Wind and Truth (The Stormlight Archive, #5)

by Brandon Sanderson

“Would that any of us,” he said, “could protect ourselves from the costs heroism often requires. But again, if there were no cost, no sacrifice, then would it be heroism at all?

“A virtue is something that is valuable even if it gives you nothing. A virtue persists without payment or compensation. Positive thinking is great. Vital. Useful. But it has to remain so even if it gets you nothing. Belief, truth, honor … if these exist only to get you something, you’ve missed the storming point.”

Time became thick when he danced. Molasses minutes and syrup seconds. Yet the wind wove among them, visiting each moment, lingering, then dashing away. He followed it. Emulated it. Became it.

As I fear not the child with a weapon he cannot lift, I will never fear the mind of a man who does not think.

nobody is normal. Normal doesn’t exist. So if we slavishly try to dress ourselves to imitate it, all we’re really doing is becoming a different kind of abnormal—a miserable kind.”

“The best words are the ones most people don’t understand.” “That is literally the opposite of how language should function.”

“I think of them little, and when I do, I think little of them.

She needed to be careful about how she judged people. It was the artist’s way to paint a picture of someone the moment she saw them—but art was locked to the page, and a person was always so much more than any image could contain.

But there was one thing he had a mind for, and that was names. People talked about being bad with names; he’d heard it a dozen times over. He’d been bad at them once. But in his experience, being bad with names was like being bad with swords. Most people could learn if they tried hard enough.

When you stared down death, it was the people who mattered.

But I will say that for me, the existence of something that cares—and can, after death, make up for injustices in life—is not the question. But the answer.

It is often said that the best teacher is failure. This is true. But it is also the best killer. May you be lucky enough in failure to live, and unlucky enough in success to struggle.

“The future always begins with the now.”

No one is normal. Normal doesn’t exist.

If we want to end the war for real, we have to change hearts, not maps.”

This was the future he wanted. It wasn’t the one that others might have chosen, and wasn’t one that many would have chosen for him. He wasn’t even certain it was right, but it was what he wanted. He would merely have to hope that those who cared for him would understand that the decision was his to make, not theirs.