There’s no room to be had, you Rivian vagabond
-- Pockmarked man in tavern (Chapter 1)

Importance: Geralt is introduced as an outsider, a person without a home. The people in the tavern draw assumptions on him based on where he is from and what his profession is.

But I, Lord Ostrit, do not care about politics, or the successions to thrones, or revolutions in palaces. I am here to accomplish my task. Have you never heard of a sense of responsibility and plain honesty? About professional ethics?
-- Geralt (Chapter 1)

Importance: Geralt tells Lord Ostrit that he can not be bribed to not to his job. He positions himself as a man of principles and ethics in contrast to Ostrit’s lies and deception.

And now I feel that you’re spinning around in some damned whirlpool, tangled up in a slowly tightening noose.
-- Nenneke (Chapter 2)

Importance: Nenneke tells this to Geralt while trying to convince him to undergo a trance. She can...