"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."

"All this time, he’s been asking what a god could possibly fear, but the answer was obvious. Odium feared men who would not obey him."

"So Ishar was a butcher, a mad surgeon as well as a crazed theocrat. For some reason, that relieved Dalinar. It was disgusting, but this was an ordinary kind of evil. He’d expected something worse."

"War was a masculine art, but when you started attacking women, you’d stopped engaging in war. You deserved anything that happened to you after that point."

"“You run like a coward.” “Every good sergeant is a coward! And proud of it! Someone needs to talk sense to the officers!”"

"Who did she think was listening? Was she only praying because she was afraid? Yes, she thought, continuing to paint. I’m afraid. And I have to hope that someone, somewhere, is listening. That someone has a plan. That it all matters somehow. Jasnah took comfort in the idea that there was no plan, that everything was random. She said that a chaotic universe meant the only actions of actual importance were the ones they decided were important. That gave people autonomy."

"“The way you talk lacks hope.” “‘Hope,’” she said, spreading her papers out on the table. “Have I ever told you how much I dislike that word? Think of what it means, what it implies. You have hope when you’re outnumbered. You have hope when you lack options. Hope is always irrational, Uncle.”"

"He grinned, then kissed her hand again. He seemed to think that sort of thing would eventually spark passion in her. When in truth, physical stimulation was so inferior to mental stimulation."

"Mathematics thought that there were numbers associated with tones—frequencies, wavelengths. Music, at its most fundamental level, was math."

"And storm Teft if it wasn’t a valid question. One not enough soldiers asked themselves. Right here, right now, should I be fighting? Is there a better way?"

"I name you idiot for playing with powers you only presume to understand."

"In her little room of a laboratory, everything fit together. She’d met scholars who claimed they needed chaos to function. Perhaps that was true for some, but in her experience, good science wasn’t about sloppy inspiration. It was about meticulous incrementalization."

"Those gods had never deserved reverence. What was a god who only made demands? Nothing but a tyrant with a different name."

"“Innocence is more false a god than the ones in our songs,” Venli said, sitting beside her sister. “People who chase it will find themselves enslaved.”"

"True freedom—with the power to make certain she didn’t ever have to be dependent upon anyone else, listener or spren. True freedom couldn’t exist while someone else had power over you."

"“You like irony now too?” “Irony tastes good. Like sausage.”"

"“Your stories always have a point,” Kaladin said. “I am an artist,” Wit said. “I should thank you not to demean me by insisting my art must be trying to accomplish something. In fact, you shouldn’t enjoy art. You should simply admit that it exists, then move on. Anything else is patronizing.”"

"“Nothing is real,” Wit said. “At least by one measure of philosophy. So enjoy what you seem to be able to eat and don’t complain.”"

"The trouble wasn’t getting answers. It was finding the presence of mind to accept them."

"“We proved nothing,” Navani said. “We had a single failed experiment.”"

"You don’t get to choose to be free, Venli. Just which master to follow."

"She knew she shouldn’t let the lack of results bother her. Real scientists understood that experiments like this weren’t failures; they were necessary steps on the way to discovery."

"The man who forges weapons can claim he’s never killed, but he still prepares for the slaughter."

"It’s too easy to forget the cost not only to the boys who die, but to the ones who live. Every commander should be reminded periodically."

"We must not let our desires for a specific result cloud our perceptions."

"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."

"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’?”"