Hoid Quotes

“Why hasn't anyone killed him yet?”
“Dumb luck,” Wit said. “In that I’m lucky you’re all so dumb.”
― Brandon Sanderson, Words of Radiance

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

“All stories told have been told before. We tell them to ourselves, as did all men who ever were. And all men who ever will be. The only things new are the names.”
― Brandon Sanderson, Words of Radiance

“What do you know?”
“Almost everything. That almost part can be a real kick in the teeth sometimes.”
“What do you want, then?”
“What I can’t have.” Wit turned to him, eyes solemn. “Same as everyone else, Kaladin Stormblessed.”
― Brandon Sanderson, Words of Radiance

“I like visiting people in prison. I can say whatever I want to them, and they can’t do anything about it.”
― Brandon Sanderson, Words of Radiance

“Expectation. That is the true soul of art. If you can give a man more than he expects, then he will laud you his entire life. If you can create an air of anticipation and feed it properly, you will succeed.”
― Brandon Sanderson, Words of Radiance

“Can you feel it? Something just changed. I believe that’s the sound the world makes when it pisses itself.”
― Brandon Sanderson, The Way of Kings

“Some men, as they age, grow kinder. I am not one of those, for I have seen how the cosmere can mistreat the innocent - and that leaves me disinclined toward kindness. Some men, as they age, grow wiser. I am not one of those, for wisdom and I have always been at cross-purposes, and I have yet to learn the tongue in which she speaks. Some men, as they age, grow more cynical. I, fortunately, am not one of those. If I were, the very air would warp around me, sucking in all emotion, leaving only scorn.
Other men...other men, as they age, merely grow stranger. I fear that I am one of those. I am the bones of a foreign species left drying on the plain that was once, long ago, a sea. A curiosity, perhaps a reminder, that all has not always been as it is now.”
― Brandon Sanderson, Oathbringer

“For glory lit, and life alive, for goals unreached and aims to strive. All men must try, the wind did see. It is the test, it is the dream.”
― Brandon Sanderson, Words of Radiance

“What you did tonight was clever,” Wit said. “You turned an attack into a promise. The wisest of men know that to render an insult powerless, you often need only to embrace it.”
― Brandon Sanderson, Words of Radiance

“What is it we value? Innovation. Originality. Novelty. But most importantly...timeliness. I fear you may be too late, my confused, unfortunate, friend.”
― Brandon Sanderson, The Way of Kings

“I’ll admit, Jasnah, that I empathize with your skepticism, but I don’t agree with it. I just think you've been looking for God in the wrong places.”

“I suppose that you’re going to tell me where you think I should look.”

“You’ll find God in the same place you’re going to find salvation from this mess,” Wit said. “Inside the hearts of men.”

“Curiously,” Jasnah said, “I believe I can actually agree with that, though I suspect for different reasons than you imply.”
― Brandon Sanderson, Words of Radiance

“Yes, yes. Aim for the sun. That way if you miss, at least your arrow will fall far away, and the person it kills will likely be someone you don't know.”
― Brandon Sanderson

“I like to live every day like it's my last."
Shallan nodded.
"And by that I mean lying in a puddle of my own urine, calling for the nurse to bring me more pudding.”
― Brandon Sanderson, Oathbringer

“...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.”
― Brandon Sanderson, Wind and Truth

“Well, this isn't the part of the story where you ask questions. So kindly keep them to yourself.”
― Brandon Sanderson, Tress of the Emerald Sea

“My true advantage has never been my uncommon intellect. It’s been my ability to find the right people and stick close to them.”
― Brandon Sanderson, Tress of the Emerald Sea

“Truth is, people are just as fluid as time is. We adapt to our situation like water in a strangely shaped jug, thought it might take us a little while to ooze into all the little nooks. Because we adapt, we sometimes don't recognize how twisted, uncomfortable, or downright wrong the container is we've been told to inhabit. We can keep going the way for a while. We can pretend to fit that jug, nooks and all. But the longer we do, the worse it gets. The more it weighs on us. The more exhausted we become. Even if we're doing nothing at all, because simply holding the shape can take all the effort in the world. More, if we want to make it look natural.”
― Brandon Sanderson, Tress of the Emerald Sea

“Kaldıramayacağı bir silahı olan çocuktan korkmadığım gibi, düşünmeyen bir adamın aklından da asla korkmayacağım.”
― Brandon Sanderson, Words of Radiance

