Brandon Sanderson

“What a pair they were - a Mistborn who felt guilty wasting coins to jump and a nobleman who thought balls were too expensive.”

“Boys, welcome to the wonderful world of talking to women about their feelings. As a handy primer, here are a few things you should know:1) Women have feelings.2) You will spend the next seventy years or so trying to guess what they're feeling and why.3) You will be wrong most of the time.4) I like French Fries.”

“Ruin still used Reen’s voice—it was familiar, something that had always seemed a part of her. Discovering that it belonged to that thing…it was like finding out that her reflection really belonged to someone else, and that she’d never actually seen herself.”

“THE BEST WAY TO FOOL SOMEONE, in Vin’s estimation, was to give them what they wanted. Or, at the very least, what they expected. As long as they assumed that they were one step ahead, they wouldn’t look back to see if there were any steps that they’d completely missed.”

“If you can read the book and say, ‘Space Marines, YEEEAAAHHH!’ That’s Military Science Fiction.” (Brigham Young writing lecture, March 2012)”

“What if they take you captive?” Goradel asked.“My dear man,” Breeze said, leaning forward to look out at Goradel. “That’s why kings send ambassadors. This way, if someone gets captured, the king is still safe. We, my friend, are something Elend can never be: expendable.”Goradel frowned at that. “I don’t feel very expendable.”

“You act as if I were your enemy.“You are my enemy. You seek to end the things I love.”And is an ending always bad? it asked. Must not all things, even worlds, someday end?“There is no need to hasten that end,” Vin said. “No reason to force it.”All things are subject to their own nature, Vin, Ruin said, seeming to flow around her. She could feel its touch on her—wet and delicate, like mist. You cannot blame me for what I am. Without me, nothing would end. Nothing could end. And therefore, nothing could grow. I am life. Would you fight life itself?Vin fell silent.Do not mourn because the day of this world’s end has arrived, Ruin said. That end was ordained the very day of the world’s conception. There is a beauty in death—the beauty of finality, the beauty of completion.For nothing is truly complete until the day it is finally destroyed.”

“Vin,” he said flatly, “did you just suggest that we attend a ball being held in the middle of a city we’re besieging?”“You think it’s a good idea,” Vin said, smiling impishly.“It’s a crazy idea,” Elend said. “I’m emperor—I shouldn’t be sneaking into the enemy city so I can go to a party.”Vin narrowed her eyes, staring at him.“I will admit, however,” Elend said, “that the concept does have considerable charm.”

“Breeze chuckled. “I don’t know if you noticed the earthquake a few minutes ago, my dear man, but the world appears to be ending. That is an indisputably depressing event.”

“Somebody tell me that I should just go speak to the kings again.""uh," Sing said, "didn't I just do that?""I need to her it again, Sing," Grandpa Smedry said. "I'm old and stubborn!”

“Breeze raised his dueling cane, pointing it at Ham. "I see my period of intellectual respite has come to an end." Ham smiled. "I thought up a couple of beastly questions while I was gone, and I've been saving them just for you, Breeze.""I'm dying of anticipation," Breeze said. He turned his cane toward Lestibournes. "Spook, drink."Spook rushed over and fetched Breeze a cup of wine."He's such a fine lad," Breeze noted, accepting the drink. "I barely even have to nudge him Allomantically. If only the rest of you ruffians were so accommodating."Spook frowned "Niceing the not on the playing without.""I have no idea what you just said, child," Breeze said. "So I'm simply going to pretend it was coherent, then move on."Kelsier rolled his eyes. "Losing the stress on the nip," he said. "Notting without the needing of care.""Riding the rile of the rids to the right," Spook said with a nod."What are you two babbling about?" Breeze said testily."Wasing the was of brightness," Spook said. "Nip the having of wishing of this.""Ever wasing the doing of this," Kelsier agreed.Breeze turned to Dockson with exasperation. "I believe our companions have finally lost their minds, dear friend."Dockson shrugged. Then, with a perfectly straight face, he said, "Wasing not of wasing is."Breeze sat, dumbfounded, and the room burst into laughter. Breeze rolled his eyes indignantly, shaking his head and muttering about the crew's gross childishness.Vin nearly choked on her wine as she laughed. "What did you even say?" she asked of Dockson as he sat down beside her."I'm not sure," he confessed. "It just sounded right.""I don't think you said anything, Dox," Kelsier said.”

“Great, Elend thought. I’ve filled my inner council with a bunch of thrill-seeking masochists. Even worse, I’ve decided to join them.”

