The Way of Kings Quotes

“None of it mattered. He would just keep living. They'd taken his freedom, his family, his friends, and— most dear of all— his dreams. They could do nothing more to him.”
― Brandon Sanderson, The Way of Kings

“Books can store information better than we can—what we do that books cannot is interpret. So if one is not going to draw conclusions, then one might as well just leave the information in the texts.”
― Brandon Sanderson, The Way of Kings

“Better to exist in agony than to vanish entirely.”
― Brandon Sanderson, The Way of Kings

“Kaladin spun through the last motions of the kata, chasm forgotten, bridgemen forgotten, fatigue forgotten. For a moment, it was just him. Him and the wind. He fought with her, and she laughed.
He snapped the spear back into place, holding the haft at the one-quarter position, spearhead down, bottom of the haft tucked underneath his arm, end rising back behind his head. He breathed in deeply, shivering.
Oh, how I’ve missed that.
He opened his eyes. Sputtering torchlight revealed a group of stunned bridgemen standing in a damp corridor of stone, the walls wet and reflecting the light. Moash dropped a handful of spheres in stunned silence, staring at Kaladin with mouth agape. Those spheres plopped into the puddle at his feet, causing it to glow, but none of the bridgemen noticed. They just stared at Kaladin, who was still in a battle stance, half crouched, trails of sweat running down the sides of his face.
He blinked, realizing what he’d done. If word got back to Gaz that he was playing around with spears…Kaladin stood up straight and dropped the spear into the pile of weapons. “Sorry,” he whispered to it, though he didn’t know why. Then, louder, he said, “Back to work! I don’t want to be caught down here when night falls.”
― Brandon Sanderson, The Way of Kings

“Can a woman not walk with her possessions down the street of a city?”
― Brandon Sanderson, The Way of Kings

“Life before death. Strength before weakness. Journey before destination. Speak again the ancient oaths and return to men the Shards they once bore.”
― Brandon Sanderson, The Way of Kings

“He was protecting. He was saving. Yet he was killing. How could something so terrible be so beautiful at the same time?”
― 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

“I don’t know. ‘Errorgant,’ perhaps.” Jasnah raised a skeptical eyebrow. “It means to be twice as certain as someone who is merely arrogant,” Shallan said, “while possessing only one-tenth the requisite facts.”
― Brandon Sanderson, The Way of Kings

“It is not the destination that matters, but how one arrives there.”
― Brandon Sanderson, The Way of Kings

“Here, in Alethkar, men often spoke of the legends -- of mankind's hard-won victory over the Voidbringers. But when weapons created to fight nightmares were turned against common soldiers, the lives of men became cheap things indeed.”
― Brandon Sanderson, The Way of Kings

“Act with honor, and honor will aid you.”
― Brandon Sanderson, The Way of Kings

“He clutched to these names, repeating each one in his head, holding them like precious gemstones. The names mattered. The men mattered. Perhaps Kaladin would die in the next bridge run, or perhaps he would break under the strain, and give Amaram one final victory. But as he settled down on the ground to plan, he felt that tiny warmth burning steadily within him. It was the warmth of decisions made and purpose seized. It was responsibility.”
― Brandon Sanderson, The Way of Kings

“Somebody has to start. Somebody has to step forward and do what is right, _because_ it is right. If nobody starts, then others cannot follow.”
― Brandon Sanderson, The Way of Kings

“What you saw belongs to you. A story doesn’t live until it is imagined in someone’s mind.” “What does the story mean, then?” “It means what you want it to mean,” Hoid said. “The purpose of a storyteller is not to tell you how to think, but to give you questions to think upon. Too often, we forget that.”
― Brandon Sanderson, The Way of Kings

“Leadership is rarely about what we want, son. I think too few among the Alethi elite realize that fact.”
― Brandon Sanderson, The Way of Kings

“Youthful immaturity is one of the cosmere's great catalysts for change.”
― Brandon Sanderson, The Way of Kings

“The world just changed, Gaz,” Kaladin said, leaning in close. “I died down at that chasm. Now you’ve got my vengeful spirit to deal with.”
― Brandon Sanderson, The Way of Kings

“There had been something more they could do to him. One final torment the world had reserved just for Kaladin.
And it was called Bridge Four.”
― Brandon Sanderson, The Way of Kings

“Dalinar turned to him. Then, the highprince laid a hand on Kaladin’s shoulder, the gauntlet gleaming blue, mismatched with the rest of his slate-grey armor. “I don’t know what has been done to you. I can only guess what your life has been like. But know this. You will not be bridgemen in my camp, nor will you be slaves.”
“But…”
“What is a man’s life worth?” Dalinar asked softly.
“The slavemasters say one is worth about two emerald broams,” Kaladin said, frowning.
“And what do you say?”
“A life is priceless,” he said immediately, quoting his father.
Dalinar smiled, wrinkle lines extending from the corners of his eyes. “Coincidentally, that is the exact value of a Shardblade. So today, you and your men sacrificed to buy me twenty-six hundred priceless lives. And all I had to repay you with was a single priceless sword.”
― Brandon Sanderson, The Way of Kings

“Honor is dead, but I'll see what I can do.”
― Brandon Sanderson, The Way of Kings

“I probably shouldn't mock our family. House Davar is distinctive and enduring."

