Thief (series)

Note: This page may contain spoilers.

Quotes from or about Thief, an electronic game series. See Thievery for quotes about the crime, or Thief (arcade game) for the coin-op video game.

Note: This page may contain spoilers.

Thief: The Dark Project

Quotes by Garrett

"Bafford, like most of his kind, probably keeps his treasures on the top floor of the place. Close to his heart...and far from his servants."
- Source: Mission I: Lord Bafford's Manor

"Inside at last."
- Source: Mission I: Lord Bafford's Manor

"Heh! It's a throne room. How pretentious can you get?"
- Source: Mission I: Lord Bafford's Manor

"I went to Cutty's place to deliver the scepter, but Cutty wasn't there. He'd been arrested by the Hammerites. Apparently they didn't approve of his occupation, and I doubt they approve of mine. So hopefully they'll never catch sight of me when I break him out of their prison. Which is what I'm going to do."
- Source: Mission II: Break from Cragscleft Prison

"I'd rather not have to do this job, but Cutty's a reliable fence, and I don't appreciate the Hammerites abducting him. And he owes me money for the Bafford job...."
- Source: Mission II: Break from Cragscleft Prison

"I was pissed at Cutty for a good while after the...prison debacle. But hey, you can't blame him for what the Hammers did to him. So I decided to go after that horn Felix talked about. Not like I had a whole lot of choice, really...the rent is due...and my landlord's even tougher than the Hammers."
- Source: Mission III: Down in the Bonehoard

"Felix, always helpful, also said that the catacombs are supposed to be haunted. Think I'll go make some inquiries about where a 'heretic' like me can get some holy water. Always go prepared...."
- Source: Mission III: Down in the Bonehoard

"Tombs with piped in music. How classy."
- Source: Mission III: Down in the Bonehoard

"That shot was meant for me."
- Source: Mission IV: Assasins

"I was going to pay Lord Randall and his vase collection a visit, but the Downwind Thieves' Guild beat me to the score."
- Source: Mission V: Thieves' Guild
- Note: This mission is in the Gold edition of Thief.

"Apparently their leaders...Donal and Reuben...are arguing over the prized sapphire vase. Sounds like they could use a third party to settle their disagreement. Since I'm no mediator, I'll just steal the vase from them. They'll be so busy blaming each other no one will suspect an outsider."
- Source: Mission V: Thieves' Guild
- Note: This mission is in the Gold edition of Thief.

"I guess if you're rich enough you can build any sort of madhouse to live in."
- Source: Mission VI: The Sword

"I prefer my payment in CASH...not liquor, Mister...ahh..."
- Source: Mission VI: The Sword (first cutscene)

"No. Fanatics make unreliable friends."
- Source: Mission VI: The Sword (first cutscene)

"It's a rock. It's what you asked for. Am I gonna get paid or not?"
- Source: Mission XIII: Escape! (second cutscene)

"This was not the way things were supposed to go. Constantine has The Eye, and MY eye, and I doubt he has anything wholesome planned for it. So the Trickster was real after all, I doubt anyone except the Hammers believed in the ancient gods. Those crazy Hammers. You know, it wouldn't hurt to have a dozen of heavily armed fanatics by my side. I'll drop by their temple and explain things, hopefully they'll be so distracted with the Trickster's return that they'll forget to hold a grudge. And even if they don't, I know how to get out of Cragscleft prison already."
- Source: Mission XIV: Strange Bedfellows

