I’m not really sure why. But… do you stop loving someone just because they betray you? I don’t think so. That’s what makes the betrayal hurt so much – pain, frustration, anger… and I still loved her. I still do.
Life before Death.Strength before Weakness.Journey before Destination.
If you give up what you want most for what you think you should want more, you’ll end up miserable.
Somehow, we’ll find it. The balance between whom we wish to be and whom we need to be. But for now, we simply have to be satisfied with who we are.
Somebody has to start. Somebody has to step forward and do what is right, because it is right.
I want you to go back into the barrack and tell the men to come out after the storm. Tell them to look up at me tied here. Tell them I’ll open my eyes and look back at them, and they’ll know hat I survived.
You see, that is the sad, sorry, terrible thing about sarcasm.It’s really funny.
You should try not to talk so much, friend. You’ll sound far less stupid that way.- Breeze
Elend: I kind of lost track of time…Breeze: For two hours?Elend: There were books involved.
People can do great things. However, there are some things they just CAN’T do. I, for instance, have not been able to transform myself into a Popsicle, despite years of effort.
I try to avoid having thoughts. They lead to other thoughts, and—if you’re not careful—those lead to actions. Actions make you tired. I have this on rather good authority from someone who once read it in a book.
I swear, my dear. Sometimes our conversations remind me of a broken sword.”She raised an eyebrow.”Sharp as hell,” Lightsong said, “but lacking a point.
It was amazing how many books one could fit into a room, assuming one didn’t want to move around very much.
Why hasn’t anyone killed him yet?”“Dumb luck,” Wit said. “In that I’m lucky you’re all so dumb.
I’m convinced that responsibility is some kind of psychological disease.
Impossible things are really rough to do, you know.
Can a woman not walk with her possessions down the street of a city?
What would you think if I told you that I wasn’t an Allomancer?” Sazed asked.“I’d think that you were lying,” Vin said.“Have you known me to lie before?”“The best liars are those who tell the truth most of the time.
It is a time of change,” Sazed said. ”Perhaps it is also time to learn of other truths, other ways.
I point out truths when I see them, Brightlord Sadeas. Each man has his place. Mine is to make insults. Yours is to be in-sluts.
To their simple, degenerate minds there was only one thing to do when faced by a God more powerful than their own: Convert.Brandon Sanderson(Elantris)
Jasnah had once defined a fool as a person who ignored information because it disagreed with desired results.
We follow the codes not because they bring gain, but because we loathe the people we would otherwise become.
In the end, all men die. How you lived will be far more important to the Almighty than what you accomplished.
The strong lines of the woman’s face bespoke hard-won wisdom and courage, and somehow that made watching her more difficult. If such a woman could be defeated by Elantris, what hope was there for Raoden?
Belief isn’t simply a thing for fair times and bright days, I think. What is belief- what is faith- if you don’t continue in it after failure.
Yes, Bastille. I keep trying to get killed because it’s inconvenient for you.
What is belief – what is faith – if you don’t continue it after failure?
Are there any religions on your list that include the slaughter of noblemen as a holy duty?
So long as we do not depend on the facts entirely, incomplete knowledge is better than complete ignorance.–Egwene al’Vere
Mocking a woman is like drinking too much wine. It may be fun for a short time, but the hangover is hell.
If you want to know a man, dig in his firepit…Basically, it meant that you could judge a lot about a man’s life by what he thew away – or by what he was willing to burn in order to stay warm.
As she’d left, I’d glanced at her gun.This time, when she’d pointed it at me, she’d flicked the safety on. If that wasn’t true love, I don’t know what was.
I hadn’t been a nerd, mind you. I’d just been the type of guy who spent a lot of time by himself, focused entirely on a single consuming interest.
My behavior is nonetheless, deplorable. Unfortunately, I’m quite prone to such bouts of deplorability–take for instance, my fondness for reading books at the dinner table.
Remember, the past need not become our future as well.
