The Name of the Wind (The Kingkiller Chronicle, #1)

by Patrick Rothfuss

“Like a hot knife through butter?” “More like several hot knives through several dozen farmers,”

a sword in its pure form. It was slender and graceful. It was deadly as a sharp stone beneath swift water.

Very well, for simplicity’s sake, let us assume I am the center of creation. In doing this, let us pass over innumerable boring stories: the rise and fall of empires, sagas of heroism, ballads of tragic love. Let us hurry forward to the only tale of any real importance.” His smile broadened. “Mine.”

I have stolen princesses back from sleeping barrow kings. I burned down the town of Trebon. I have spent the night with Felurian and left with both my sanity and my life. I was expelled from the University at a younger age than most people are allowed in. I tread paths by moonlight that others fear to speak of during day. I have talked to Gods, loved women, and written songs that make the minstrels weep. You may have heard of me.

“Call a jack a jack. Call a spade a spade. But always call a whore a lady. Their lives are hard enough, and it never hurts to be polite.”

It gets tiresome being spoken to as if you are a child, even if you happen to be one.

A clever, thoughtless person is one of the most terrifying things there is.

I also felt guilty about the three pens I’d stolen, but only for a second. And since there was no convenient way to give them back, I stole a bottle of ink before I left.

Fear tends to come from ignorance. Once I knew what the problem was, it was just a problem, nothing to fear.

Anyone who thinks boys are innocent and sweet has never been a boy himself, or has forgotten it. And anyone who thinks men aren’t hurtful and cruel at times must not leave his house often.

There are three things all wise men fear: the sea in storm, a night with no moon, and the anger of a gentle man.

To deem us simply enemies is to lose the true flavor of our relationship. It was more like the two of us entered into a business partnership in order to more efficiently pursue our mutual interest of hating each other.

“There are two sure ways to lose a friend, one is to borrow, the other to lend.”

God’s body, who measured things in leagues these days? Depending on where that fellow grew up, a league could be anywhere between two to three and a half miles. My father always claimed that a league wasn’t really a unit of measurement at all, just a way for farmers to attach numbers to their rough guesses.