End Scene

Garrett: [Makes a sound of contempt.] Keepers!
Keeper: So you think you've won.
Garrett: I think I've got my eye back.
Keeper: Yet...still...you are blind.
Garrett: If you hadn't noticed, I just saved the world. Yourself included.
Keeper: As we knew you would. As it had to be.
Garrett: Now I remember why I left the Keepers.
Keeper: And I remember why we let you go.
Garrett: What do you want from me? [Sarcastically] You come to congratulate me? Welcome me back to the fold?
Keeper: Very well. I will speak my piece plainly. You have accomplished that which was written, and YES... you've done it well. But there is no place for you with us any longer. Yet you will have a great need of us, and soon.
Garrett: I don't think so. I'm through with heroics.
Garrett: And with your kind as well.
Keeper: You cannot run from life as you did from us, Garrett. Life has a way of finding you. No matter how artistic a sneak you are. Listen...there is a book that you were not made aware of. I'm here to tell you that it would be WISE for you to read it now...if you can still read hieroglyphs.
Garrett: I do try to forget, but you Keepers leave them everywhere for me.
Keeper: Yes. You have more friends than you know.
Garrett: Tell my "friends" that I don't need their secret book. Or their glyph warnings, or their messengers! Tell them I'm through! Tell them it's over! Tell them Garrett is done! (walks away)
Keeper: I will tell them this: Nothing has changed. All is as it was written. The Trickster is dead. Beware the dawn...of the Metal Age.

Miscellaneous Quotes

"Thou shalt not rob from the house I have built, or commit any theft or unrighteousness, lest ye be struck down and driven into the earth forthwith, and the land of the heathen consume you." -The Book of the Stone
- Source: intro movie.

"We chose our profession in defiance of the greed of the monarchy. We will not live for the sake of taxes to fatten the nobles pockets. We choose to live the only life available to those who would be truly free. We are thieves." -Wall Plaque in the Thieves Guild
- Source: Mission 5 Theives' Guild
- Note: This mission is in the Gold edition of Thief.

"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

"I was a kid. No parents, no home, running messages or picking pockets to keep my ribs from meeting my spine. One day I saw a man, folks just passed him by as if he wasn't there. I thought he must have something valuable, so I snuck up on him and made a grab.

Keeper Artemus: That's not for you.

Garrett: Please sir, I'm hungry. Don't tell the Hammers, I promise...

Keeper Artemus: What is your name, boy?

Garrett: Garrett.

Keeper Artemus: You have talent, lad.

Garrett: Let go of me old man!

Keeper Artemus: To see a Keeper is not an easy thing, especially one who does not wish to be seen. We have a need for those as gifted as yourself. If you've grown tired of how you live, come with me and we will show you a different way.

Garrett: Leave me alone!

Keeper Artemus: As you wish.

I caught up with him just before he vanished into the crowd. It was the beginning of a very long education."

- 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

"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
- Source: Mission VII: The Haunted Cathedral

"The knowledge of those who came before could neither be disseminated or destroyed. Its power would be a dangerous tool in the wrong hands, but would also insure against future cataclysm. At that time we chose to maintain it with writings preserved in extant locations." -Keeper Annals
- Source: Mission VII: The Lost City

"Since you left us, you've been a stone rolling downhill. Now you must aim this remarkable momentum. It is past time for the balance to shift."
- Source: Mission XI: Escape!

"The stone cannot know why the chisel cleaves it; the iron cannot know why the fire scorches it. When thy life is cleft and scorched, when death and despair leap at thee, beat not thy breast and curse thy evil fate, but thank the Builder for the trials that shape thee." -The Hammer Book of Tenets
- Source: Mission XII: Strange Bedfellows

"Hadst I a hammer, wouldst I hammer in the morning. Wouldst I hammer in the evening, all over this land."
- Source: Hammerite Compendium of Precepts, Regimens, and Rules of Conduct, Vol. 39: Mission XII: Strange Bedfellows

"Greed shall be your undoing, poor Garrett."-Oracle Statue
- Source: Mission VIII: The Mage Towers

Quotations about Thief: The Dark Project

"Thief is the single most terrifying, immersive, and rewarding game I have played and the one single-player game I continue to replay. In addition to the overriding stealth gamestyle, it is loaded with unique elements that hold one in the world. I love the setting, a medieval tech fantasy world that owes less to D&D than to such literary lights as Fritz Leiber, Jack Vance and Michael Shea. It has a spare, but well-crafted storyline, eccentric NPCs, brilliant verse, and unparalleled sound design. Then there are the enormous, intricate levels: Sprawling towns (both populated and ruinous), haunted crypts, bizarre mansions, lost cities, and the finest subterranean sequences in any game the climactic level being a surreal descent that convinced me I had scrambled many miles towards the earth's core. There are countless books I wish I had written; Thief is one of the few games I wish I had worked on." - Marc Laidlaw, Valve (writer/designer: Half-Life)

