Quotes from A Memory of Light

Robert Jordan ·  909 pages

Rating: (84K votes)


“He came like the wind, like the wind touched everything, and like the wind was gone.

-from The Dragon Reborn. By Loial, son of Arent son of Halan, the Fourth Age.”
― Robert Jordan, quote from A Memory of Light


“Here is your flaw, Shaitan, Lord of the Dark, Lord of Envy, Lord of Nothing, here is why you fail. It was not about me. It’s never been about me.”
It was about a woman, torn and beaten down, cast from her throne and made a puppet. A woman who had crawled when she had to. That woman still fought.
It was about a man that love repeatedly forsook. A man who found relevance in a world that others would have let pass them by. A man who remembered stories and who took fool boys under his wing when the smarter move would have been to keep on walking. That man still fought.
It was about a woman with a secret, a hope for the future. A woman who had hunted the truth before others could. A woman who had given her live, then had it returned. That woman still fought.
It was about a man whose family was taken from him, but who stood tall in his sorrow and protected those he could.
It was about a woman who refused to believe that she could not help, could not heal those who had been harmed.
It was about a hero who insisted with every breath that he was anything but a hero.
It was about a woman who would not bend her back while she was beaten, and who shown with a light for all who watched, including Rand.
It was about them all.
~Rand al Thor”
― Robert Jordan, quote from A Memory of Light


“Yes, I'm alive," Mat said. "I'm usually pretty good at staying alive. I've only failed one time that I can remember, and it hardly counts.”
― Robert Jordan, quote from A Memory of Light


“You didn't listen to me," Lan whispered. One last lesson. The hardest. Demandred struck, and Lan saw his opening. Lan lunged forward placing Demandred's sword point against his own side and ramming himself forward onto it.
"I did not come here to win," Lan whispered, smiling. "I came here to kill you. Death is lighter than a feather."
Demandred's eyes opened wide, and he tried to pull back. Too late. Lan's sword took him straight though the throat.”
― Robert Jordan, quote from A Memory of Light


“By the way, I saved Moiraine. Chew on that as you try to decide which of the two of us is winning."
-Mat”
― Robert Jordan, quote from A Memory of Light



“Cauthon lives," Arganda said. "And that's bloody amazing, considering that someone blew up his command post, set fire to his tenet, killed a bunch of his damane, and chased off his wife. Cauthon crawled out of it somehow."
"Ha!" Abell Cauthon said. "That's my boy.”
― Robert Jordan, quote from A Memory of Light


“I have never known anyone else," Egwene said to him, "who will work so hard to avoid hard work, Matrim Cauthon.”
― Robert Jordan, quote from A Memory of Light


“Loial, son of Arent, son of Halen, had secretly always wanted to be hasty.”
― Robert Jordan, quote from A Memory of Light


“Demandred blocked Lan's attack but he breathed hoarsely. "Who are you?" Demandred whispered again. "No one of this Age has such skill. Asmodean? No, no. He couldn't have fought me like this. Lews Therin? It is you behind that face, isn't it?"
"I am just a man," Lan whispered. "That is all I have ever been.”
― Robert Jordan, quote from A Memory of Light


“Come to think of it, an Aes Sedai would probably follow a man off a cliff, too, if only to explain to him - in detail - all the things he was doing incorrectly in the way he went about killing himself.”
― Robert Jordan, quote from A Memory of Light



“There are no endings, and never will be endings, to the turning of the Wheel of Time. But it was an ending.”
― Robert Jordan, quote from A Memory of Light


“The Empress will follow where you go," she said.
"So she will," Mat said. "As I'll follow where she goes, I suppose. I hope that doesn't lead us in too many circles.”
― Robert Jordan, quote from A Memory of Light


“Being polite to a person is not a sign of respect for them. It is merely a sign of a good upbringing and a balanced nature.”
― Robert Jordan, quote from A Memory of Light


“How would you feel," Elayne said softly, "if you saw your queen trying to kill a Trolloc with a sword as you ran away?"
"I'd feel like I needed to bloody move to another country," Birgitte snapped, loosing another arrow, "one where the monarchs don't have pudding for brains.”
― Robert Jordan, quote from A Memory of Light


