Quotes

Bitterness is repaid more often than kindness.

Having power over the lives of men is an uncomfortable responsibility.

It was better not to resist. This was his lot, and he was resigned to it. There was a certain power in that, a freedom. The freedom of not having to care.

when weapons created to fight nightmares were turned against common soldiers, the lives of men became cheap things indeed.

“It strikes me that religion—in its essence—seeks to take natural events and ascribe supernatural causes to them. I, however, seek to take supernatural events and find the natural meanings behind them. Perhaps that is the final dividing lin...

Your feelings, Shallan—however powerful—are your own. Not mine. And what I feel is that spending my life trying to earn the favor of an unseen, unknown, and unknowable being who watches me from the sky is an exercise in sheer futility.”

“My intention is not to convert, Your Majesty,” Jasnah said. “I am content keeping my beliefs to myself, something most of my colleagues in the devotaries have difficulty doing.

“I think something innate in us understands that seeking the good of society is usually best for the individual as well. Humankind is noble, when we give it the chance to be. That nobility is something that exists independent of any god’s d...

Could twilight years spent pretending to follow the precepts of better men erase a lifetime of butchery?

Rule as you would be ruled.

Expect honor from those you meet, and give them the chance to live up to it.

Let your actions defend you, not your words.

Never fight other men except when forced to in war.

“I can’t decide if it’s dishonest or not.” “It’s not dishonest; it’s business.”

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.”