Collected

Quotes

Lines worth keeping — sources, context, and the occasional thought of my own.

We are wrong to think that death is ahead of us. Much of our life has already passed. The years we have lived so far are in death's hands.
— Seneca Moral Letters 1 Notes
You can also commit injustice by doing nothing.
— Marcus Aurelius
A man’s emotions are what define him, and control is the hallmark of true strength. To lack feeling is to be dead, but to act on every feeling is to be a child.”
— Brandon Sanderson The Way of Kings
To never become so certain or high that he wasn’t willing to seek truth.
— Brandon Sanderson The Way of Kings
Somebody has to start, son. Somebody has to step forward and do what is right, because it is right. If nobody starts, then others cannot follow.
— Brandon Sanderson The Way of Kings
In every situation, you can find a better story to tell yourself about the person who cut you off in traffic, about the cashier in the checkout line you’re stuck in, about the email you still haven’t gotten a reply to, about the player who...
— Ryan Holiday Daily Stoic Email, 4/14/2022
“This world, it is a tempest sometimes. But remember, the sun always rises again.”
— Brandon Sanderson The Way of Kings
We are all victims of our lives, and we cannot change what we do in the aftermath; we can only try to make up for it. Nor can we change the minds of all those who have come to see us as they wrongly believe us to be. Some can never forget...
— Terry Brooks The Last Druid
“Your words are like the hundred doves.” “Easy to release, difficult to keep,”
— Brandon Sanderson The Way of Kings
when weapons created to fight nightmares were turned against common soldiers, the lives of men became cheap things indeed.
— Brandon Sanderson The Way of Kings
Expect honor from those you meet, and give them the chance to live up to it.
— Brandon Sanderson The Way of Kings
‘And so, does the destination matter? Or is it the path we take? I declare that no accomplishment has substance nearly as great as the road used to achieve it. We are not creatures of destinations. It is the journey that shapes us. Our call...
— Brandon Sanderson The Way of Kings
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.
— Brandon Sanderson Mistborn
We do not find virtue in a man by the quality of his circumstances, but the quality of his actions.
— Unknown
If you were to overthrow the lighteyes and place yourselves in power, abuses would still happen. They d just happen to other people.
— Brandon Sanderson The Way of Kings