“Thank you," the young mother said again. "Thank you."
"The Black Tower protects," Logain heard himself say. "Always."
"I will send him to you to be tested when he is of age," the woman promised, holding her son. "I would have him join you, if he has the talent."
The talent. Not the curse. The talent.”
― Robert Jordan, quote from A Memory of Light



“I had long wondered," Lan said to Tam. "About the man who had given Rand that heron-marked blade. I wondered if he had truly earned it. Now I know." Lan raised his own sword in salute.”
― Robert Jordan, quote from A Memory of Light


“I love words," Mat said. "There are some deliciously pretty words out there. 'Smile.' That's always sounded like a pretty word to me. Don't you think? Or, perhaps, the words 'I promise not to kill Egwene right now for trying to touch me, the Empress, may I live forever, because we really bloody need her for the next couple of weeks or so.'" He eyeed Fortuona pointedly.”
― Robert Jordan, quote from A Memory of Light


“I have lived for four centures," he said. "Perhaps I am still a youth, in that all of us are, compared to the timeless age of the Wheel itself. That said, I am one of the oldest people in existence."
Moiraine smiled. "Very nice. Does that work on the others?"
He hesitated. Then, oddly, he found himself grinning. "It worked pretty well on Cadsuane."
Moiraine sniffed. "That one...Well, knowing her, I doubt you fooled her as well as you assume. You may have the memories of a man four centuries old, Rand al'Thor, but that does not make you ancient. Otherwise, Matrim Cauthon would be the patriarch of us all."
"Mat? Why Mat?"
"It is nothing," Moiraine said. "Something I am not supposed to know. You are still a die-eyed sheepherder at heart.”
― Robert Jordan, quote from A Memory of Light


“When you saw me with a dagger in hand - as if to throw at you - you didn't call for your guards. You didn't fear I was here to kill you. You looked over your shoulder to see what I was aiming at. That's the most loving gesture I think a man could receive from a woman. Unless you'd like to sit on my knee for a while...”
― Robert Jordan, quote from A Memory of Light


“You're not asking me to guess the mind of Matrim Cauthon, are you?" Elayne asked. "I'm convinced that Mat only acts simple so that people will let him get away with more.”
― Robert Jordan, quote from A Memory of Light



“p.s. In case you don't know what "Do what needs to be done" means, it means that I want you to go bloody slaughter as many of the Sharan channelers as you can. I'll bet you a full Tar Valon mark-it's only been shaved on the sides a little-that you can't kill twenty.-MC

missive from Mat to Galad”
― Robert Jordan, quote from A Memory of Light


“There were many good years. Good decades, good centuries. We believed we were living in paradise. Perhaps that was our downfall. We wanted our lives to be perfect, so we ignored imperfections. Problems were magnified through inattention and war might have become inevitable if the Bore hadn't ever made.”
― Robert Jordan, quote from A Memory of Light


“It's not evil, Rand. I know something evil when I smell it. This isn't evil, it's just incredibly stupid.”
― Robert Jordan, quote from A Memory of Light


“That man,' Elayne said, 'is never where he needs to be.'
'And yet,' Perrin said, 'he always arrives there eventually.”
― Robert Jordan, quote from A Memory of Light


“He doesn't know what to make of me," Mat said softly.
"How very uncommon. I can't think of anyone else who has reacted that way to you, Mat.”
― Robert Jordan, quote from A Memory of Light



“The Light willing, we will see one another again," Rand said. He held out his hand to Perrin. "Watch out for Mat. I'm honestly not sure what he's going to do, but I have a feeling it will be highly dangerous for all involved."
"Not like us," Perrin said, clasping Rand's forearm. "You and I, we're much better at keeping to the safe paths.”
― Robert Jordan, quote from A Memory of Light


“Duty is heavier than a mountain, Dai Shan.'
That time, Lan did flinch. How long had it been since someone had been able to do that to him with mere words? He remembered teaching that same concept to a youth out of the Two Rivers. A sheepherder, innocent of the world, fearful of the fate laid out before him by the Pattern.”
― Robert Jordan, quote from A Memory of Light


“All men are ignorant, Aes Sedai. The topics of our ignorance may change, but the nature of the world is that no man may know everything.”
― Robert Jordan, quote from A Memory of Light


“If any of these women had been here instead of Nynaeve, the world would have ended.”
― Robert Jordan, quote from A Memory of Light


About the author

Robert Jordan
Born place: in Charleston, South Carolina, The United States
Born date October 17, 1948
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