Emerson > Emerson's Quotes

“Every decision you make can change the world. The best life is the one the gods don't notice. You want to live free, boy, live quietly."
"I want to be a soldier. A hero."
"You'll grow out of it.”
― Steven Erikson, Gardens of the Moon

“Words are like coin—it pays to hoard."
"Until you die on a bed of gold," Paran said.”
― Steven Erikson, Gardens of the Moon

“Shake your fist all you want but dead is dead.”
― Steven Erikson, Gardens of the Moon

“What are gods, after all, if not the perfect victims?”
― Steven Erikson, Gardens of the Moon

“What did you put in the fire?" Kaladin said. "To make that special smoke?"
"Nothing. It was just and ordinary fire."
"But, I saw-"
"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

“A leader leads,” Ragnar said, “and you can’t ask men to risk death if you’re not willing to risk it yourself.”
― Bernard Cornwell, The Last Kingdom

“It was amazing how many books one could fit into a room, assuming one didn't want to move around very much.”
― Brandon Sanderson, The Well of Ascension

“It is a time of change,'' Sazed said. ''Perhaps it is also time to learn of other truths, other ways.”
― 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

“I wonder how many people I've looked at all my life and never seen.”
― John Steinbeck, The Winter of Our Discontent

“Tell me how Gisela can be married to a man she's never met?'

Aidan glanced across at Guthred as if expecting help from the king, but Guthred was still motionless, so Aidan had to confront me alone. 'I stood beside her in Lord Ælfric's place,' he said, 'so in the eyes of the church she is married.'

'Did you hump her as well?' I demanded, and the priests and monks hissed their disapproval.

'Of course not.' Aidan said, offended.

'If no one's ridden her,' I said, 'then she's not married. A mare isn't broken until she's saddled and ridden. Have you been ridden?' I asked Gisela.

'Not yet.' she said.

'She is married.' Aidan insisted.

'You stood at the altar in my uncle's place,' I said, 'and you call that a marriage?'

'It is.' Beocca said quietly.

'So if I kill you,' I suggested to Aidan, ignoring Beocca, 'she'll be a widow?”
― Bernard Cornwell, Lords of the North

“I put my hands over Saint Cuthbert's fingers and I could feel the big ruby ring under my own fingers, and I gave the jewel a twitch just to see whether the stone was loose and would come free, but it seemed well fixed in its setting. "I swear to be your man," I said to the corpse, "and to serve you faithfully." I tried to shift the ring again, but the dead fingers were stiff and the ruby did not move.”
― Bernard Cornwell, Lords of the North

“When we are children we seldom think of the future. This innocence leaves us free to enjoy ourselves as few adults can. The day we fret about the future is the day we leave our childhood behind.”
― Patrick Rothfuss, The Name of the Wind

“You have to be a bit of a liar to tell a story the right way.”
― Patrick Rothfuss, The Name of the Wind

“Words are pale shadows of forgotten names. As names have power, words have power. Words can light fires in the minds of men. Words can wring tears from the hardest hearts. There are seven words that will make a person love you. There are ten words that will break a strong man's will. But a word is nothing but a painting of a fire. A name is the fire itself.”
― Patrick Rothfuss, The Name of the Wind

“Call a jack a jack. Call a spade a spade. But always call a whore a lady.”
― Patrick Rothfuss, The Name of the Wind

“A poet is a musician who can't sing.”
― Patrick Rothfuss, The Name of the Wind

“But fate, as Merlin always taught us, is inexorable. Life is a jest of the Gods, Merlin liked to claim, and there is no justice. You must learn to laugh, he once told me, or else you'll just weep yourself to death.”
― Bernard Cornwell, The Winter King

“Fate is inexorable.”
― Bernard Cornwell, The Winter King

“Os bardos cantam sobre o amor e sobre como as mulheres desejam o amor, mas ninguém sabe o que ele é até que, como uma lança atirada do escuro, ele acerta.”
― Bernard Cornwell, The Winter King

“All those separate people were a part of my life, strings strung on the frame of Uhtred, and though they were separate they affected one another and together they would make the music of my life.”
― Bernard Cornwell, The Last Kingdom

“Why do we fight?" he asked.

"Because we were born.”
― Bernard Cornwell, The Burning Land

“There are seasons of our lives when nothing seems to be happening, when no smoke betrays a burned town or homestead and few tears are shed for the newly dead. I have learned not to trust those times, because if the world is at peace then it means someone is planning war.”
― Bernard Cornwell, Death of Kings

“Tell me, tutor,' I said. 'Is revenge a science, or an art?”
― Mark Lawrence, Prince of Thorns

“The Immortals were about to engage the Impregnable. The unbeaten would fight the unbeatable.”
― Bernard Cornwell, Waterloo: The History of Four Days, Three Armies, and Three Battles

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

“Se eram covardes o suficiente para renegar sua religião e povo, não mereciam viver.”
― J.M. Beraldo, Império de Diamante

“– Como posso servi-lo, meu Imperador?
– Use o talento que lhe dei, – disse o deus-vivo. – Você tem o poder de salvar o Império, mesmo que, para isso, precise destruí-lo.”
― J.M. Beraldo, Império de Diamante

“It's easy to believe in something when you win all the time...The losses are what define a man's faith.”
― Brandon Sanderson, The Well of Ascension

“At first glance, the key and the lock it fits may seem very different," Sazed said. "Different in shape, different in function, different in design. The man who looks at them without knowledge of their true nature might think them opposites, for one is meant to open, and the other to keep closed. Yet, upon closer examination he might see that without one, the other becomes useless. The wise man then sees that both lock and key were created for the same purpose.”
― Brandon Sanderson, The Well of Ascension