Rhythm of War (The Stormlight Archive, #4)

by Brandon Sanderson

“We should be careful.” Fragments of old manuscripts—translations of translations of translations—mentioned quick-spreading diseases that had killed tens of thousands. Such things hadn’t been recorded in any modern texts he’d been read, but he had heard rumors of something strange to the west—a new plague, they were calling it. Details were sparse.

“Heroism is a myth you tell idealistic young people—specifically when you want them to go bleed for you. It got one of my sons killed and another taken from me. You can keep your heroism and return to me the lives of those wasted on foolish conflicts.”

Also, I’m banning toes.” “Toes?” “People keep tripping!” she continued. “I can’t have you all hurting yourselves. So, no toes from now on. Next week we’ll try not having feet.

No army, no matter how clean its reputation, walked away from war untainted. And no leader, no matter how noble, could help but sink into the crem when he stepped into the game of conquest.

Was he happy? He wasn’t sad. For now, he’d accept “not sad.”

“No one ever accomplished anything by being content with who they were, Shallan,” Adolin said.

“We accomplish great things by reaching toward who we could become.”

“We need both heart and mind,” Lirin said. “The heart might provide the purpose, but the head provides the method, the path. Passion is nothing without a plan. Wanting something doesn’t make it happen.

“I guess we both need to remember that whatever’s happening in our heads, whatever it was that created us, we get to choose. That’s what makes us people, Syl.”

“It will,” Wit said, “but then it will get better. Then it will get worse again. Then better. This is life, and I will not lie by saying every day will be sunshine. But there will be sunshine again, and that is a very different thing to say. That is truth. I promise you, Kaladin: You will be warm again.”

how often has ‘hope’ been the reason someone refuses to move on and accept a realistic attitude? How often has ‘hope’ caused more pain or delayed healing? How often has ‘hope’ prevented someone from standing up and doing what needs to be done, because they cling to a wish for everything to be different?”