B Machine > B's Quotes

“Sometimes a hypocrite is nothing more than a man in the process of changing.”
― Brandon Sanderson, Oathbringer

“One of the great tragedies of life is knowing how many people in the world are made to soar, paint, sing, or steer—except they never get the chance to find out.”
― Brandon Sanderson, Tress of the Emerald Sea

“He saw it in her eyes. The anguish, the frustration. The terrible nothing that clawed inside and sought to smother her. She knew. It was there, inside. She had been broken.

Then she smiled. Oh, storms. She smiled anyway.

It was the single most beautiful thing he’d seen in his entire life.”
― Brandon Sanderson, Words of Radiance

“Every man had to die. He’d always found it odd that so many died when they were old, as logic said that was the point in their lives when they’d had the most practice not dying.”
― Brandon Sanderson, Shadows of Self

“The hallmark of insecurity is bravado.”
― Brandon Sanderson, The Way of Kings

“Besides, it was beneficial to have a reputation for honesty, if only so that one could lie at crucial moments.”
― Brandon Sanderson, Elantris

“What I’m trying to say is that you don’t understand a man until you understand what makes him do what he does. Every man is a hero in his own story, Princess.”
― Brandon Sanderson, Warbreaker

“Being artificial doesn’t mean it isn’t real—it only means it has a purpose”
― Brandon Sanderson, Yumi and the Nightmare Painter

“The first step in taking control of a nation, Arteth, is the simplest. You find someone to hate.”
― Brandon Sanderson, Elantris

“Whenever I’m thinkin’ my life is miserable, I remember him, and tell myself, ‘Well, Wayne. At least you ain’t a broke, dickless feller what can’t even pick his own nose properly.’ And I feels better.”
― Brandon Sanderson, The Bands of Mourning

“The masses are always quick to find devils around them, as long as you give them proper motivation.”
― Brandon Sanderson, Elantris

“Laggart was not a smart man. True, the things he lectured people on could fill a dictionary—but what he actually knew would barely fill a postcard. That said, he wasn’t an idiot either. He settled somewhere between smart and stupid, perched on the very peak of the bell curve and assuming that it was the right place to be, as highest has to be best.”
― Brandon Sanderson, Tress of the Emerald Sea

“City folk, particularly politicians, were intimidated by small arms. They preferred to kill people with more modern weapons, like poverty and despair.”
― Brandon Sanderson, The Lost Metal

“Assassinating the Lord Ruler?” Wax asked. “Isn’t that a little violent for a children’s book?” “Mate,” Wayne said, “it ain’t violence if it’s religion. Don’t you know anythin’?”
― Brandon Sanderson, The Lost Metal

“Beyond that, memories have a way of changing on us. Souring or sweetening over time—like a brew we drink, then recreate later by taste, only getting the ingredients mostly right. You can’t taste a memory without tainting it with who you have become.”
― Brandon Sanderson, Tress of the Emerald Sea

“I couldn’t remember what it felt like to laugh. I wondered if that meant I had already drowned.”
― Brandon Sanderson, Evershore

“But wine was the great assassin of both tradition and propriety.”
― Brandon Sanderson, The Way of Kings

“Merchants is like mercenaries, my gammer always said. Only difference is that merchants will take your head off, then pretend to be your friend all the same.”
― Brandon Sanderson, The Way of Kings

“They were the lowest in the army, and yet they bore the weight of kings.”
― Brandon Sanderson, The Way of Kings

“A man’s emotions are what define him, and control is the hallmark of true strength. To lack feeling is to be dead, but to act on every feeling is to be a child.”
― Brandon Sanderson, The Way of Kings

“Some problems didn't seem to have any good answers. Just a lot of wrong ones.”
― Brandon Sanderson, The Way of Kings (3 of 5) [Dramatized Adaptation]

“You were supposed to burn prayers to send them to the Almighty, who waited for his Heralds to recapture the Tranquiline Halls. That had never made sense to Kaladin. The Almighty was supposed to be able to see all and know all. So why did he need a prayer burned before he would do anything?”
― Brandon Sanderson, The Way of Kings (3 of 5) [Dramatized Adaptation]

“It’s idiocy to try to prove a negative. Let the Vorin believe as they wish—the wise among them will find goodness and solace in their faith; the fools would be fools no matter what they believed.”
― Brandon Sanderson, The Way of Kings

“How easy it was to ignore a blackened heart if you dressed it in a pressed uniform and a reputation for honesty.”
― Brandon Sanderson, The Way of Kings

“The purpose of a storyteller is not to tell you how to think, but to give you questions to think upon.”
― Brandon Sanderson, The Way of Kings

“There is honor in loss . . . if that loss brings learning.”
― Brandon Sanderson, The Way of Kings (4 of 5) [Dramatized Adaptation]

“Death is the end of all men!” Dalinar bellowed. “What is the measure of him once he is gone? The wealth he accumulated and left for his heirs to squabble over? The glory he obtained, only to be passed on to those who slew him? The lofty positions he held through happenstance? “No. We fight here because we understand. The end is the same. It is the path that separates men. When we taste that end, we will do so with our heads held high, eyes to the sun.”
― Brandon Sanderson, The Way of Kings

“I'm an expert on one-armed Herdazian jokes. 'Lopen,' my mother always says, 'you must learn these to laugh before others do. Then you steal the laughter from them, and have it all for yourself.”
― Brandon Sanderson, Words of Radiance

“There will be people like this in any culture, for every society is made of individuals. You must learn this. Do not let your assumptions about a culture block your ability to perceive the individual, or you will fail.”
― Brandon Sanderson, Words of Radiance

“An old joke notes that lost items tend to be in the last place one looks. Conversely, omens tend to appear in the first place people look for them.”
― Brandon Sanderson, Yumi and the Nightmare Painter