“You are out of control, Rand al'Thor,' she declared.I do what must be done,' he said, speaking now from the shadows. He sounded exhausted. ...I hate what you just did, Rand,' Nynaeve snarled. 'No, "Hate" isn't strong enough. I loathe what you've done. What has happened to you?'Test him!' Rand whispered, voice dangerous. 'Before condemning me, let us first determine if my sins have achieved anything beyond my own damnation.”
“Then tell me this: How do I outthink an enemy I know is smarter than I am?' ...I face some of the most crafty people who have ever lived. My current foe understands the minds of others in a way that I cannot hope to match. So how do I defeat her? She will vanish the moment I threaten her, running to one of a dozen other refuges that she is sure to have set up. ...I have to peer into her eyes, see into her soul, and know that it's her that I face and not some decoy. I have to do that without frightening her into running. How?'***The question remains,' he said, voice soft but tense. 'How would you fight her, Nynaeve?'I don't care to play your games, Rand al'Thor,' Nynaeve replied with a huff. 'You've obviously already decided what you intend to do. Why ask me?'Because what I'm about to do should frighten me,' he said. 'It doesn't.”
“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.”
“I continue to wonder,' he said, glancing down at Min, 'why you all assume that I am too dense to see what you find so obvious. Yes, Nynaeve. Yes, this hardness will destroy me. I know.' ...You all claim that I have grown too hard, that I will inevitably shatter and break if I continue on. But you assume that there needs to be something left of me to continue on. ...That's the key, Nynaeve. I see it now. I will not live through this, and so I don't need to worry about what might happen to me after the Last Battle. I don't need to hold back, don't need to salvage anything of this beaten up soul of mine.”
“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.”
“I never did thank you," Breeze said."For what, Lord Breeze?""For pulling me out of myself," Breeze said. "For forcing me to get up, a year ago, and keep going. Ifyou hadn't helped me, I don't know that I would ever have gotten over . . . what happened."Sazed nodded. On the inside, however, his thoughts were more bitter. Yes, you saw destruction anddeath, my friend. But the woman you love is still alive. I could have come back too, if I hadn't losther. I could have recovered, as you did.”
“Wit was insulting each person as they stepped onto the island. “Brightness Marakal! What adisaster that hairstyle is; how brave of you to show it to the world. Brightlord Marakal, I wish you’dwarned us you were going to attend; I’d have forgone supper. I do so hate being sick after a full meal.Brightlord Cadilar! How good it is to see you. Your face reminds me of someone dear to me.”“Really?” wizened Cadilar said, hesitating.“Yes,” Wit said, waving him on, “my horse. Ah, Brightlord Neteb, you smell unique today—did youattack a wet whitespine, or did one just sneeze on you? Lady Alami! No, please, don’t speak—it’s mucheasier to maintain my illusions regarding your intelligence that way. And Brightlord Dalinar.” Wit noddedto Dalinar as he passed. “Ah, my dear Brightlord Taselin. Still engaged in your experiment to prove amaximum threshold of human idiocy? Good for you! Very empirical of you.”