“You know,” OreSeur muttered quietly, obviously counting on her tin to let Vin hear him, “it seems that these meetings would be more productive if someone forgot to invite those two.”Vin smiled. “They’re not that bad,” she whispered.OreSeur raised an eyebrow.“Okay,” Vin said. “They do distract us a little bit.”“I could always eat on of them, if you wish,” OreSeur said. “That might speed things up.”Vin paused.OreSeur, however had a strange little smile on his lips. “Kandra humor, Mistress. I apologize. We can be a bit grim.”Vin smiled. “They probably wouldn’t taste very good anyway. Ham’s far too stringy, and you don’t want to know the kinds of things that Breeze spends his time eating….”“I’m not sure,” OreSeur said. “One is, after all, named ‘Ham.’ As for the other…” He nodded to the cup of wine in Breeze’s hand. “He does seem quite fond of marinating himself.”

“That’s the funny thing about arriving somewhere, Vin,” he said with a wink. “Once you’re there, the only thing you can really do is leave again.”

“There have been a lot of Smedries over the centuries," he said, "and a lot of Talents. Many of them tend to be similar, in the long run. There are four kinds: Talents that affect space, time, knowledge, and the physical world.""Take my talent, for instance," he continued. "I change things in space. I can get lost, then get found again.""What about grandpa Smedry?""Time," Kas said. "He arrives late to things. Australia, however, has a Talent that can change the physical world--in this case, her own shape. Her Talent is fairly specific, and not as broad as your grandfather's. For instance, there was a Smedry a couple of centuries back who could look ugly any time he wanted, not just when he woke up in the morning. Other have been able to change anyone's appearance, not just their own. Understand?"I shrugged. "I guess so.""The closer the Talent gets to its purest form, the more powerful it is," Kaz said. "Your grandfather's Talent is very pure--he can manipulate time in a lot of different circumstances. Your father and I have very similar Talents--I can get lost and Attica can lose things--and both are flexible.""What about Sing?" I asked."Tripping. That's what we call a knowledge Talent--he knows how to do something normal with extraordinary ability. Like Australia, though, his power isn't very flexible."I nodded slowly. "So...what does this have to do with me?""Well, it's hard to say," Kaz said. "You're getting into some deep philosophy now, kid. There are those who argue that the Breaking Talent is simply a physical-world Talent, but one that is very versatile and very powerful. There are others who argue that the Breaking Talent is much more. It seems to be able to do things that affect all four areas. Legends say that one of your ancestors--one of only two others to have this Talent--broke time and space together, forming a little bubble where nothing aged. Other records speak of breakings equally marvelous. Breakings that change people's memory or their abilities. What is it to 'break' something? What can you change? How far can the Talent go?”

“My name is Stephen Leeds, and I am perfectly sane. My hallucinations, however, are all quite mad.”

“I have no idea what you just said, child,' Breeze said. 'So I'm simply going to pretend it was coherent, then move on.”

“If you were the wall, what would you rather be? Dreary and dull, or alive with paint?""Walls can't think!""That doesn't stop them from caring.”

“A story doesn't live until it is imagined in someone's mind.”

“It seems that the rebels found the chaos of transition more difficult to accept than the tyranny they had known before. They joyfully welcomed back authority-even oppressive authority-for it was less painful for them than uncertainty.”

“...somehow the old philosophers could make even the most salacious topics seem boring.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t say that. Work, my dear Blushweaver, is like fertilizer.”“It smells?”He smiled. “No, I was thinking that work is like fertilizer in that I’m glad it exists; I just don’t ever want to get stuck in it.”

“No job security,” Denth said, leaning back in his chair. “The kinds of things we do, they tend to be dangerous and unpredictable. Our employers have a habit of dying off on us.” “Though usually not from the chills,” Tonk Fah noted. “Swords tend to be the method of choice.”

“I am what the universe made me to be, my dear.”

“Everyone is either happy or dead.”

“There are no endings, and never will be endings, to the turning of the Wheel of Time. But it was an ending.”

“And Vin liked solitude. When you're alone, no one can betray you”

“Dadas dos obras de majestuosidad artística, sopesadas por igual, daremos más valor a quien la hizo primero. No importa lo que crees. Importa que crees antes que nadie.”

“The problem with being clever, Serene thought with a sigh, is that everyone assumes you're always planning something.”

“Though most expect young men to be fools, I've noticed that just a little bit of age can make a man far more foolish than he was as a child.”

