Words of Radiance (The Stormlight Archive, #2)

by Brandon Sanderson

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

she settled down, the fine silk of her dress rumpling. The voluminous way it enveloped her made her feel as if she weren’t really there and only the dress mattered.

“I ain’t grouchy,” Teft snapped. “I just have a low threshold for stupidity.”

She’d had so much more time when she was younger. She couldn’t help thinking she’d wasted much of it.

“All people are musicians,” Wit countered. “The question is whether or not they share their songs.

He listened to them both laughing, and wanted to punch them in the face.

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

I wish to speak with each and every one of you. The words you hold may mock, but if you must laugh, do it while looking me in the eyes.”

‘Honor’ is a word applied to the actions of men from the past who have had their lives scrubbed clean by historians.”

Jasnah had once defined a fool as a person who ignored information because it disagreed with desired results.

“Conversely, if you gain a reputation for being too good, too skilled . . . beware. The better art will be in their heads, and if you give them an ounce less than they imagined, suddenly you have failed. Suddenly you are useless.