Smiley C

“If bravery is the wind that makes us soar like kites, fear is the string that keeps us from going too far.”
― Brandon Sanderson, Tress of the Emerald Sea

“We want to imagine that people are consistent, steady, stable. We define who they are, create descriptions to lock them on a page, divide them up by their likes, talents, beliefs. Then we pretend some—perhaps most—are better than we are, because they stick to their definitions, while we never quite fit ours. Truth is, people are as fluid as time is. We adapt to our situation like water in a strangely shaped jug, though 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 that we’ve been told to inhabit.”
― Brandon Sanderson, Tress of the Emerald Sea

“At last, he was being decisive once again. Playing for the highest stakes, shrugging off the inertia of the last few years. He felt almost as he had done as a child, thrilling in the audacity of his actions. That was how it had often been before politics and the stultifying role of John Mandrake had closed in on him. And he no longer wished to play that part.”
― Jonathan Stroud, Ptolemy's Gate

“Men often described the girl as having hair the color of wheat. Others called it the color of caramel, or occasionally the color of honey. The girl wondered why men so often used food to describe women’s features. There was a hunger to such men that was best avoided.”
― Brandon Sanderson, Tress of the Emerald Sea