Words of Radiance (The Stormlight Archive, #2)

by Brandon Sanderson

wine greased tongues and dimmed minds.

Power is an illusion of perception.’

Kaladin hadn’t asked for someone else’s ideals to rule his life. He’d just wanted to survive.

Slippery as a fifth son, you are!’

Do not let your assumptions about a culture block your ability to perceive the individual, or you will fail.’

Expectation wasn’t just about what people expected of you. It was about what you expected of yourself.

An awareness came to Kaladin, like water seeping under a door.

A woman’s strength should not be in her role, whatever she chooses it to be, but in the power to choose that role. It is amazing to me that I even have to make this point, as I see it as the very foundation of our conversation.

The wisest of men know that to render an insult powerless, you often need only to embrace it.’

‘Expectation. That is the true soul of art. If you can give a man more than he expects, then he will laud you his entire life. If you can create an air of anticipation and feed it properly, you will succeed.