Gavin > Gavin's Quotes

“Using words to talk of words is like using a pencil to draw a picture of itself, on itself. Impossible. Confusing. Frustrating.”
― Patrick Rothfuss, The Name of the Wind

“Your mind will believe comforting lies while also knowing the painful truths that make those lies necessary. And your mind will punish you for believing both.”
― Patrick Ness, A Monster Calls

“The answer is that it does not matter what you think, the monster said, because your mind will contradict itself a hundred times each day. You wanted her to go at the same time you were desperate for me to save her. Your mind will believe comforting lies while also knowing the painful truths that make those lies necessary. And your mind will punish you for believing both.”
― Patrick Ness, A Monster Calls

“I am not a machine. For what can a machine know of the smell of wet grass in the morning, or the sound of a crying baby? I am the feeling of the warm sun against my skin; I am the sensation of a cool wave breaking over me. I am the places I have never seen, yet imagine when my eyes are closed. I am the taste of another's breath, the color of her hair.
You mock me for the shortness of my life span, but it is this very fear of dying which breathes life into me. I am the thinker who thinks of thought. I am curiosity, I am reason, I am love, and I am hatred. I am indifference. I am the son of a father, who in turn was a father’s son. I am the reason my mother laughed and the reason my mother cried. I am wonder and I am wondrous. Yes, the world may push your buttons as it passes through your circuitry. But the world does not pass through me. It lingers. I am in it and it is in me. I am the means by which the universe has come to know itself. I am the thing no machine can ever make. I am meaning.”
― Bernard Beckett, Genesis

“I do not consider myself a great artist, though she made me wish I was. I could not have known at this first meeting how many times I would fail to capture her, in charcoal and in life. The brazen declaration of her; the pride in that upturned chin, the pointed nose, and the tidy carelessness that put her above the opinions of lesser men. There's little sign of her wit-so close to cruelty-in any of the drawings I made of her, and this poor prose cannot contain her beauty, body or soul. They are only echoes, as is this.”
― Christopher Ruocchio, Empire of Silence

“The marvelous brain, that devious little fight-or-flight, fuck- or-feed device, which you like to think is the measure of the hominid. You're so proud of that, aren't you?”
― Bernard Beckett, Genesis

“You're still too short to be a fridge and too ugly to be a monkey.”
― Bernard Beckett, Genesis

“It is in conflict that our values are exposed.”
― Bernard Beckett, Genesis

“I should have been bolder and kissed her at the end. I should have been more cautious. I had talked too much. I had said too little.”
― Patrick Rothfuss, The Name of the Wind

“Perhaps the greatest faculty our minds possess is the ability to cope with pain. Classic thinking teaches us of the four doors of the mind, which everyone moves through according to their need.

First is the door of sleep. Sleep offers us a retreat from the world and all its pain. Sleep marks passing time, giving us distance from the things that have hurt us. When a person is wounded they will often fall unconscious. Similarly, someone who hears traumatic news will often swoon or faint. This is the mind's way of protecting itself from pain by stepping through the first door.

Second is the door of forgetting. Some wounds are too deep to heal, or too deep to heal quickly. In addition, many memories are simply painful, and there is no healing to be done. The saying 'time heals all wounds' is false. Time heals most wounds. The rest are hidden behind this door.

Third is the door of madness. There are times when the mind is dealt such a blow it hides itself in insanity. While this may not seem beneficial, it is. There are times when reality is nothing but pain, and to escape that pain the mind must leave reality behind.

Last is the door of death. The final resort. Nothing can hurt us after we are dead, or so we have been told.”
― Patrick Rothfuss, The Name of the Wind

“I've always been very confident in my immaturity.”
― Brandon Sanderson, Mistborn: The Final Empire

“Wounds heal. Love lasts. We remain.”
― Kristin Hannah, The Nightingale

“Perhaps that’s why I find myself looking backward. The past has a clarity I can no longer see in the present.”
― Kristin Hannah, The Nightingale

“It is easy to disappear when no one is looking at you.”
― Kristin Hannah, The Nightingale

“And so, does the destination matter? Or is it the path we take? I declare that no accomplishment has substance nearly as great as the road used to achieve it. We are not creatures of destinations. It is the journey that shapes us. Our callused feet, our backs strong from carrying the weight of our travels, our eyes open with the fresh delight of experiences lived.”
― Brandon Sanderson, The Way of Kings

“Brightness...I believe you stray into sarcasm."

"Funny.I thought I'd run straight into it,screaming at the top of my lungs.”
― Brandon Sanderson, The Way of Kings

“Somehow, we'll find it. The balance between whom we wish to be and whom we need to be. But for now, we simply have to be satisfied with who we are.”
― Brandon Sanderson, The Hero of Ages

“If you give up what you want most for what you think you should want more, you'll end up miserable.”
― Brandon Sanderson, The Hero of Ages

“Lately, I feel like my life is a book written in a language I don't know how to read.”
― Brandon Sanderson, The Hero of Ages

“Elend: I kind of lost track of time…
Breeze: For two hours?
Elend: There were books involved.”
― Brandon Sanderson, The Well of Ascension

“...A man can only stumble for so long before he either falls or stands up straight.”
― Brandon Sanderson, The Well of Ascension

“A man was defined not by his flaws, but by how he overcame them.”
― Brandon Sanderson, The Well of Ascension

“A DEFINITION NOT FOUND
IN THE DICTIONARY
Not leaving: an act of trust and love,
often deciphered by children”
― Markus Zusak, The Book Thief

“Honor is dead. But I'll see what I can do.”
― Brandon Sanderson, Words of Radiance

“My other hand?' Lopen said. 'The one that was cut off long ago, eaten by a fearsome beast? It is making a rude gesture toward you right now. I thought you would want to know, so you can prepare to be insulted.”
― Brandon Sanderson, Words of Radiance

“Do not let your assumptions about a culture block your ability to perceive the individual, or you will fail.”
― Brandon Sanderson, Words of Radiance

“As I fear not a child with a weapon he cannot lift, I will never fear the mind of a man who does not think.”
― Brandon Sanderson, Words of Radiance

“Two blind men waited at the end of an era, contemplating beauty.”
― Brandon Sanderson, Words of Radiance

“Expectation wasn't just about what people expected of you. It was about what you expected of yourself.”
― Brandon Sanderson, Words of Radiance

“I am a stick.”
― Brandon Sanderson