To live is to have worries and uncertainties. Keep them inside, and they will destroy you for certain–leaving behind a person so callused that emotion can find no root in his heart.
This is not an easy time in which to live. That does not mean that it has to be a difficult time to love…
To live was to be a fragment of the cosmere that was experiencing itself.
Pain los[es] its power when other things bec[o]me more important.
Grains of sand will only flow with the winds, Kenton, never against them.
I wasn’t a nerd, mind you, but I’d spent a lot of my youth studying Epics, so I’d had limited experience with social interaction. I mixed with ordinary people about the same way that a bucket of paint mixed with a bag of gerbils.
My name is David Charleston.I kill people with super powers.
We’re not moments, Megan, you and me. We’re events. You say you might not be the same person you were a year ago? Well, who is? I’m sure not. We change, like swirling clouds around a rising sun.
My life wasn’t just about one city, or one Epic, anymore. It was about a war. It was about finding a way to stop the Epics.Permanently.
Expectations were like fine pottery. The harder you held them, the more likely they were to crack.
For glory lit, and life alive, for goals unreached and aims to strive. All men must try, the wind did see. It is the test, it is the dream.
They say they give their women more freedom, but there’s still the impression that the freedom was theirs to ‘give’ in the first place.
…Regardless, I still do not believe that your duty is to do as the people wish. Your duty is to lead as best you can, following the dictates of your conscience. You must be true. Your Majesty, to the man you wish to become….
That, after all, was his job. The title of emperor carried with it only a single duty.To make everything better.
It’s beneficial to have a reputation for honesty, if only so that one can lie at crucial moments.
It’s beneficial to have a reputation for honesty, if only so that one could lie at crucial moments.
To be human is to seek beauty, Shallan. Do not despair, do not end the hunt because thorns grow in your way.
I wish that I could know you. Not your soul, but you. I’ve read about you; I’ve seen into your heart. I’ve rebuilt your soul, as best I could. But that isn’t the same. It isn’t knowing someone, is it? That’s knowing about someone.
There was nothing more bitter than a soul who had had its chance and thrown it away.
A man can only lead when others accept him as their leader, and he has only as much authority as his subjects give to him. All of the brilliant ideas in the world cannot save your kingdom if no one will listen to them.
…A man can only stumble for so long before he either falls or stands up straight.
The mark of a great man is one who knows when to set aside the important things in order to accomplish the vital ones.
A person knows when they’re in darkness, even when they can’t see. -Nightblood
Llarimar had told him to do his best. That sounded like an awful lot of work. Unfortunately, doing nothing was beginning to seem like even MORE work.
That was the nature of the waters. You never knew what lurked below.
Pain lost it’s power when other things became more important.Kahar didn’t need a potion or an Aon to save him-he just needed something to do.-Brandon sanderson(Elantris)
Cleaning the wound is often more painfulthan the cut itself.
Marryin’ is the one thing people seem to get worse at the more they do it. Well, that and bein’ alive.
All people are musicians” Wit countered. “The question is whether or not they share their songs.
What a pair they were – a Mistborn who felt guilty wasting coins to jump and a nobleman who thought balls were too expensive.
Just because I do not accept the teachings of the devotaries does not mean I’ve discarded a belief in right and w
I think given the choice between loving Mare – betrayal included – and never knowing her, I’d chose love. I risked, and I lost, but the risk was still worth it.
A scholar knows not to waste time rediscovering information already known.
It is not the destination that matters, but how one arrives there.
I am a Smedry, and we do ridiculous, unexpected, eccentric things like this all the time! Ha-ha!
I know, better than anyone else, that there are no heroes coming to save us. There are no good Epics. None of them protect us. Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
The Librarians control the information… They control what gets read, what gets seen, and what gets learned. Because of that they have power.
If nobody changes the world, if nobody works to make it better, then we stagnate.
The world is progressing. One man cannot slow it, no matter how determined he is.”He stopped in the
Sometimes Vin imagined she was like the ash, or the wind, or the mist itself. A thing without thought, capable of simply being, not thinking, caring, or hurting. Then she could be…free.
