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1264 pages, Paperback
First published November 14, 2017
鈥淭his book, the third in the Stormlight Archive, is the most intimate, most tightly woven, and most eclectic book I鈥檝e ever written鈥攁ll wrapped up into one鈥� I like this book. I really, really like this book.鈥� 鈥揃randon Sanderson
鈥淭he trick to happiness wasn鈥檛 in freezing every momentary pleasure and clinging to each one, but in ensuring one鈥檚 life would produce many future moments to anticipate.鈥�
鈥淒alinar Kholin was a connoisseur of death. Even since his youth, the sight of dead men had been a familiar thing to him. You stay on the battlefield long enough, and you become familiar with its master.鈥�
鈥淎ccept the pain, but don't accept that you deserved it.鈥�
鈥淟ife before death. Strength before weakness. Journey before destination.鈥�
Art is about emotion, examination, and going places people have never gone before to discover and investigate new things. The only way to create something that nobody hates is to ensure that it can't be loved either. Remove enough spice from soup, and you'll just end up with water.
The past is the future, and as each man has lived, so must you.
The question is not whether you will love, hurt, dream and die. It is what you will love, why you will hurt, when you will dream, and how you will die. This is your choice. You cannot pick the destination, only the path.
Accept the pain, but don't accept that you deserved it.
Ten spears go to battle, and nine shatter. Did that war forge the one that remained? No. All the war did was identify the spear that would not break.
鈥淵ou cannot have my pain鈥�
鈥淭o love the journey is to accept no such end. I have found, through painful experience, that the most important step a person can take is always the next one.鈥�
鈥淭he question,鈥� she replied, 鈥榠s not whether you will love, hurt, dream, and die. It is what you will love, why you will hurt, when you will dream, and how you will die. This is your choice. You cannot pick the destination, only the path.鈥�
鈥淟ife breaks us, Teft. Then we fill the cracks with something stronger.鈥�
鈥淚 will take responsibility for what I have done,鈥� Dalinar whispered. 鈥淚f I must fall, I will rise each time a better man.鈥�
"To love the journey is to accept no such end. I have found, through painful experience, that the most important step a person can take is always the next one."
鈥淚 will take responsibility for what I have done. If I must fall, I will rise each time a better man.
"The most important step a man can take? It's not the first one, is it? It's the next one. Always the next step, Dalinar."
鈥淧erhaps it was time, for once, to stop letting the rain dictate his mood. He couldn鈥檛 banish the seed of darkness inside him, but Stormfather, he didn鈥檛 need to let it rule him either.鈥�
鈥淚 will protect those I hate. Even if the one I hate most is myself.鈥�
"It's terrible to have been hurt. It's unfair, and awful, and horrid. But Shallan... it's okay to live on."
"Accept the pain, but don't accept that you deserved it."
"You don't have to hide, Shallan. You don't have to push it down. Maybe the vase is cracked, but that only means it can show what's inside. And I like what's inside."
"Love wasn't about being right or wrong, but about standing up and helping when your partner's back was bowed."
鈥淵ou are not a heretic, Dalinar Kholin. You are a king, a Radiant, and a father. You are a man with complicated beliefs, who does not accept everything you are told. You decide how you are defined. Don鈥檛 surrender that to them. They will gleefully take the chance to define you, if you allow it.鈥�
"You claim you are not the person everyone thinks you are. Maybe you worry, instead, that you are that person."
鈥淔ailure is the mark of a life well lived. In turn, the only way to live without failure is to be of no use to anyone.鈥�
"Having power is a terrible burden, the worst thing imaginable, except for every other alternative."
"You stand where you do because of a brutal determination to do what had to be done. It is because of that trail of corpses that you have the luxury to uphold some lofty, nebulous code. Well, it might make you feel better about your past, but morality is not a thing you can simply doff to put on the helm of battle, then put back on when you鈥檙e done with the slaughter.鈥�Branderson definitely did not hold back on Dalinar鈥檚 characterization, turning him into a tortured man with a frightening past. What鈥檚 more, constant flashbacks to the mind of the Blackthorn did not detract at all from Dalinar鈥檚 plotline in the present, as I sometimes felt was the case with Shallan in Words of Radiance.
"Ten spears go to battle, and nine shatter. Did that war forge the one that remained? No. All the war did was identify the spear that would not break.鈥�
"That a thing is hated is not proof that it鈥檚 great art, but the lack of hatred is certainly proof that it is not.鈥�
鈥淭he question is not whether you will love, hurt, dream, and die. It is what you will love, why you will hurt, when you will dream, and how you will die. This is your choice. You cannot pick the destination, only the path.鈥�
鈥淪ometimes a hypocrite is nothing more than a man in the process of changing.鈥