“Derethil and his men set sail, and though the winds were still, they rode the Wandersail around the whirlpool, using the momentum to spin them out and away from the islands. Long after they left, they could see the smoke rising from the ostensibly peaceful lands. They gathered on the deck, watching, and Derethil asked Nafti the reason for the terrible riots.”
Hoid fell silent, letting his words rise with the strange smoke, lost to the night.
“Well?” Kaladin demanded. “What was her response?”
“Holding a blanket around herself, staring with haunted eyes at her lands, she replied, ‘Do you not see, Traveling One? If the emperor is dead, and has been all these years, then the murders we committed are not his responsibility. They are our own.”
― Brandon Sanderson, The Way of Kings

“Oh, my lord, I know it, I do.” The beggar laughed. “I own the place, technically. Now, regarding those coins for old Hoid, my good lord…” He pushed his hand forward farther, eyes staring sightlessly.”
― Brandon Sanderson, The Bands of Mourning

“Hey, Hoid. Can I catch a ride up there with you?”
"The new coachman shrugged, making room for Wayne on top of the carriage.”
― Brandon Sanderson, Shadows of Self

“Hey, Hoid. Can I catch a ride up there with you?”
The new coachman shrugged, making room for Wayne on top of the carriage.”
― Brandon Sanderson, Shadows of Self

“Derethil and his men set sail, and though the winds were still, they rode the Wandersail around the whirlpool, using the momentum to spin them out and away from the islands. Long after they left, they could see the smoke rising from the ostensibly peaceful lands. They gathered on the deck, watching, and Derethil asked Nafti the reason for the terrible riots.”
Hoid fell silent, letting his words rise with the strange smoke, lost to the night.
“Well?” Kaladin demanded. “What was her response?”
“Holding a blanket around herself, staring with haunted eyes at her lands, she replied, 'Do you not see, Traveling One? If the emperor is dead, and has been all these years, then the murders we committed are not his responsibility. They are our own.”
― Brandon Sanderson, The Way of Kings (4 of 5) [Dramatized Adaptation]

“He'd dusted off his old beggar's costume - well, it was supposed to be dirty, so he'd more dusted onto it - for an appearance here and there. However, he wanted to be gainfully occupied. And stay close to some important, relevant people who tended to look poorly on someone who could fill a garden with good topsoil merely by shivering”
― Brandon Sanderson, Wind and Truth

“Painful or passionate, surreal or sublime, we cherish those little rocks with the ever-smoothing touch of a recycled proxy living. In doing so, we make of our memories the gods in which we judge our current lives.”
― Brandon Sanderson, Tress of the Emerald Sea

“Yes, intellectuals and scholars are paid to think deep thoughts - but these thoughts are often owned by others. It is a great irony that society tend to look down on those who sell their bodies, but not on those who lease out their minds.”
― Brandon Sanderson, Tress of the Emerald Sea

“I love memories. They are our ballads, our personal foundation myths. But I must acknowledge that memory can be cruel if left unchallenged. Memory is often our only connection to who we used to be. Memories are fossils, the bones left by dead versions of ourselves. More potently, our minds are a hungry audience, craving only the peaks and valleys of experience. The bland erodes, leaving behind the distinctive bits to be remembered again and again. Painful or passionate, surreal or sublime, we cherish those little rocks of peak experience, polishing them with the ever-smoothing touch of recycled proxy living. In so doing-like pagans praying to a sculpted mud figure—we make of our memories the gods which judge our current lives. I love this. Memory may not be the heart of what makes us human, but it's at least a vital organ. Nevertheless, we must take care not to let the bliss of the present fade when compared to supposedly better days. We're happy, sure, but were we more happy then? If we let it, memory can make shadows of the now, as nothing can match the buttressed legends of our past. I think about this a great deal, for it is my job to sell legends. Package them, commodify them. For a small price, I'll let you share my memories— which I solemnly promise are real, or will be as long as you agree not to cut them too deeply.
Do not let memory chase you. Take the advice of one who has dissected the beast, then rebuilt it with a more fearsome face— which I then used to charm a few extra coins out of an inebriated audience. Enjoy memories, yes, but don't be a slave to who you wish you once had been. Those memories aren't alive. You are.”
― Brandon Sanderson, Tress of the Emerald Sea