Some of us fought back with guns and assassinations. Others fought back with a little hot dog stand on the corner.
Truth is individual.”“What? No it’s not. Truth is . . . it’s Truth. Reality.”“Your truth is what you see,” Pattern said, sounding confused. “What else could it be? That is the truth that you spoke to me, the truth that brings power.
Do I need to wriggle my breasts at you again?””No, please. I don’t know if I’d be able to stand the theological debate that would follow.
A person needed to experience real danger or they would never find joy in excelling. There had to be a risk of failure, the chance to die.
The measure of a person is not how much they have lived. It is not how easily they jump at a noise or how quick they are to show emotion. It’s how they make use of what life has shown them.
Control is the basis of all true power. Authority and strength are matters of perception
We create things to watch them grow, Ruin, she said. To take pleasure in seeing that which we love become more than it was before.
If you perpetuate the dreams of the past, you stifle your own dreams of the future.
There is something beyond. Though perhaps my belief is merely my own desire wishing it to be so.””You are not encouraging me. Aren’t You omnipotent?””Hardly,” Harmony said, smiling. “But I believe that parts of me could be.
People are valuable, Mistress Vin, and so—therefore—are their beliefs.
Men like you preach change, but I wonder. Is this a battle we can really fight?”“You’re fighting it already, Goodman Mennis. You’re just losing horribly.
Men are more resilient than that, I think. Our belief is often strongest when it should be weakest. That is the nature of hope.
Never go on a date unarmed.” Words of wisdom from my father. Well, my foster father. I was an orphan, of course. The best kings always are.
a depressed person doesn’t want you to try and cheer them up. It makes us sick.
Too many of us take great pains with what we ingest through our mouths, and far less with what we partake of through our ears and eyes.
You learned this,” Kabsal said, lifting up her drawing of Jasnah, “from a book.”“Er…yes?”He looked back at the picture. “I need to read more.
That’s kind of what trust is, isn’t it? A willful self-delusion.
That’s what trust is. It’s about giving someone else power over you. Power to hurt you.
You trusted me enough to jump off the wall, and I caught you.
In a way, she’d rather trust him and be wrong than deal with the worry of mistrust.
I can’t worry about everything at once, Elend thought with determination. I just have to trust. Trust in myself and keep going.
She would always love him. But she would not cease to function because he was gone
Remember why we live. Remember warmth, remember good food. Remember friends, and song, and evenings spent around the hearth.
Everything is a contest. All dealings among men are a contest in which some will succeed and others fail. And some are failing quite spectacularly.
If men should read these words, let them know that power is a heavy burden. Seek not to be bound by its chains.
Magic works best for me when it aligns with scientific principles.
When I finally lie down, I find sleep elusive. The same thoughts that trouble me during the day are only compounded by the stillness of night.
You want to be competent? she thought. You want to learn to be in control of what goes on around you, rather than just being pushed around? Then you’ll have to learn to deal with failure.
There was no correcting past mistakes, especially since he could see no real ‘mistakes’ he had made. He had done the best he could, and that had proven insufficient.
I let out a sound that was definitely not a whimper. It was something far more manly, no matter what it sounded like.
Heavens, no,” Wax said. “If I approved of half the thngs Wayne does, Harmony would probably strike me on the spot.
He didn’t recruit me,” Cett pointed out. “I got pulled by my balls into this little fiasco.”“I wish I cared enough to apologize,” Elend said, staring at them.
If we stop helping people because we’re afraid, or ambivalent or whatever, then we lose. Let them do evil. I’ll stop them.
If you can read the book and say, ‘Space Marines, YEEEAAAHHH!’ That’s Military Science Fiction.” (Brigham Young writing lecture, March 2012)
Books have great value, actions have greater value.
I didn’t have all the answers, but at least I had a goal. Revenge. Who cared if it would eat me up inside and leave me hollow?
