, Private Correspondence

• "Even With All We Had Learned,
  Some Events Were To Prove More Complex Than We Had Predicted.
  The Most Unlikely Of Alliances Was Also The Most Effective." -Chronicle of the Metal Age

• "Calls The Serpents To The Heels Of My Foes!
  Calls The Ravens To Pecks Their Eyes!
  Calls The Jackals, Carry Thems Away
  Their Children To Gnaw Bones In The Night!" -Pagan Curse

• "When We Looked At The Relics Of The Precursors,
  We Saw The Heights Civilization Can Attain.
  When We Looked At Their Ruins,
  We Marked The Danger Of That Height." -Keeper Annals

• "There Are Those To Whom Knowledge Is A Shield,
  And Those To Whom It Is A Weapon.
  Neither View Is Balanced,
  But One Is Less Unwise." -Keeper Annals

• "Come The Time Of Peril, Did The Ground Gape,
  And Did The Dead Rest Unquiet 'Gainst Us.
  Our Bands Of Iron And Hammers Of Stone Prevailed Not,
  And Some Did Doubt The Builder's Plan.
  But The Seals Held Strong, And The Few Did Triumph,
  And The Doubters Were Lain Into The Foundations Of The New Sanctum." -Collected Letters Of The Smith-In-Exile