Wind and Truth

“And so, in the face of the most awful darkness he’d ever felt, Kaladin Stormblessed took a deep breath.Then stood up.”

“An oath could be broken, but a promise? A promise stood as long as you were still trying. A promise understood that sometimes your best wasn’t enough. A promise cried with you when all went to Damnation. A promise came to help when you could barely stand. Because a promise knew that sometimes, being there was all you could offer.”

“You think that kid who starved didn’t want to eat? You think her parents didn’t want to escape the ravages of war badly enough? You think if they’d had more Passion, the cosmere would have saved them? How convenient to believe that people are poor because they didn’t care enough about being rich. That they just didn’t pray hard enough. So convenient to make suffering their own fault, rather than life being unfair and birth mattering more than aptitude. Or storming Passion.”

“Welcome, Kaladin Stormblessed. Herald of Kings. Herald of the Wind. Herald of…”“Herald,” Kaladin said, “of Second Chances.”

“A virtue is something that is valuable even if it gives you nothing. A virtue persists without payment or compensation. Positive thinking is great. Vital. Useful. But it has to remain so even if it gets you nothing. Belief, truth, honor … if these exist only to get you something, you’ve missed the storming point.”

“You are normal,” Drehy said. “Or rather, nobody is normal. Normal doesn’t exist. So if we slavishly try to dress ourselves to imitate it, all we’re really doing is becoming a different kind of abnormal—a miserable kind.”

“May you have the courage someday to walk away. And the wisdom to recognize that day when it arrives.”

“The thing is, the deepest truths always sound a little trite. Because we all know them, and feel foolish being reminded.”

“Ideals are dead things,” Kaladin said, “unless they have people behind them. Laws exist not for themselves, but for those they serve.”

“You know what first drew me to you, Kaladin?” Wit asked. “You did one of the most difficult things a man can do: you gave yourself a second chance.”

“nothing is easier to sell someone than the story they want to hear.”

“Perhaps the question isn’t ‘What use is art?’ ” Wit mused. “Perhaps even that simple question misses the point. It’s like asking the use of having hands, or walking upright, or growing hair. Art is part of us, Kaladin. That’s the use; that’s the reason. It exists because on some fundamental level we need it. Art exists to be made.”

“Would that any of us," he said, "could protect ourselves from the costs of heroism. But, again, if there were no costs, no sacrifice, then would it be heroism at all?”

“That should have made him an anxious, stewing pot of nerves. Instead he tipped his head back, sun warm on his skin, and acknowledged that while he didn’t feel great, someday he would feel great again. For today, that was enough.”

“We have lost, finally. Honor is dead.""Yes," a quiet voice said. "Honor is dead."Both Heralds spun to see Kaladin Stormblessed slowly pushing himself up to a seated position, hair disheveled, blue uniform rumpled, dirt on his face. He looked at his right hand, what was left of it, and grimaced. Then he sighed and heaved himself to his feet."But," Stormblessed said, "I'll see what I can do.”

“The dirty secret is that all governments are quietly republics—the voting is simply done with the sword or with coin. Everyone conveniently neglects to tell the lower class that it’s their coin, and their lack of swords.”

“people break, and sometimes the strong ones break harder than the weak ones—because they’re the ones you pile everything on top of.”

“I’m a storyteller,” Wit said, with a flip of his fingers. “I have the right to redefine words.” “That’s stupid.” “That’s literature.” “It’s confusing.” “The more confusing, the better the literature.” “That might be the most pretentious thing I’ve ever heard.” “Aha!” Wit said, pointing. “Now you’re getting it.”

“Every decision we make influences others, and sometimes harms them. That’s not the way of kings. That’s the way of life.”

“Murder?” Pattern said, placing another soldier. He’d built a surprisingly tall pyramid. “Oh, you mean murder! Shallan is good at murder. Yes, mmmmm…” “Pattern,” she said, “please don’t say it that way.” “She is good,” Pattern corrected himself, “at making people who were once alive and threatening, unalive and unthreatening. Mmmm. Very good at it.”

“Life breaks us,” Dalinar said. “Then we fill the cracks with something stronger.”

“I will not lie, and promise you that all future days will be warm. But Ishar, you will be warm again - and that is another thing entirely to promise.”

“...Kaladin glanced over the pages. They had odd symbols on them, which made Kaladin nervous, but Wit insisted it wasn't actual writing. Merely marks on a paper representing sounds. It took Kaladin a few minutes to realize the joke.”

“Wit grew distant, a faint smile on his lips. “Once. It wasn’t a full Ascension, but a mortal did give up the power once. It proved to be the wrong choice, but it was the most selfless thing I believe I’ve ever witnessed. So yes, Dalinar, it is possible. But not easy.”

“I will protect myself, so that I may continue to protect others.”

“Why pay attention if it could all be lies?”“Because truth is just the lie that happened,” Renarin said.”

“Curious, how people’s decisions are an individual matter when they’re confronted about them—but those decisions form blatant patterns.”

“This path leads to both pain and joy,” Glys said.“So much better to feel,” Renarin said, “than to take the path that leads to only greyness and safe solitude.”

“just because something is fleeting, do not imagine it to be unimportant.”

“What did you do when you weren’t enough anymore? When you had been the best all your life, but suddenly you were obsolete?”