“There was rarely an obvious branching point in a person's life. People changed slowly, over time. You didn't take on step, then find yourself in a completely new location. You first took a little step off a path to avoid some rocks. For a while, you walked alongside the path, but then you wandered out a little way to step on softer soil. Then you stopped paying attention as you drifted farther and farther away. Finally, you found yourself in the wrong city, wondering why the signs on the roadway hadn't led you better.”
― Brandon Sanderson, quote from The Emperor's Soul
“Her aunt Sol had once told Shai to smile at the worst insults and snap at the minor ones. That way, no man would know your heart.”
― Brandon Sanderson, quote from The Emperor's Soul
“Control yourself, she told herself forcibly. Become someone who can deal with this. She took a deep breath and let herself become someone else. An imitation of herself who was calm, even in a situation like this. It was a crude forgery, just a trick of the mind, but it worked.”
― Brandon Sanderson, quote from The Emperor's Soul
“A person was like a dense forest thicket, overgrown with a twisting mess of vines, weeds, shrubs, saplings, and flowers. No person was one single emotion; no person had only one desire. They had many, and usually those desires conflicted with one another like two rosebushes fighting for the same patch of ground.”
― Brandon Sanderson, quote from The Emperor's Soul
“If you were the wall, what would you rather be? Dreary and dull, or alive with paint?"
"Walls can't think!"
"That doesn't stop them from caring.”
― Brandon Sanderson, quote from The Emperor's Soul
“It's not imitating anything; it has become a better version of itself.”
― Brandon Sanderson, quote from The Emperor's Soul
“No matter how good you were, someone was better. Live by that knowledge, and you would never grow so confident that you became sloppy.”
― Brandon Sanderson, quote from The Emperor's Soul
“He found himself weeping.
Not for the future or for the emperor. These were the tears of a man who saw before himself a masterpiece. True art was more than beauty; it was more than technique. It was not just imitation.
It was boldness, it was contrast, it was subtlety.”
― Brandon Sanderson, quote from The Emperor's Soul
“People", Shai said, rising to fetch another seal, "by nature attempt to exercise power over what is around them. We build walls to shelter us from the wind, roofs to stop the rain. We tame the elements, bend nature to our wills. It make us feel as if we're in control. Except in doing so, we merely replace one influence with another. Instead of the wind affecting us, it is a wall. A man-made wall. The fingers of man's influence are all about, touching everything. Man-made rugs, man-made food. Every single thing in the city that we touch, see, feel, experience comes as the result of some person's influence.”
― Brandon Sanderson, quote from The Emperor's Soul
“However a man who was honest and clever was always, ALWAYS more difficult to scam than someone who was both dishonest and clever.
Sincerity. It was so difficult , by definition, to fake.”
― Brandon Sanderson, quote from The Emperor's Soul
“You can’t always write what you know—not exactly what you know. You can, however, write what you see.”
― Brandon Sanderson, quote from The Emperor's Soul
“Magic works best for me when it aligns with scientific principles.”
― Brandon Sanderson, quote from The Emperor's Soul
“I wish that I could know you. Not your soul, but you. I've read about you; I've seen into your heart. I've rebuilt your soul, as best I could. But that isn't the same. It isn't knowing someone, is it? That's knowing about someone.”
― Brandon Sanderson, quote from The Emperor's Soul
“We may feel in control, but we never truly are unless we understand people. Controlling our environment is no longer about blocking the wind, it's about knowing why the serving lady was crying last night, or why a particular guard always loses at cards.”
― Brandon Sanderson, quote from The Emperor's Soul
“True art was more than beauty; it was more than technique. It was not just imitation.”
― Brandon Sanderson, quote from The Emperor's Soul
“There was rarely an obvious branching point in a person's life. People changed slowly, over time. You didn't take one step, then find yourself in a completely new location. You first took a little step off the path to avoid some rocks. For a while, you walked alongside the path, but then you wandered out a little way to step on softer soil. Then you stopped paying attention as you drifted farther and farther away. Finally, you found yourself in the wrong city, wondering why the signs on the roadway hadn't led you better.”
