The Fires of Heaven (The Wheel of Time, #5)

by Robert Jordan

she had always liked flowers. They could be so easily pruned and trained to produce beauty.

‘The more women there are about, the softer a wise man steps.’

Women seemed to make up their minds whether you were lying without looking at the evidence. On the other hand, if they liked you, they either did not care or else decided even the most outrageous lie was true.

Letting emotions go clouds judgment for a moment, but holding them in clouds it always.

The Wise Ones claimed that only men needed visible signs; for a woman, to be alive was enough.

“Do we fight? If we do, then know that in battle there is only winning and losing. Rules against hurting are for games.

“I mean to deal with the world as I find the world, for as long as I can.

Sometimes she thought the Creator had only made men to cause trouble for women.

“Men always believe they are in control of everything around them,” Aviendha replied. “When they find out they are not, they think they have failed, instead of learning a simple truth women already know.”

When a woman says she will obey you, of her own will, it is time to sleep lightly and watch your back.”

Battle was surely more bloody, but it was more honest, too.

He had broken people himself, and he knew the signs. Eagerness to avoid more punishment became eagerness to obey.

if a woman wanted to do something for you, the only way to stop her was to tie her up, especially if it involved sacrifice on her part.

I will not allow you to make me less, to make my decisions less, by claiming responsibility for them.

“A man is an oak, a woman a willow,” the saying ran. The oak fought the wind and was broken, while the willow bent when it must and survived. That did not mean she had to like bending.

A grown woman dealt with the world as it was and made the best of it.

“Stopping a man from what he wants to do is like taking a sweet from a child. Sometimes you have to do it, but sometimes it just isn’t worth the trouble.”