Brandon Sanderson

"His sincerity was so unexpected. Dalinar had been around Alethi politicians so much that he found honesty an obscure thing, like a language he no longer spoke."

"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."

"“So now you’re normal.” “Course I am,” she said. “It’s everyone else that’s weird.”"

"Politics is involved, Adolin—so by definition it can’t be easy."

"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."

"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."

"“When did you get so peppy?” she shouted. “Ever since I assumed I was dead, then I suddenly wasn’t.” “Then remind me to try to kill you once in a while,” she snapped. “If I succeed, it will make me feel better, and if I fail, it will make you feel better. Everyone wins!”"

"You couldn’t live your life getting up and seeing the same things every day. You had to keep moving, otherwise people started to know who you were, and then they started to expect things from you. It was one step from there to being gobbled up."

"“You can’t civilize war,” Dalinar said. “There’s no painting it up and making it pretty.”"

"“Don’t deflect your evils by pointing out the faults of others,” Shallan said."

"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."

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

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

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

"“Someone has to care,” she said, starting down the hallway. “Too few people care, these days.” “You say this while coming in to rob people.” “Sure. Ain’t gonna hurt them.” “You have an odd sense of morality, mistress.” “Don’t be stupid,” she said. “Every sense of morality is odd.”"

"To be human was often to be forced to choose between distasteful options."

"Jasnah had once defined a fool as a person who ignored information because it disagreed with desired results."

"“That makes no sense.” “Of course it makes sense,” Gawx said. “It’s government.”"

"Too few people listened to anything other than their own thoughts."

"Within moments he was roaring his pleasure. Nothing these men did could touch him. He was a destroyer, a conqueror, a glorious maelstrom of death. A god."

"“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.”"

"“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.”"

"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."

"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."

"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."

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

"“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."

"“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.”"

"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."

"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?"

"The difference between a successful thief and a dead thief is knowing when to escape with your takings."

"All stories 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."

"“The storm caught him,” Kaladin said. “The storm catches everyone, eventually. Does it matter?” “I don’t know.” “Good.” Wit tipped his sword up toward his forehead, as if in respect. “Then you have something to think about.”"

"To age truly was to suffer the ultimate treason, that of one’s body against oneself."

"“‘Honor’ is a word applied to the actions of men from the past who have had their lives scrubbed clean by historians.”"

"“I have to protect him,” Kaladin whispered. Why? “If I protect …” He coughed. “If I protect…only the people I like, it means that I don’t care about doing what is right.” If he did that, he only cared about what was convenient for himself. That wasn’t protecting. That was selfishness."

"I watched you keep your word with perfection. This is a thing lost to most people—it is the only genuine beauty in the world."

"“But profiting off people’s emotions?” “Pity can be a powerful tool. Anytime you can make someone else feel something, you’ve got power over them.”"

"“You seem to have found purpose in talkin’ a whole bunch,” Lift said. “Without being helpful to nobody.”"

"She didn’t exactly understand what she was doing, but she rarely did. Art wasn’t about understanding, but about knowing."

"Expensive, yes. But by definition, therefore, not priceless."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"“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?”"

"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."

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