"Any information—even if you suspect your enemy is feeding it to you—is useful, son. More wars are lost to lack of information than are lost to lack of courage."

"Eventually Dalinar had done what any good commander did when faced by such persistent mass insubordination: He backed down. When good men disobeyed, it was time to look at your orders."

"Wit dropped his bloody handkerchief before Ruthar. “How remarkable,” he said. “If you spend your life knocking people down, you eventually find they won’t stand up for you. There’s poetry in that, don’t you think, you storming personification of a cancerous anal discharge?”"

"And she would ask the best question of them all. What will I discover next?"

"Alone in the darkness, standing with his back to the wall, facing overwhelming numbers. A glorious way to die, but Kaladin didn’t want glory. He’d given up on that foolish dream as a child."

"A thousand wrong plans were no more useful that a single wrong one."

"“We need both heart and mind,” Lirin said. “The heart might provide the purpose, but the head provides the method, the path. Passion is nothing without a plan. Wanting something doesn’t make it happen.”"

"“I’m telling you to think!” his father snapped. “I’m telling you that if you want to change the world, you have to stop being part of the problem!”"

"I’m not using a key at all. I’m breaking the lock."

"If there is one thing I can guarantee you about humankind, Last Listener, is is this: Provide them with a sword , and they will find a way to impale themselves upon it.”"

"Adeline placed the glyphward in the brazier, then bowed his head as it burned. A prayer to the Almighty for aid. His combatants for the day would probably be burning their own prayers. How did the Almighty decide whom to help?"

"“Must be nice,” Adolin said, patting the horse, “to not have to worry about things like politics or relationships.” The horse snorted in a way that Adolin thought was distinctly dismissive. Well, perhaps there was more to complicate a horse’s life than a man could ever see."

"“No one ever accomplished anything by being content with who they were, Shallan,” Adolin said. “We accomplish great things by reaching toward who we could become.” “As long as it’s what you want to become. Not what someone else thinks you should become.”"

"“It wouldn’t be polite for me to interrupt,” Notum said. “Please continue your insane rant.”"

"I wasn’t thinking straight, Veil thought. That’s kind of the point of drinking.…"

"Navani wasn’t certain what to think about how easily it had happened. It was nice to make headway; yet in her experience, a fair breeze one day was the herald of a tempest to come."

"She had been around enough intelligent people to know they worked best in an encouraging environment where study and discovery were rewarded."

"Would you prefer a reinforcement of what you already want to believe, or do you seek the truth?"

"That’s the trouble with science. It’s never done. Always upending itself. Ruining perfect systems for the little inconvenience of them being wrong."

"“Do you believe?” Kaladin asked as he advanced. “In God, or the Almighty or whatever?” “I don’t have to believe,” the voice drifted back. “I know gods exist. I simply hate them.”"

"A good lie, the delicious kind, hinted at hidden grandeur or further secrets. This was instead the lie of a drunken has-been at the bar, trying to drum up enough pity to get a free drink. It was more pathetic than interesting."

"The fact that these had thrown their lives away so wantonly did not speak highly of their master."

"Heroism is a myth you tell idealistic young people—specifically when you want them to go bleed for you."

"These are not the actions of greatness. You are no scholar. You merely like being near them. You are no artifabrian. You are merely a woman who likes trinkets. You have no fame, accomplishment, or capacity of your own. Everything distinctive about you came from someone else. You have no power—you merely like to marry men who have it."

"“Do you think you can take the truth?” “Try for once. It would be refreshing.”"

"Words on the page define men to future generations."

"You would become the things you pretend to defend against."

"Hey, have you heard about the time I saved Huio from being swallowed? Oh yes. He was going to get eaten. By a monster uglier than the women he courts. And I flew into the thing’s mouth to save him. Off the tongue. Then I was very humble about having done such a heroic deed."

"“So…why make these? Why set this place up to appear so rich?” “I’m wondering the same thing,” Rushu said. “They wanted to wow us, maybe?” Lopen said. “Perhaps they thought we’d be so distracted by the riches that we’d be stunned and confused. They did not know that I am accustomed to such incredible sights, for I experience something even more impressive each morning after I awake.” “Is that so?” “When I look in the mirror.” “And you wonder why you’re still single.” “Oh, I don’t wonder,” he said. “I’m fully aware that so much of me is difficult for any one woman to handle. My majesty confuses them. It’s the only explanation for why they often run away.” He gave her a grin."

"Well, not on Lopen’s watch. You didn’t let your friends drown in nameless oceans during a frigid storm. That was, sure, basic friendship rules right there."

"That was the thing about omens—they were made up. Imagined signals of something nebulous. So why not make them up to be something positive?"

"“You are…very strange.” “Excellent.” “Very much strange.” “Says the woman who likes to munch on weeds,” Lopen said. “That’s not food, misra, it’s what food eats.”"

"“Vstim is good and honest,” Rysn said. “You don’t get a reputation for either without some people seeing your nature as an opportunity.”"

"“It’s politics. The annoying kind.” “There’s another kind?”"

"Up close, differences could chafe. But if you remembered that from far away you all looked the same…well, that was important too."

"All so different. He figured, sure, that people must be like mountains. See, when you were far away from mountains, they all basically looked the same. Fly up high, soar over them in a hurry, and there was no time for detail. Pointed. Covered in snow. Mountain. Got it. Fly up close, and they each had their own distinctive jagged bits and places where the rock showed through. He’d even found flowers growing on a few, near vents that let out warm air. The problem with people was that everyone saw other nations from far away. Saw them as big mountainous blobs. Foreigners. Strange. Got it. Up close, it was hard to see people that way. Each was so distinctive."

"The sea was a strange mistress indeed. Open. Welcoming. Inviting. Sometimes a little too much so."

"The sea was so open, so welcoming. Pay her a little respect, and she would carry you anywhere you wished to go. She’d even feed you along the way and lull you to sleep with her songs at night."

"It becomes the responsibility of every man, upon realizing he lacks the truth to seek it out."

"You could not arrive at excellence by the average of these people. Excellence was an individual quest, not a group effort."

"The most important step a man can take. It’s not the first one, is it? It’s the next one."

"Some problems could not be fixed with a lie."

"“Be wary,” Shallan whispered, “of anyone who claims to be able to see the future.”"

"Who cares what your ancestors did, when the enemy is trying to kill you right now?"

"“When has any tyrant ever said to himself, ‘This is enough’?”"

"“Don’t you care?” “About a man I don’t know?” Azure said. “In danger from a threat you can’t define, happening at a time you can’t pinpoint?” She folded her arms. “Forgive me for not sharing in your anxiety.”"

"All life worked in concert, he’d been taught in his youth. Everything but men, who refused their place. Who destroyed instead of added."

"“‘The question,’ she replied, ‘is not whether you will love, hurt, dream, and die. It is what' you will love, why you will hurt, when you will dream, and "how you will die. This is your choice. You cannot pick the destination, only the path.’”"

"The best indication of what human beings will do is not what they think, but what the record says similar groups have done in the past."