“Dalinar forced himself to be calm. "Roion, we cannot continue to treat this war as a game.""All wars are games. The greatest kind, with the pieces lost real lives, the prizes captured making for real wealth! This is the life for which men exist. To fight, to kill, to win.”

“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.”

“People with passion are people who will destroy—for a man's passion is not true until he proves how much he's willing to sacrifice for it. Will he kill? Will he go to war? Will he break and discard that which he has, all in the name of what he needs?”

“The first step is to care, Tukks’s voice seemed to whisper. Some talk about being emotionless in battle. Well, I suppose it’s important to keep your head. But I hate that feeling of killing while calm and cold. I’ve seen that those who care fight harder, longer, and better than those who don’t. It’s the difference between mercenaries and real soldiers.It’s the difference between fighting to defend your homeland and fighting on foreign soil.It’s good to care when you fight, so long as you don’t let it consume you. Don’t try to stop yourself from feeling. You’ll hate who you become.”

“How do you fight someone smarter than yourself?' Rand Whispered. 'The answer is simple. You make her think that you are sitting down across the table from her, ready to play her game. Then you punch her in the face as hard as you can.”

“Sometimes the prize is not worth the costs. The means by which we achieve victory are as important as the victory itself.”

“Dalinar took a deep breath, then forced himself to open his arms and pull back. “If you had hoped tosoothe my worries for the day, then this didn’t help.”She folded her arms. He could still feel where her safehand had touched him on the back. A tendertouch, reserved for a family member. “I’m not here to soothe you, Dalinar. Quite the opposite.”“Please. I do need time to think.”“I won’t let you put me away. I won’t ignore that this happened. I won’t—”“Navani,” he gently cut her off, “I will not abandon you. I promise.”She eyed him, then a wry smile crept onto her face. “Very well. But you began something today.”“I began it?” he asked, amused, elated, confused, worried, and ashamed at the same time.“The kiss was yours, Dalinar,” she said idly, pulling open the door and entering his antechamber.“You seduced me to it.”“What? Seduced?” She glanced back at him. “Dalinar, I’ve never been more open and honest in mylife.”“I know,” Dalinar said, smiling. “That was the seductive part.” He closed the door softly, then let outa sigh. Blood of my fathers, he thought, why can’t these things ever be simple?And yet, in direct contrast with his thoughts, he felt as if the entire world had somehow becomemore right for having gone wrong.”