Do not let your assumptions about a culture block your ability to perceive the individual, or you will fail.
As accurate as a blind man pissing during an earthquake.”“Wow…,” I breathed.She frowned
Oh,” Obliteration continued, “I think that you’ll find a man can do many things thought impossible, if he tries hard enough.
The rest of the time, I don’t do so much thinkin’. ‘Cuz if I did, I’d go runnin’ back to where things is simple.
The rest of the time, I don’t do so much thinkin’. ‘Cuz if I did, I’d go running back to where things is simple. You see?
I need something, Wax. A place to look. You always did the thinking.”“Yes, having a brain helps with that, surprisingly.
The truth is, most people who do what you’d call ‘wrong’ do it for what they call ‘right’ reasons.
People today…it seems they are good, or sometimes evil, mostly by inertia, not by choice.
The only time you seem honest is when you’re insulting someone!”“The only honest things I can say to you are insults.
I don’t want to make people mad. I just… well, how can people get better if you don’t tell them what you honestly think?
It’s not a lie,” Shallan said, “if everyone understands and knows what it means.”“Mm. Those are some of the best lies.
Oh my lovely princess,”Raoden whispered. “You probably mean well, but handing these people food is the worst thing you could do to them.”-Brandon Sanderson(Elantris)
Stealing regular stuff was no fun. She wanted a real challenge. Over the last two years, she’d picked the most difficult places to enter. Then she’d snuck in.And eaten their dinners.
I’m an expert on one-armed Herdazian jokes. ‘Lopen,’ my mother always says, ‘you must learn these to laugh before others do. Then you steal the laughter from them, and have it all for yourself.
I froze, shocked. (And don’t try to claim that you did anything different the first time a government bureaucrat pulled a gun on you.)
It seems that the rebels found the chaos of transition more difficult to accept than the tyranny they had known before. They joyfully welcomed back authority-even oppressive authority-for it was less painful for them than uncertainty.
What was the purpose, then, of everything they taught in here? If it couldn’t prevent men from acting like monsters?
Is human nature to believe that other places and other times are better than the here and now.
I’m good at doing things I’m not supposed to,” she said, then kicked the door open.
You don’t stop loving someone just because they hurt you” he said. “It would certainly make things easier if you did.
Ideas are never original,” Kelsier said. “Only one thing is.””And what is that?”Style,” Kelsier said.Then he punched Ruin across the face.
Thank you. For being willing to talk. For not turning me in. For… being you.”I’m pretty good at being me,’ I said. ‘I’ve had all these years to practice–I hardly ever get it wrong these days.
Wit smiled. “All stories told have been told before. We tell them to ourselves, as did all men who ever were. And all men who ever will be. The only things new are the names.
All stories told have been told before. We tell them to ourselves, as did all men who ever were. And all men who ever will be. The only things new are the names.
He’d never been an optimist. He saw the world as it was, or he tried to. That was a problem, though, when the truth he saw was so terrible.
Be warned – Hammond does tend to be a bit optimistic about these kind of things. If the army were made up of one-legged mutes, he would praise their balance and their listening skills.
Perhaps I am an insensitive rich woman. That doesn’t change the fact that you can be downright mean and offensive, Kaladin Stormblessed.
So the gods,” Moash said, nursing his own drink, “were pleased that you solved problems on your own . . . by going to other gods and begging them for help instead?”“Hush,” Rock said. “Is good story.
So, using his pride like a shield against despair, dejection, and-most important—self-pity, Raoden raised his head to stare damnation in the eyes.
You are so much more than you are willing to accept, child.
It was a shallow thing, this acceptance, but sometimes even shallow things feel important.
That’s the point, isn’t it? We have to live on, no matter how hard it gets. We’ll win in the end.
Reason like a sphere? What type of reasoning does a wooden sphere do?””The circular type, I should think. And, by coincidence, it is my favorite type as well. Perhaps that’s why I’m so good at the game.
You don’t really get to choose. We worship you, and that makes you our God.
