Fiction Authors From The United States

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

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

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

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

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

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

"“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.”"

"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?"

"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."

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

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

"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."

"They were too theatrical—and there were too many of them—for all to be truly deranged. This was a fad. A way of dealing with unexpected events and giving some shape to lives that had been turned upside down. That didn’t mean they weren’t dangerous. A group of people all trying to impress one another was always more dangerous than the lone psychopath."

"“Be careful. People who aren’t me are prone to spontaneous bouts of sincerity.” “Which is bad?” “Of course! ‘Sincerity’ is a word people use to justify their chronic dullness.” “Well, I like sincere people,” Shallan said, raising her cup. “It’s delightful how surprised they look when you push them down the stairs.” “Now, that’s unkind. You shouldn’t push people down the stairs for being sincere. You push people down the stairs for being stupid.” “What if they’re sincere and stupid?” “Then you run.”"

"“You’re not a monster, Shallan,” Wit whispered. “Oh, child. The world is monstrous at times, and there are those who would have you believe that you are terrible by association.” “I am.” “No. For you see, it flows the other direction. You are not worse for your association with the world, but it is better for its association with you.”"

"It was a frantic, insane brawl for power."

"Jasnah couldn’t help but smile. For over a decade, she’d dreamed of uniting the best minds of the kingdom in a coordinated effort. She’d been ignored; all anyone had wanted to discuss was her lack of belief in their god. Well, they were focused now. Turned out the end of the world had to actually arrive before people would take it seriously."

"“That guy,” a girl’s voice said, “is creepy.”… “I mean, old men are all creepy, Lift said. “Seriously. All wrinkly and ‘Hey, want some sweets?’ and ‘Oh, listen to this boring story.’ I’m on to them. They can act nice all they want, but nobody gets old without ruining a whole buncha lives.”"

"But you should try to understand what they want out of life, and respect that, rather than projecting onto them what you think they should want out of life."

"Morality is not a thing you can simply doff to put on the helm of battle, then put back on when you’re done with the slaughter."

"You are a man with complicated beliefs, who does not accept everything you are told. You decide how you are defined. Don’t surrender that to them. They will gleefully take the chance to define you, if you allow it."

"Taravangian did not believe in any religion, for they were unwieldy things, designed to fill gaps in human understanding with nonsensical explanations, allowing people to sleep well at night, granting them a false sense of comfort and control and preventing them from stretching further for true understanding."

"That was the coward’s route. Wishing for ignorance."

"“They all stretched farther and farther until they collapsed. In all the history of mankind, has any conqueror decided they had enough? Has any man just said, ‘This is good. This is what I wanted,’ and gone home?”"

"But merely being tradition does not make some thing worthy, Kadash. We can’t just assume that because some thing is old it is right."

"“Morality is an axis that doesn’t interest us,” Mraize said calmly. “Only loyalty and power are relevant, for morality is as ephemeral as the changing weather. It depends upon the angle from which you view it.”"

"Oh, Adolin, Shallan thought. He’d arrived at a theory he liked, and now wouldn’t let it go. It was a common mistake warned of in her scientific books."

"She felt like drawing this scene, but knew it was the type of moment she couldn’t capture on a page. It wasn’t about content or composition, but the pleasure of living. The trick to happiness wasn’t in freezing every momentary pleasure and clinging to each one, but in ensuring one’s life would produce many future moments to anticipate."

"Dalinar bowed his head for a prayer. Let me be stronger than those who would kill me. Simple and to the point, the kind he figured the Almighty would prefer."

"Curious, how quickly tyrants grow religious. It must that be convenient to tell yourself that your murders belong to the Almighty instead."

"He needed more than vague explanations and abstract ideas—but those were the very soul of art. If you could explain something perfectly, then you’d never need art. That was the difference between a table and a beautiful woodcutting. You could explain the table: its purpose, its shape, its nature. The woodcutting you simply had to experience."

"I’d hoped…I’d hoped you could tell me, give me an absolute right. For once, I’d like my moral code not to come with a list of exceptions at the end."

"Who would have thought that bearing an ancient, divine mantle of power and honor would involve so many meetings?"

"In my painful experience, the truth may be simple, but it is rarely easy."

"“Why, Jasnah? Why have you always denied me?” “Other than the fact that you are a detestable buffoon who achieves only the lowest level of mediocrity, as it is the best your limited mind can imagine? I can’t possibly think of a reason.”"

"Every army needed someone to run at the front and soak up arrows."

"Fine? All right? Now leave me alone. You’re stinking up the place with an air of contented idiocy."

"Most cities lived on the very edge of civilization. Everyone talked about towns and villages out in the middle of nowhere as if they were uncivilized, but she’d found people in those places pleasant, even-tempered, and comfortable with their quieter way of life. Not in cities. Cities balanced on the edge of sustainability, always one step from starvation. When you pressed so may people together, their cultures, ideas, and stenches rubbed off on one another. The results wasn’t civilization. It was contained chaos, pressurized, bottled up so it couldn’t escape."

"It was gratifying to see how much one could accomplish in both politics and trade by liberally murdering the other fellow’s soldiers."

"“I…don’t feel like I’ve won.…” “Welcome to war, Evi,” Dalinar said, heading toward the door. “There are no unequivocal wins. Just victories that leave fewer of your friends dead than others.”"

"“What’s the point of goals, if not to spur you to something lofty?” “Yes, yes. Aim for the sun. That way if you miss, at least your arrow will fall far away, and the person it kills will likely be someone you don’t know.”"

"These are the men…well, these are the men who actually change the world. And they terrify me. For men never see as far as they think they do."

"“Power is a knife,” Wit said, taking his seat. “A terrible, dangerous knife that can’t be wielded without cutting yourself. We joked about stupidity, but in reality most people aren’t stupid. Many are simply frustrated at how little control they have over their lives. They lash out. Sometimes in spectacular ways…”"

"An army was the sort of thing everyone wanted to have, so long as it was off doing important things elsewhere."

"“Where’s your sense of adventure?” “I dragged it out back and clubbed it senseless for getting me into the army.”"

"“That was rude.” “Rudeness doesn’t imply untruth though.”"

"Sometimes, a hypocrite is nothing more than a man who is in the process of changing."

"Order was the very substance of rule. If things were organized, control could be asserted."

"“‘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.’”"

"“Falsehoods serve nobody, Kadash,” Dalinar said, pulling back. “If the Almighty is dead, then pretending otherwise is pure stupidity. We need real hope, not faith in lies.”"