Thief II: The Metal Age

Quotes by Garrett

"I've always equated "feelings" with "getting caught"...they both get in the way of my money. Unfortunately not everyone is as committed to their work as I am."
- Source: Mission I: Running Interference

"I make it a policy never to take a job so sentimental, but the Rumford manor could be a lucrative opportunity for a man like me. It would also mean that Basso would owe me a favour...And in this line of work, you can never have too many of those."
- Source: Mission I: Running Interference

"Huh! This proves it...going legit is more trouble than it's worth...."
- Source: Mission I: Running Interference

"Huh! Wasn't that long ago that I was planning on my retirement...now the only thing that's getting retired is my standards."
- Source: Mission II: Shipping... and Receiving

"Hagen is Sheriff Truart's number two man and has no doubt made life difficult for someone he shouldn't have."
- Source: Mission III: Framed
- Note: In this mission, Garrett frames Lt. Hagen

"I realize that breaking into Shoalsgate is like looking down a Burrick's mouth with a lit match, but it would pay me enough to lay low for a while. And it doesn't hurt to be giving the police some dirty laundry to deal with either. Besides, with my luck if I don't take this job I could end up in there anyway."
- Source: Mission III: Framed
- Note: Shoalsgate is the city watch headquarters.

"The smell of ale and smoke from the place wasn't enough to cover up the stench of an ambush. A couple of Watch officers were there waiting for me. Judging by the look on Sunny's face, I'd say he sold me out."
- Source: Mission IV: Ambush

"They didn't seem interested in bringing me in either. The bluecoats were looking for swift justice. Fortunately, I always have an ace up my sleeve."
- Source: Mission IV: Ambush

"Iron trees? Not in my part of town."
- Source: Mission IV cutscene: Ambush

"Tell you what. You keepers can plant a few shrubs about town and I'll take care of me. I'll find my own way home."
- Source: Mission IV cutscene: Ambush

"I know they're trying to manipulate me, but keepers never alter the truth... just keep it in the shadows."
- Source: Mission V: Eavesdropping

"Looks like I have something useful to learn from a seminary for a change."
- Source: Mission V: Eavesdropping

"I'd rather not tread where the dead sleep."
- Source: Mission V: Eavesdropping

"This situation does have one advantage... things can't get any worse. Who could hire someone like the sheriff to kill me?"
- Source: Mission V: Eavesdropping

"I'm not surprised that the Mechanists are not the saints they claim to be, no one in this city is."
- Source: Mission VI: First City Bank and Trust

"It didn't take much to learn that the Mechanists do all their banking with First City Bank and Trust, one of the wealthiest establishments in town, catering to the needs of the city's upper crust."
- Source: Mission VI: First City Bank and Trust

"No doubt the bank is well protected by Mechanist security machines, in addition to the usual guard contingent. Risky... but you know, I've always wanted a good enough excuse to break into First City Bank and Trust. And I always thought I'd be taking the risk, just for the money."
- Source: Mission VI: First City Bank and Trust
- Note: Now his other reason is to blackmail the sheriff.

"It's time for a face to face chat with my old friend Sheriff Truart. Work out our differences, show him the little piece of evidence I lifted from the Mechanists. I'm sure he'll appreciate the consequences if this were to be made public. Truart was acting for somebody when his cronies ambushed me back at the Crippled Burrick inn... I bet he'll be happy to tell me who that was."
- Source: Mission VII: Blackmail

"I don't know what's going on, and I don't like that."
- Source: Mission VIII: Trace the Courier

"If I believed in it, now it would be a good time for me to wish for luck."
- Source: Mission IX: Trail of Blood

Garrett: "Angelwatch? Is this how our arrangement is gonna work, you coming up with ways for me to get myself killed?"
Victoria: "Is this really Garrett the Master Thief I hear talking? If danger is going to be a problem for you, then..."
Garrett: "Just-- give me the details."
- Source: Mission X: Life of the Party

Garrett: "So this is the city of the future? I prefer my Tenement instead."
- Source: Mission X: Life of the Party

