Words of Radiance

Quotes

1. “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.

   p. 1014

2. 

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

   p. 901

3. 

   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?

   p. 655

4. 

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

   p. 927

5. 

   “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.”

   p. 692

6. 

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

   p. 687

7. 

   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.

   p. 1063

8. 

   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.

   p. 730

9. 

   “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.”

   p. 731

10. 

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

    p. 937

11. 

    “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!”

    p. 863

12. 

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

    p. 801

13. 

    “We just need to be more optimistic.”

    “Being optimistic does not change facts.”

    p. 455

14. 

    She’d had so much more time when she was younger. She couldn’t help thinking she’d wasted much of it.

    p. 554

15. 

    Shallan smiled at the wonderful surroundings, the light rainfall, the beautiful plant life. A little dampness was a small price to pay for the melodious sound of sprinkling rain, for fresh clean air and a beautiful sky full of clouds that varied in every shade of grey.

    p. 626

16. 

    “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.”

    p. 639

17. 

    Better to be overly cautious than naive.

    p. 632

18. 

    “I ain’t grouchy,” Teft snapped. “I just have a low threshold for stupidity.”

    p. 501

19. 

    That was the problem with sneaking about. If nothing seemed to have gone wrong, you rarely knew if it was because you were safe, or if someone had spotted you and just hadn’t done anything. Yet.

    p. 497

20. 

    Jasnah hadn’t cared what people thought of her, yet had always kept her appearance immaculate. Not that Jasnah had acted alluringly—never for a moment. In fact, she’d disparaged such behavior in no uncertain terms. Using a fetching face to make men do as you wish is no different from a man using muscle to force a woman to his will, she’d said. Both are base, and both will fail a person as they age.

    No, Jasnah had not approved of seduction as a tool. However, people responded differently to those who looked in control of themselves.

    p. 228

21. 

    “The men are happy.”

    “And you?”

    “Bored. All we do every day is sit around, collect what you pay us, and go drinking.”

    “Most men would consider that an ideal profession.” She smiled at En, then climbed into the coach.

    Vathah shut the door for her, then looked in the window. “Most men are idiots.”

    p. 552

22. 

    “You really don’t think highly of the others, do you?” Shallan asked.

    “I hate them,” Sebarial said. “But I try to hate everyone. That way, I don’t risk leaving out anyone who is particularly deserving. Anyway, here we are. Don’t expect me to help you out of the carriage.”

    p. 460

23. 

    “I am a soldier, not a musician,” Kaladin said. “Besides, music is for women.”

    “All people are musicians,” Wit countered. “The question is whether or not they share their songs. As for music being feminine, it’s interesting that the woman who wrote that treatise—the one you all practically worship in Alethkar—decided that all of the feminine tasks involve sitting around having fun while all the masculine ones involve finding someone to stick a spear in you. Telling, eh?”

    p. 638

24. 

    Do not make me kick you. I do not like kicking. It hurts my toes.

    p. 60

25. 

    “That was a joke, bridgeboy.”

    “My mistake. I was under the impression that jokes were supposed to be funny.”

    “Only to people with a sense of humor.”

    “Ah, of course,” Kaladin said. “I traded in my sense of humor long ago.”

    “And what did you get for it?”

    “Scars,” Kaladin said softly.

    p. 636

26. 

    “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.”

    p. 475

27. 

    “I know full well how to have a good time.”

    “Is that so?”

    “Yes. It involves being anywhere you aren’t.”

    p. 640

28. 

    “Where is he?”

    “Doing things he finds very important. I would fault him for it, as I find nothing more frightening than a man trying to do what he has decided is important. Very little in the world has ever gone astray—at least on a grand scale—because a person decided to be frivolous.”

    p. 526

29. 

    Nearly everything that happened had happened before. The grand lesson of history, and…

    p. 23

30. 

    “I know you do not mean this. Context allows me to infer what you truly mean. In a way, the very phrase is a lie.”

    “It’s not a lie,” Shallan said, “if everyone understands and knows what it means.”

    “Those are some of the best lies.”

    p. 480

31. 

    “This is the tiresome part of the feast, where the conversation grows louder but no smarter, and the company drunken.”

    “Many people consider that sort of thing enjoyable.”

    “Many people, unfortunately, are idiots.”

    p. 19

32. 

    “Not so crude then, if it almost killed him.”

    “Pardon, Torol, but almost is a big distinction in assassinations.”

    p. 350

33. 

    It wasn’t a lie. It was a different truth.

    p. 424

34. 

    “Hmmm. Someone has a high opinion of himself. Comes with being royalty, I suppose. Like funny hats and a fondness for beheadings.”

    p. 507

35. 

    To be human is to seek beauty.

    p. 528

36. 

    “Storms,” she breathed. “Those are all different kinds of wine?”

    “Yeah,” Adolin said. He leaned toward her, as if conspiratorial. “Honestly, I don’t pay a lot of attention. Renarin knows the difference between them—he’ll drone on if you let him. Me, I order something that sounds important, but I’m really just choosing based on color.”

    p. 568

37. 

    His mother would probably lament how little Kaladin care for religious observance. The way Kaladin figured it, the Almighty didn’t show much concern for him, so why care back?

    p. 235

38. 

    Pattern hummed. “Truth is individual.”

    “What? No it’s not. Truth is…it’s Truth. Reality.”

    p. 308

39. 

    She let the world consume her. The familiar sound of pencil on paper, the focus of creation. Beauty was out there, all around. To create art was not to capture it, but to participate in it.

    p. 554

40. 

    “Historians,” Shallan said, “are a bunch of liars.”

    “Mmmmm,” Pattern said, sounding satisfied.

    “That wasn’t a compliment.”

    “Oh.”

    p. 308

41. 

    They all ignored the truth stabbing them in the face.

    p. 430

That’s all the quotes.

41 quotes in the collection · come back when we add more