Quotes from Brandon Sanderson

They say a man doesn't know himself until he faces death for the first time. . . I don't know about that. It seems to me that the person you are when you're about to die isn't as important as the person you are during the rest of your life. Why should a few moments matter more than an entire lifetime?

I'm sorry that your mystical, godlike powers do not instantly work as you would like them to.

The man who wants you to trust him is the one you must fear the most.

It is a time of change,'' Sazed said. ''Perhaps it is also time to learn of other truths, other ways.

The study's small ventilation window bumped open, and Vin squeezed through, pulling in a puff of mist behind her. She closed the window, then surveyed the room. "More?" she asked incredulously. "You found more books?" "Of course," Elend said. "How many of those things have people written?" she asked with exasperation.

Oh, don't worry. If you didn't say some stupid things every once in a while, you certainly wouldn't fit in with this group.

I'm not good with relationships, Shallan." "Is there anyone who actually is? I mean, is there really someone out there who looks at relationships and thinks, 'You know what, I've got this'? Personally, I rather think we're all collectively idiots about it.

Joy was more than just an absence of discomfort.

Shallan, weren't you supposed to be reading?" "I . . . had trouble concentrating." "So you came up on deck," Jasnah said, "to sketch pictures of young men working without their shirts on. You expected this to help your concentration?

The ways of Wayne are mysterious and incomprehensible.

Words aren't meant to be kept inside, you see. They are free creatures, and if locked away will unsettle the stomach.

Is anything fair?" He smiled. "Death is. He treats us all the same.

Pain los[es] its power when other things bec[o]me more important.

Life was so much harder, but potentially so much more fulfilling, when you found the courage to choose.

Who do you think is stronger?" Adolin asked. "The man who has walked easily his entire life, or the man with no legs? The man who must pull himself by his arms?

People with passion are people who will destroy—for a man's passion is not true until he proves how much he's willing to sacrifice for it. Will he kill? Will he go to war? Will he break and discard that which he has, all in the name of what he needs ?

This is life. The longer you live, the more you fail. Failure is the mark of a life well lived. In turn, the only way to live without failure is to be of no use to anyone. Trust me, I've practiced.

I point out truths when I see them, Brightlord Sadeas. Each man has his place. Mine is to make insults. Yours is to be in-sluts.

I've seen Steelheart bleed. And I will see him bleed again.

What responsibility are you avoiding... He wasn't avoiding responsibility... Though there was one thing he clung to. An excuse, perhaps, like the dead emperor. It was the soul of the wretch. Apathy. The belief that nothing was his fault, the belief that he couldn't change anything. If a man was cursed, or if he believed he didn't have to care, then he didn't need to hurt when he failed. Those failures couldn't have been prevented. Someone or something else had ordained them.

Every man had to die. He'd always found it odd that so many died when they were old, as logic said that was the point in their lives when they'd had the most practice not dying.

Pattern, you're to be our chaperone tonight." "What," Pattern said with a hum, "is a chaperone?" "That is someone who watches two young people when they are together, to make certain they don't do anything inappropriate." "Inappropriate?" Pattern said. "Such as . . . dividing by zero?

I ain't drunk," Wayne said, sniffling. "I'm investigatin' alternative states of sobriety.

You promised me I could measure your . . . particular abilities." "Promised?" Kaladin asked. "I don't remember a promise." "You grunted