Victoria: "Our guest Cavador just spilled his guts."
Garrett: "Not literally?"
Victoria: "That wasn't necessary.
- Source: Mission XIII: Casing the Joint

Quotes by Karras

"But lo, how easily evil is felled, when the righteous hold the mace! Thou art transparent to me, Garrett, even now I can see thou seeking to stop me, but there is naught you can do."
- Source: Mission XV: Sabotage at Soulforge

"I know not why you oppose me. In one act, I will end all human suffering, and clear the path for the Builder to walk again on earth, history will move forward! My tireless children will build in his name, creating advancements beyond our understanding. Now, it is the dark time before the days of light! Why dost thou oppose me?"
- Source: Mission XV: Sabotage at Soulforge

"Soon all will be blessed with the breath of the Builder, the Necrotic Mutox that I created. And all the souls... the rich that spurned me, the City Watch that betrayed me, the loathsome pagans, the mindless commoners, even the loyal followers of Karras, all will receive the blessing... and the cleansing. But will they lift up their arms and praise Karras, as the vapours make them pure? Nay! They will wail, and scream, most ungrateful!"
- Source: Mission XV: Sabotage at Soulforge

"What hast thou... built, Garrett? When the time comes to review thy life, with the Master Builder afore thee, and the question is asked: what hast thou built, what will thee say, poor Garrett? For thou art a man of... destruction, not construction. Tis the biggest sin of all. Build thyself today a good house, that would please Him much!"
- Source: Mission XV: Sabotage at Soulforge

"And Karras said, ‘Lay down thy hammer, friends, 'tis yesteryear's trappings.' And so we laid them down, and seeing this, Karras spoke again: ‘Now raise up thy mace, The Builder shall fuel thee...and all the followers of Karras.'"
- Source: Thief: The Dark Wiki

Written Quotations

"Reliance upon others
Is weakness for the strong
But strength for the weak.
Wisdom and balance lie in knowing your own nature over time." -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.
Trappers 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." -Collected 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

"Vigilance is our shield
That protects us from the squalid past
Knowledge is our weapon
With which we carve our path
To an enlightened future." -Hammerite Chant

"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

Miscellaneous Quotes

Security robots, upon deactivation:"I have seen... a malfunction. An error. An error. Fails to understand. Creation..."

Guard 1: And I'm telling you that the only stench heartier than your rotting burrick of a master, is the liquor on his fetid breath. If he comes near Lady Van Vernon again, we'll boil his knickers.

Guard 2: Oh ho! Mighty fine words coming from a knock-kneed, inbred pageboy such as yourself. Our good master Willy wouldn't be caught near that frumpy little trollop unless he were holding her back at the end of a halberd.

Guard 1: (gasp) How dare you defile the name of someone so good and virtuous as the Lady Van Vernon. Our Lady is a saint among mortal women. An angel so pure the heavens couldn't hold her.

Guard 2: (laughs loudly) Your Lady? An angel? You're lucky the Darkside Whorekeeps aren't bashing down her door for stealing their clientele. Why just last night, I saw her out back warming up the stable-boy.

Guard 1: Such slander will not be tolerated while we're on watch! You'd best run and rescue your helpless limp lord before he flounders in his own vomit, or wakes up naked in a hen coupe. Scurry off, or you'll acquire some unnecessary ventilation!

Guard 2: Is that a threat, you shriveled old maid? You gonna prick us with your sewing needles? On this side of the street we shoot like soldiers, so don't make promises your arrows can't keep.

Guard 1: (voice cracks) You've gone... you've gone too far this time, you camel-mannered, tunic-wearing mollycoddle!! An arrow in the throat ought to shut you up!!

Guard 2: Raahh! Have at thee!

Benny: Ha! So what if I am, huh? Anyways, I work better when I'm drunk. It makes me fearless! If I see a bad guy, I'll just point my sword at him. And saaaaaay "HEY! Bad guy! You're not s'pposed to be here! Go home or I'll stick you with my sword...'til you go...'Ouch I'm dead!' Ahahahah (hic) See? Ain't no one gonna be messin with old Benny."
Mechanist Guard: I hearken unto they fearful heart: "thump, thump!"

