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.”

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

The truth destroys more people than it saves,

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.

“‘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.’”

“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. “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.