Jushu raised his cup. Wikim nodded sharply.

"Of course," she added, "the same could be said for a wart.”
― Brandon Sanderson, The Way of Kings

“But expectations were like fine pottery. The harder you held them, the more likely they were to crack.”
― Brandon Sanderson, The Way of Kings

“You do not agree with my quest. I understand that, so much as it is possible to understand someone with whom I disagree so completely.”
― Brandon Sanderson, The Way of Kings

“I find myself with an abundance of everything but time.”
― Brandon Sanderson, The Way of Kings

“Has no one done my son a service and assassinated you yet?" "No assassins yet," Wit said, amused. "I guess I've already got too much ass sass of my own."..."Oh really, Wit" she said. "I thought that kind of humour was beneath you." "So are you technically," Wit said, smiling, from atop his high-legged stool.”
― Brandon Sanderson, The Way of Kings

“And so, Navani painted a prayer onto the stones themselves, sending her attendants for more ink. She paced off the size of the glyph as she continued its border, making it enormous, spreading her ink onto the tan rocks.
Soldiers gathered around, Sadeas stepping from his canopy, watching her paint, her back to the sun as she crawled on the ground and furiously dipped her brushpen into the ink jars. What was a prayer, if not creation? Making something where nothing existed. Creating a wish out of despair, a plea out of anguish. Bowing one's back before the Almighty, and forming humility from the empty pride of a human life.
Something from nothing. True creation.
Her tears mixed with the the ink. She went through four jars. She crawled, holding her safehand to the ground, brushing the stones and smearing ink on her cheeks when she wiped the tears. When she finally finished, she knelt back before a glyph twenty paces long, emblazoned as if in blood. The wet ink reflected sunlight, and she fired it with a candle; the ink was made to burn whether wet or dry. The flames burned across the length of the prayer, killing it and sending its soul to the Almighty.”
― Brandon Sanderson, The Way of Kings

“Dalinar took a deep breath, then forced himself to open his arms and pull back. “If you had hoped to
soothe my worries for the day, then this didn’t help.”
She folded her arms. He could still feel where her safehand had touched him on the back. A tender
touch, reserved for a family member. “I’m not here to soothe you, Dalinar. Quite the opposite.”
“Please. I do need time to think.”
“I won’t let you put me away. I won’t ignore that this happened. I won’t—”
“Navani,” he gently cut her off, “I will not abandon you. I promise.”
She eyed him, then a wry smile crept onto her face. “Very well. But you began something today.”
“I began it?” he asked, amused, elated, confused, worried, and ashamed at the same time.
“The kiss was yours, Dalinar,” she said idly, pulling open the door and entering his antechamber.
“You seduced me to it.”
“What? Seduced?” She glanced back at him. “Dalinar, I’ve never been more open and honest in my
life.”
“I know,” Dalinar said, smiling. “That was the seductive part.” He closed the door softly, then let out
a sigh. Blood of my fathers, he thought, why can’t these things ever be simple?
And yet, in direct contrast with his thoughts, he felt as if the entire world had somehow become
more right for having gone wrong.”
― Brandon Sanderson, The Way of Kings

“Kaladin was the one who had changed, not they. He felt a strange dislocation, as if he’d allowed himself to forget—if only in part—the last nine months. He reached back across time, studying the man he had been. The man who’d still fought, and fought well. He couldn’t be that man again—he couldn’t erase the scars—but he could learn from that man, as a new squadleader learned from the victorious generals of the past. Kaladin Stormblessed was dead, but Kaladin Bridgeman was of the same blood. A descendant with potential.”
― Brandon Sanderson, The Way of Kings

“My father used to say that there are two kinds of people in the world," Kaladin whispered, voice raspy. "He said there are those who take lives. And there are those who save lives."
Syl frowned, cocking her head. This kind of conversation confused her; she wasn't good with abstractions.
"I used to think he was wrong. I thought there was a third group. People who killed in order to save." He shook his head. "I was a fool. There is a third group, a big one, but it isn't what I thought."
"What group?" she said, sitting down on his knee, brow scrunched up.
"The people who exist to be saved or to be killed. The group in the middle. The ones who can't do anything but die or be protected. The victims. That's all I am.”
― Brandon Sanderson, The Way of Kings