“I never wanted to be feared. If I regret one thing, it is the fear I have caused. Fear is the tool of tyrants. Unfortunately, when the fate of the world is in question, you use whatever tools are available.”

“People today...it seems they are good, or sometimes evil, mostly by inertia, not by choice.”

“Why do they call it research if I've only done it this one time?”

“Actually, no," Shallan said. "I'm just fond of hyperbole.""I'm not," he said. "It's a real bastard to spell""Kabsal!”

“It soon became obvious, even with9in the stedding, that the Pattern was grwoing frail. The sky darkened. Our dead appeared, standing in rings outside the broders of the stedding, looking in. Most troubingly, trees fell ill, and no song would heal them.It was in this time of sorrows that I stepped up to the Great Stump. At first, I was forbidden, but my mother, covril, demanded I have my chance. I do not know wht sparked her change of heart, as she herself had argued quite decisvely for the opposing side. My hands shook. I would be the last speaker, and most seemed to have already made up their minds to open the Book of Translation. They considered me an afterthought. And I knew that unless I spoke true, humanity would be left along to face the Shadow. In that moment, my nervousness fled. I felt only a stilness, a calm sense of purpose. I opened my mouth, and I began to speak. -from The Dragon Reborn, by Loial, son of Arent son of Halan, of Stedding Shangtai”

“Ravens and crows. Rats Mists and clouds. Insects and corruption. Strange events and odd occurrences. The ordinary twisted and strange. Wonders!The dead are beginning to walk and some see them. Others do not, but more and more, we all fear the night.These have been our days. They rain upon us beneath a dead sky, crushing us with their fury, until as one we beg: "Let it begin!" -Journal of the Unknown Scholar, entry for The Feast of Freia, 1000 NE”

“And the Shdaow fell upon the Land, and the World was riven stone from stone. The oceans fled, and the mountains were swallowed up, and the nations were scattered to the eight corners of the World. The moon was as blood, and the sun was as ashes. The seas boiled, and the living envied the dead. All was shattered, and all but memory lost, and one memory above all others, of him who brought the Shadow and the Breaking of the World. And him they named Dragon. - from Aleth nin Taerin alta Camora, The Breaking of the World. Authoer unknown, the Fourth Age.”

“And it came to pass in those days, as it had come before and would come again, that the Dark lay heavy on the land and weighed down the hearts of men, and the green things failed, and hope died. - from Charal Drianaan te Calamon, The Cycle of the Dragon”

“You want me to lead the caravan?”“Instructions will be acceptable.”“All right. First, find a cliff.”“That, it will give you a vantage to see the area?”“No,” Kaladin said. “It will give me something to throw you off of.”

“Good men will kill as quickly for what they want as evil men- only the things they want are different.”

“Being in charge isn't always about telling people what to do. Sometimes, it's about knowing when to step out of the way of people who know what they're doing. - Tam al'Thor”

“What would you think if I told you that I wasn’t an Allomancer?” Sazed asked.“I’d think that you were lying,” Vin said.“Have you known me to lie before?”“The best liars are those who tell the truth most of the time.”

“I'm going to kill him," Rand possionately, leaning in. "I'm going to end the Dark One. We will never have true peace so long as he is there, lurking. I'll rip open the prison, I'll enter it and I'll face him. I'll build a new prison if I have to, but first, I'm going to try to end all of this. Protect the Pattern, the Wheel, for good.”

“How could anyone understand the pain of a faith betrayed? He had believed. And yet, when he had needed hope the most, he had found only emptiness... Belief isn’t simply a thing for fair times and bright days, I think. What is belief—what is faith—if you don’t continue in it after failure. . . .”

“You will find that hate can unify people more quickly and more fervently than devotion ever could.”

“That is always how it is, though, isn't it?” Shuden asked. “Those who can least afford extravagance seem to be the ones most determined to spend what they have left.”

“Joy was more than just an absence of discomfort.”

“Ah, the outdoors,' Shallan said. 'I visited that mythical place once.”

“You are inexperienced. So was I, once. So is every man. The measure of a person is not how much they have lived. . . It's in how they make us of what life has shown them.”

“The Nelazan believed that there was beauty in darkness, and that the daylight was more profane. They saw the stars as the Thousand Eyes of Trell watching them. The sun was the single, jealous eye of Trell’s brother, Nalt. Since Nalt only had one eye, he made it blaze brightly to outshine his brother. The Nelazan, however, were not impressed, and preferred to worship the quiet Trell, who watched over them even when Nalt obscured the sky.”