Shallan’s mental image of Jasnah Kholin was of someone almost divine. It was, upon reflection, an odd way to regard a determined atheist.
Clothing doesn’t really change a man. But it changes how others react to him.
Tobias took the photograph. At least, that’s what I saw. Most likely I still had the photograph in my hand, but I couldn’t feel it there, now I perceived Tobias holding it. It’s strange, the way the mind can change perception.
The Gottschalk was a fine weapon.”You,” I said to it, “are on probation. You’d better impress me.”Great. Now I was talking to guns.
Sometimes the prize is not worth the costs. The means by which we achieve victory are as important as the victory itself.
The only point in creating something is to watch it die. Like a story that must come to a climax, what I have done will not be fulfilled until the end has arrived.
The purpose of a storyteller is not to tell you how to think, but to give you questions to think upon.
Nice work,” he said.I grinned.”You look like hell, though,” he noted.”I doubt hell has this much Kool-Aid,” I replied.
Never throw the first punch. If you have to throw the second, try to make sure they don’t get up for a third.
We got there without being spotted. I pulled her in, then shut the door, pressing my back to it and exhaling like an epileptic pilot who’d just landed a cargo plane full of dynamite.
Humans don’t make sense.”“If you’re only now learning that,” Kaladin said, “then you haven’t been paying attention.
[Deserters], they’ve given up everything. Oaths. Families. When you desert, it breaks you. It leaves you willing to do anything, because you’ve already given away everything you could have cared about losing.
You could not stop times from changing, his mother said, no more than you could stop the surf from rolling.
A leader did not slump. A leader was in control. Even when he least felt like he controlled anything. Especially then.
Joel, lad, school is about learning to learn. If you don’t practice studying things you don’t like, then you’ll have a very hard time in life.
Though most expect young men to be fools, I’ve noticed that just a little bit of age can make a man far more foolish than he was as a child.
The world isn’t fair? What a huge revelation! Some people in power abuse those they have power over? Amazing! When did this start happening?
My other hand?’ Lopen said. ‘The one that was cut off long ago, eaten by a fearsome beast? It is making a rude gesture toward you right now. I thought you would want to know, so you can prepare to be insulted.
I’m sorry that your mystical, godlike powers do not instantly work as you would like them to.
Ruthlessness is the most practical of emotions, Reen’s voice whispered. She ignored it.
Oh, Wax has always been solemn, but when he’s at his best, there’s a smirk underneath.
Personally, I say, “Out of the frying pan and into the deadly pit filled with sharks who are wielding chainsaws with killer kittens stapled to them.” However, that one’s having a rough time catching on.
The right belief is like a good cloak, I think. If it fits you well, it keeps you warm and safe. The wrong fit however, can suffocate.
Better to be the failure who nobly strived than the success who never really had to.
The entire point of life is to find ways to get others to do your work for you. Don’t you know anything about basic economics?
What you did tonight was clever,” Wit said. “You turned an attack into a promise. The wisest of men know that to render an insult powerless, you often need only to embrace it.
It’s what happens when you shoot someone,” Wayne pointed out. “At least, usually someone has the good sense to get dead when you go to all the trouble to shoot them.
I have to say, old friend, you were supposed to help train her, not drop her off a cliff.
Good men don’t become legends,” he said quietly.”Good men don’t need to become legends.” She opened her eyes, looking up at him. “They just do what’s right anyway.
Holding your brain hostage against your own stupidity – that was how to get stuff done.
Not having ice cream,” she proclaimed, “is the culmination of all disasters!
Expectation wasn’t just about what people expected of you. It was about what you expected of yourself.
Chana knows, I wondered sometimes how I raised that child without strangling her. By age six, [Jasnah] was pointing out my logical fallacies as I tried to get her to go to bed on time.
Dragons were dangerous in the sky. Of course, they were dangerous on the ground too. Just less dangerous. In the same way that a sword is less dangerous so long as it’s pointed at someone else.
