Quotes About Adversity

Cauthon lives, Arganda said. And that's bloody amazing, considering that someone blew up his command post, set fire to his tenet, killed a bunch of his damane, and chased off his wife. Cauthon crawled out of it somehow. Ha! Abell Cauthon said. That's my boy.

Take what you can have. Rejoice in what you can save, and do not mourn your loses for too long.

I always say, if you must mount the gallows, give a jest to the crowd, a coin to the hangman, and make the drop with a smile on your lips.

Waiting turns men into bears in a barn, and women into cats in a sack.

You'll use it, boy, and as long as you hate using it, you will use it more wisely than most men would. Wait. If ever you don't hate it any longer, then will be the time to throw it as far as you can and run the other way.

A young wolfhound must meet his first wolf someday, but if the wolf sees him as a puppy, if he acts the puppy, the wolf will surely kill him. The wolfhound must be a wolfhound in the wolf's eyes even more than in his own, if he is to survive.

On the heights, all paths are paved with daggers.

The only way was forward, whatever lay at the end.

hope is like a piece of string when you're drowning; it just isn't enough to get you out by itself.

Nobody walks a difficult path without stumbling now and again. It didn't break you when you fell. That's the important part.

That man,' Elayne said, 'is never where he needs to be.' 'And yet,' Perrin said, 'he always arrives there eventually.

Moiraine: It seems Ryne was wrong as well as a Darkfriend. You were better than he. Lan: He was better. But he thought I was finished, with only one arm. He never understood. You surrender after you're dead.

The sweetness of victory and the bitterness of defeat are alike a knife of dreams. -From Fog and Steel by Madoc Comadrin

But hope is like a piece of string when you're drowning; it just isn't enough to get you out by itself.

Knock a man down, and you saw what he was made of. That man might run. If he didn't—if he stood back up with blood at the corner of his mouth and determination in his eyes—then you knew. That man was about to become truly dangerous.

Who would sup with the mighty must climb the path of daggers. -Anonymous notation found inked in the margin of a manuscript history (believed to date to the time of Arthur Hawkwing) of the last days of the Tovan Conclaves

If you have a sword, and the Aielman has his bare hands, it is an even fight. If you're good.

Just because fate has chosen something for you instead of you choosing it for yourself doesn't mean it has to be bad.

You can never know everything," Lan said quietly, "and part of what you know is always wrong. Perhaps even the most important part. A portion of wisdom lies in knowing that. A portion of courage lies in going on anyway.

Hero! He was no hero! What did a hero get? An Aes Sedai patting you on the head before she sent you out like a hound to do it again. A noblewoman condescending to favor you with a kiss, or laying a flower on your grave.

Lan shook his head sightly He was better. But he thought I was finished, with only one arm. He never understood. You surrender after you're dead.

He had gone right through fear and come out the other side in some place cold. Anger was all that kept him warm. They could gentle him, or burn him to a crisp where he stood, and he no longer cared.

Humankind is made for uncertainty, struggle, choice and change.

We try not to dwell too much on what is gone. The strongest heart will break under that strain.