Brandon Sanderson

Someone has to care

Taravangian did not believe in any religion, for they were unwieldy things, designed to fill gaps in human understanding with nonsensical explanations, allowing people to sleep well at night, granting them a false sense of comfort and control and preventing them from stretching further for true understanding.

In my painful experience, the truth may be simple, but it is rarely easy.

All life worked in concert, he’d been taught in his youth. Everything but men, who refused their place. Who destroyed instead of added.

Shallan smiled at the wonderful surroundings, the light rainfall, the beautiful plant life. A little dampness was a small price to pay for the melodious sound of sprinkling rain, for fresh clean air and a beautiful sky full of clouds that varied in every shade of grey.

Jasnah hadn’t cared what people thought of her, yet had always kept her appearance immaculate. Not that Jasnah had acted alluringly—never for a moment. In fact, she’d disparaged such behavior in no uncertain terms. Using a fetching face to make men do as you wish is no different from a man using muscle to force a woman to his will, she’d said. Both are base, and both will fail a person as they age.
No, Jasnah had not approved of seduction as a tool. However, people responded differently to those who looked in control of themselves.

It wasn’t a lie. It was a different truth.

The most important step a man can take. It’s not the first one, is it?
It’s the next one.

New recruits might get bored by guard duty, but you’ll never find a veteran complaining about a nice quiet afternoon of not being stabbed.

Every man is a hero in his own story, Princess.

Eventually I found the best source of information to be the soldiers with guard the city walls.

Order was the very substance of rule. If things were organized, control could be asserted.

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

Hence the purpose of education. To be young is about action. To be a scholar is about informed action.

My circumstances are unusual, Brightness.