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A leader is often judged by how well he bears responsibility.
“Well, I disagree with both of you,” Elend said. “A ruler should only lead by the consent of the people he rules.” “I do not disagree with that, Your Majesty,” Sazed said. “Or, at least, I do believe in the theory of it. Regardless, I still do not believe that your duty is to do as the people wish. Your duty is to lead as best you can, following the dictates of your conscience. You must be true, Your Majesty, to the man you wish to become. If that man is not whom the people wish to have lead them, then they will choose someone else.”
It is his right to follow his conscience, then trust in providence to fill in the holes caused by the conflict between morality and logic.”
“It is not my position to judge truth, Lord Venture,” Sazed said, smiling. “I simply carry it.”
What do you think makes a man a good king? he had once asked of Tindwyl. Trust, she had replied. A good king is one who is trusted by his people—and one who deserves that trust.
Luthadel was like a man with a knife pressed very closely to his throat. Each breath cut the skin.
Elend rode his horse hard, as if using its momentum to bolster his own will.
“At first glance, the key and the lock it fits may seem very different,” Sazed said. “Different in shape, different in function, different in design. The man who looks at them without knowledge of their true nature might think them opposites, for one is meant to open, and the other to keep closed. Yet, upon closer examination, he might see that without one, the other becomes useless. The wise man then sees that both lock and key were created for the same purpose.”
Those who take lightly promises they make to those they love are people who find little lasting satisfaction in life. This is not an easy time in which to live. That does not mean that it has to be a difficult time to love, but it does mean that you will find unusual stresses upon your lives and your relationship.
“No, my lord. Kelsier the man died in those Pits, and Kelsier the Survivor was born. He was granted great power, and great wisdom, by a force that is above us all. That is why he accomplished what he did. That is why we worship him. He still had the follies of a man, but he had the hopes of a divinity.”
“There has to be a balance, Vin,” he said. “Somehow, we’ll find it. The balance between who we wish to be and who we need to be.” He sighed. “But for now,” he said, nodding to the side, “we simply have to be satisfied with who we are.”
“I’m a storyteller,” Slowswift corrected. “And not every story is meant for every set of ears.
“A man is what he has passion about,” Breeze said. “I’ve found that if you give up what you want most for what you think you should want more, you’ll just end up miserable.”
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. . . .
Better to trust and be betrayed, Kelsier seemed to whisper.
Better to love and be hurt.
“Try? You realize the forces I can bring to bear against you, child? You realize the power I have, the destruction I represent? I am mountains that crush. I am waves that crash. I am storms that shatter. I am the end.”
You taught me too, Survivor,
Thank you.
We create things to watch them grow, Ruin, she said. To take pleasure in seeing that which we love become more than it was before. You said that you were invincible—that all things break apart. All things are Ruined. But there are things that fight against you—and the ironic part is, you can’t even understand those things. Love. Life. Growth. The life of a person is more than the chaos of its passing. Emotion, Ruin. This is your defeat.
For a moment, he was embraced by something greater. He looked up, toward the sun. And he saw—just briefly—an enormous figure in the air just above him. A shifting, brilliant personage of pure white. Her hands held to his shoulders with her head thrown back, white hair streaming, mist flaring behind her like wings that stretched across the sky. Vin, he thought with a smile.