Quotes from Thief: Deadly Shadows

Quotes from Garrett

"It's not much. But it's home." Garrett, on entering his house.

"A secret room... always my favourite room in a house" City Day 2/Seaside Manor

"Let me see if I've got this right. You want me to find Gamall's lair, learn what she wants your treasure for, and find and destroy this final glyph? Anything else?" Day 8/Still Life with Blackjack

"What is locked - can be opened. What is hidden - can be found. What is yours - can be mine." Thief 3 Trailer

Garrett: If I never see another glyph again, it'll be too soon.

[Garrett grabs the wrist of a young girl trying to steal his money pouch]

Girl: Let go of me!

Garrett: That's not for you.

Girl: Please, sir, I'm hungry.

Garrett: It is not an easy thing to see a Keeper...

[a slight smile cracks across Garrett's face]

Garrett: ...especially one who does NOT wish to be seen.

Garrett: Giant rats. Great...

Miscellaneous quotes

"The Hammer is the most blessed of all the Builder's works:
'Tis both a tool for construction, and a weapon against thy foes." -The Hammer Book of Lessons

"A rod of iron, in the flame, is transfigured and is no more.
Thou canst never return unchanged from the forge." -Rite of Ordination to MasterForger

"You shalt know thy enemies well, for they wield not the hammer,
and forest dwellers be they." -From the Book of the Master Builder

"Be ever diligent, For thy enemies are a multitude,
And sin never sleeps..." -Excerpt from a Hammer Hymn

"If thou hast eyes to see the glory of the Builder, but do not, then pluck them out." -Opening Prayer, Ironwright Temple

"Beware the minions of the Trickster, for they revel in chaos.
Seek they to undo thy works and subvert thy thoughts." -The Sermon of St. Edgar

"Set thy bricks with the bones of heathens, and mix thy mortar with their blood." -Hammerite Book of Structure

"The Builder let me strike through. Builder in the work I do." -The Hammerite Guard Patrol

"Holding a key, you may infer the existence of a lock. However, do not make the mistake of assuming that yours is the only key." - Handbook of Scribes

"History is written by the observer. Propaganda is written by the victor." - Keeper Archives

"Ha! That'll learn ya, 'cept you're dead." - Warden Stout

"Anybody there? (Snickers) We're friendly... and don't know how to fight...." - Guard

"Hello? Anybody there? Don't be afraid. We're just a couple of friendly guys looking to (snicker) make friends...." - Thug

"Who's there? (Silence) I wish it's a beautiful lady, coming to tell me how handsome I am." - Servant

"I'll be home soon, drinking good dark ale, nibbling on a nice leg of mutton, forgetting about this place...." - Guard

"Oh...these godforsaken boots! Why can't I wear my own shoes to work? Huh? What difference could it possibly make?" - Guard

"Darn boots...stupid toe-pinchers...." - Guard

"Well, taffer. Now that you're dead...can I have those boots?" - Thug

"So tired...if it weren't for these taffin' boots, (yawns) I'd be asleep." - Guard
"Must have been a mix up in the uniforms...pants feel...too tight...boots are loose... I'm gonna have blisters for sure..." - Guard

"New boots. It's gonna take me a week to break-in the cursed things. And until then... I'll be walking like someone's grandmum." - City Watch

"You son of a dog!". - Guard

"You'll have to come down sometime, taffer!" - City Watch

"I will get you, eventually." - Guard

"I will have you hang for that, you taffer!" - Guard

"OK, run! If I were you, I would run, too." - Guard

"Ruby ring and pearls for my ears." - Sleeping Lady

"What's the matter? You are afraid of the big bad guard?" - Guard

"Look, I got all taffin' night to look for ya. You got that kind of time?" - Guard

"Too many shadows. Something could hide here easy." - Guard

"Hey, you look familiar." - Town's people

"What's all this? Is someone being clever?" - Guard

"What's that noise? Oh, boy, sounds like somebody needs a good beating!" - Guard

"I shall pound thy head when I find thee, craven!" - Hammerite Guard

"You know... you should really have that looked at."
"I am looking at it." - Guards

"Gone? Well I'd run too if I saw someone like me looking for... er, me..." - Guard