Rhythm of War (The Stormlight Archive, #4)

by Brandon Sanderson

There it was. The seething knot deep inside him, the one Adolin didn’t dare touch lest it burn him. He knew Dalinar had been a different man then. A man not in his right mind, betrayed, consumed by the power of one of the Unmade. Besides, Dalinar hadn’t killed Adolin’s mother on purpose. One could know these things without feeling them.

“You either believe as Taravangian does,” Dalinar said, “or you accept the better path: that your actions define you more than your intentions.

“I know how you feel. Dark, like there’s never been light in the world. Like everything in you is a void, and you wish you could just feel something. Anything. Pain would at least tell you you’re alive. Instead you feel nothing. And you wonder, how can a man breathe, but already be dead?”