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A man can only lead when others accept him as their leader, and he has only as much authority as his subjects give to him. All of the brilliant ideas in the world cannot save your kingdom if no one will listen to them.”
he found insanity no excuse for irrational behavior. Some men were blind, others had poor tempers. Still others heard voices. It was all the same in the end. A man was defined not by his flaws, but by how he overcame them.
We have seen a curious phenomenon associated with rebel groups that break off from the Final Empire and attempt to seek autonomy. In almost all cases, the Lord Ruler didn’t need to send his armies to reconquer the rebels. By the time his agents arrived, the groups had overthrown themselves. 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.
“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 knows 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.
Vin was not fury. She was not terror. She had grown beyond those things. She had watched Elend die—had held him in her arms as he did—and had known that she had let it happen. Intentionally.
“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.”
How did men believe in something that preached love on one hand, yet taught destruction of unbelievers on the other? How did one rationalize belief with the lack of proof? How could they honestly expect him to have faith in something that taught of miracles and wonders in the far past, but carefully gave excuses for why such things didn’t occur in the present day?
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?
My point here is that people with unstable personalities were more susceptible to Ruin’s influence, even if they didn’t have a spike in them. That is likely how Zane got his spike.
“They were equally powerful, young one. They were forces, not men. Two aspects of a single power. Is one side of a coin more powerful than the other? They pushed equally upon the world around them.”
For Ruin, there is Preservation. From time immemorial! For eternity! And each time I push, YOU push back. Even when dead, you stopped me, for we are forces. I can do nothing! And you can do nothing! Balance! The curse of our existence.
All societies have people who break the rules, child, Sazed thought. Particularly when power is concerned.
