Quotes from Brandon Sanderson

I consider myself to be a man of principle. But, what man does not? Even the cutthroat, I have noticed, considers his actions "moral" after a fashion. Perhaps another person, reading of my life, would name me a religious tyrant. He could call me arrogant. What is to make that man's opinion any less valid than my own? I guess it all comes down to one fact: In the end, I'm the one with the armies.

Vin: I don't know -- and it's all your fault, you know. I used to understand everything. Now it's all confused. Kelsier: Yes, we've messed you up right properly.

Plots behind plots, plans behind plans. There was always another secret.

Remember, despite the fact that this book is being sold as a 'fantasy' novel, you must take all of the things it says extremely seriously, as they are quite important, are in no way silly, and always make sense. Rutabaga.

There has to be a balance, Vin," Elend said. "Somehow, we'll find it. The balance between whom we wish to be and whom we need to be." He sighed. "But for now," he said, nodding to the side, "we simply have to be satisfied with who we are.

I know, better than anyone else, that there are no heroes coming to save us. There are no good Epics. None of them protect us. Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

If I should die," Dalinar said, "then I would do so having lived my life right. It is not the destination that matters, but how one arrives there." "The Codes?" "No. The Way of Kings." "That storming book.

Expectation. That is the true soul of art. If you can give a man more than he expects, then he will laud you his entire life. If you can create an air of anticipation and feed it properly, you will succeed.

Our weakness doesn't make us weak. Our weakness makes us strong. For we had to carry it all these years.

Wayne: You wanna know why I really came to find you? Waxilliam: Why? Wayne: I thought of you happy in a comfy bed, resting and relaxing, spending the rest of your life sipping tea and reading papers while people bring you food and maids rub your toes and stuff. Waxilliam: And? Wayne: And I just couldn't leave you to a fate like that...I'm too good a friend to let a mate of mine die in such a terrible situation. Waxilliam: Comfortable? Wayne: No. Boring.

everyone knows that ice cream is worth the trouble of being cold. Like all things virtuous, you have to suffer to gain the reward.

A man is what he has passion about," Breeze said. "I've found that if you give up what you want most for what you think you should want more, you'll just end up miserable.

Can you feel it? Something just changed. I believe that's the sound the world makes when it pisses itself.

Don't do anything stupid." "Don't worry," I whispered over the line, "I'm an expert on stupid." "You're..." "Like, I can spot stupidity, because I know it so well. The way an exterminator knows bugs really well, and can spot where they've been? I'm like that. A stupidinator." "Never say that word again," Prof said.

Regardless, I often wish that the two groups - adults and kids - could find a way to get along better. Some sort of treaty or something. The biggest problem is, the adults have one of the most effective recruitment strategies in the world. Give them enough time, and they'll turn any kid into one of them.

For glory lit, and life alive, for goals unreached and aims to strive. All men must try, the wind did see. It is the test, it is the dream.

We remember the good times and the bad ones, forgetting that most times are neither good nor bad. They just are.

Ham smiled. "Cett's going to be furious." Elend shrugged. "He's a paraplegic. What's he going to do? Bite us?

But merely being tradition does not make something worthy, Kadash. We can't just assume that because something is old it is right .

Don't worry that you aren't giving people what they want. Give them who you are, and let that be enough.

What is belief—what is faith—if you don't continue it after failure?

I want you to go back into the barrack and tell the men to come out after the storm. Tell them to look up at me tied here. Tell them I'll open my eyes and look back at them, and they'll know that I survived.

A hero does not choose her trials. She steps into the darkness, then she faces what comes next.

If you're always on time, it implies that you never have anything better you should be doing.