To be given loyalty is to be infused like a gemstone, to be granted the frightful license to destroy not only one’s self, but all within one’s care.
Authors write books for one, and only one, reason: because we like to torture people.
Each time I came crashing down into the ocean porpoiselike, water hit my face like the slap of a jilted lover.
He found insanity no excuse, however, for irrational behavior.
So many questions. Could she not think about what the answers might be before asking?
I ain’t grouchy,” Teft snapped. “I just have a low threshold for stupidity.
What do you know?”“Almost everything. That almost part can be a real kick in the teeth sometimes.”“What do you want, then?”“What I can’t have.” Wit turned to him, eyes solemn. “Same as everyone else, Kaladin Stormblessed.
It was rather difficult to throw a game when you had no idea what you were doing to win it in the first place.
Seen like that, he was just a shadow; darkness, a nothingness, before real power. The men of this world, epics included, would pass from time. I might be a worm to him, but he was a worm himself in the grand scheme of the universe.
we’re all freaks sometimes, Melody,” he replied. “You’re just… well, better at it than most.
He was a man. Just a man. Yet, you always knew he’d succeed. He made you be what he wanted you to be.
Lightsong met the man’s eyes, then smiled broadly, looking down at the God King. “My life to yours,” Lifesong said. “My breath become yours.
How quickly we come around,’ Sazed whispered. ‘It wasn’t long ago that men were forced to watch the Lord Ruler cut the heads from innocent people. Now we do it to ourselves.
Entropy shakes its angry fist at you for being clever enough to organize the world. (p 2)
Well, best to remain vigilant. It’s when everything is calm that you need to be most alert.
In the end, after kingdoms and armies had fallen, the religions were still fighting, weren’t they?
I set the coffee aside and got a cup of water instead. I could never see why people drank that stuff. It tasted like soil boiled in mud, wit a topping of dirt.
I grunted, hauling the rope hand over hand. A plaintive squeak came from the pulley system with each draw, as if I had strapped some unfortunate mouse to a torture device and was twisting with glee.
I could take a shower every day in my own bathroom. I almost didn’t know what to do with such luxury. Other than, you know, not stink.
Her aunt Sol had once told Shai to smile at the worst insults and snap at the minor ones. That way, no man would know your heart.
More wine,” Lightsong said, raising his cup.”You can’t get drunk, Your Grace,” Llarimar noted. “Your body is immune to all toxins.””I know,” Lightsong said as a lesser servant filled his cup. “But trust me—I’m quite good at pretending.
Nearly everything that happened had happened before. The grand lesson of history.
Where there are villains, there will be heroes. Just wait. They will come.
Most of you Mistborn are probably too proud to crawl. I’m surprised you were willing to do so your
The problem with being clever, Serene thought with a sigh, is that everyone assumes you’re always planning something.
Doing something brave is much like saying something stupid. You rarely plan on it happening.
Lightsong had never bothered to learn the rules.He found it more amusing to play when he had no idea what he was doing.
Do not deride someone’s faith simply because you do not share it, Lord Cladent,” Sazed said quietly.
If the afterlife really is a big war,” Kaladin said, “then I hope I end up in Damnation. At least there I might be able to get a wink or two of sleep.
He saw it in her eyes. The anguish, the frustration. The terrible nothing that clawed inside and sought to smother her. She knew. It was there, inside. She had been br
I hope to return. I’ll do so if I’m not killed. Probably will anyway.
Two blind men waited at the end of an era, contemplating beauty.
I’ll admit, Jasnah, that I empathize with your skepticism, but I don’t agree with it. I just think you’ve been looking for God in the wrong plac
This lot won’t suffer you forever.I wouldn’t see you dead by their knives; I see a fine man within you Wit.””Yes, He tasted quite delicious.
Ear demons are totally real,” Cody said. “They’re what make microphones like these ones work. They’re also what tell you to eat the last slice of pie when you know Tia wanted it.
I like visiting people in prison. I can say whatever I want to them, and they can’t do anything about it.