― Brandon Sanderson, quote from The Emperor's Soul
“All things exist in three Realms, Gaotona. Physical, Cognitive, Spiritual. The Physical is what we feel, what is before us. The Cognitive is how an object is viewed and how it views itself. The Spiritual Realm contains an object’s soul—its essence—as well as the ways it is connected to the things and people around it.”
― Brandon Sanderson, quote from The Emperor's Soul
“There was rarely an obvious branching point in a person’s life. People changed slowly, over time. You didn’t take one step, then find yourself in a completely new location. You first took a little step off a path to avoid some rocks. For a while, you walked alongside the path, but then you wandered out a little way to step on softer soil. Then you stopped paying attention as you drifted farther and farther away. Finally, you found yourself in the wrong city, wondering why the signs on the roadway hadn’t led you better.”
― Brandon Sanderson, quote from The Emperor's Soul
“He found himself weeping. Not for the future or for the emperor. These were the tears of a man who saw before himself a masterpiece. True art was more than beauty; it was more than technique. It was not just imitation. It was boldness, it was contrast, it was subtlety. In this book, Gaotona found a rare work to rival that of the greatest painters, sculptors, and poets of any era. It was the greatest work of art he had ever witnessed. Gaotona”
― Brandon Sanderson, quote from The Emperor's Soul
“We may feel in control, but we never truly are unless we understand people. Controlling our environment is no longer about blocking the wind, it’s about knowing why the serving lady was crying last night, or why a particular guard always loses at cards. Or why your employer hired you in the first place.”
― Brandon Sanderson, quote from The Emperor's Soul
“Every single thing in the city that we touch, see, feel, experience comes as the result of some person’s influence.”
― Brandon Sanderson, quote from The Emperor's Soul
“She took a deep breath and let herself become someone else. An imitation of herself who was calm, even in a situation like this.”
― Brandon Sanderson, quote from The Emperor's Soul
“People,” Shai said, rising to fetch another seal, “by nature attempt to exercise power over what is around them. We build walls to shelter us from the wind, roofs to stop the rain. We tame the elements, bend nature to our wills. It makes us feel as if we’re in control.”
― Brandon Sanderson, quote from The Emperor's Soul
“People,” Shai said, rising to fetch another seal, “by nature attempt to exercise power over what is around them. We build walls to shelter us from the wind, roofs to stop the rain. We tame the elements, bend nature to our wills. It makes us feel as if we’re in control. “Except in doing so, we merely replace one influence with another. Instead of the wind affecting us, it is a wall. A man-made wall. The fingers of man’s influence are all about, touching everything. Man-made rugs, man-made food. Every single thing in the city that we touch, see, feel, experience comes as the result of some person’s influence. “We may feel in control, but we never truly are unless we understand people. Controlling our environment is no longer about blocking the wind, it’s about knowing why the serving lady was crying last night, or why a particular guard always loses at cards. Or why your employer hired you in the first place.” Gaotona”
― Brandon Sanderson, quote from The Emperor's Soul
“There are . . . times when one must accept the aid of darkness in order to contain a greater darkness.”
― Brandon Sanderson, quote from The Emperor's Soul
“That was always their mistake—assuming they knew why Shai did what she did.”
― Brandon Sanderson, quote from The Emperor's Soul
“In her business, there were many who laughed at honest men, calling them easy pickings. That was a fallacy. Being honest did not make one naive. A dishonest fool and an honest fool were equally easy to scam; you just went about it in different ways. However, a man who was honest and clever was always, always more difficult to scam than someone who was both dishonest and clever.”
― Brandon Sanderson, quote from The Emperor's Soul
“One can cut the body, and it will heal—but do it over and over again in the same spot, and you will scar.”
― Brandon Sanderson, quote from The Emperor's Soul
“No person was one single emotion; no person had only one desire. They had many, and usually those desires conflicted with one another like two rosebushes fighting for the same patch of ground.”
― Brandon Sanderson, quote from The Emperor's Soul
“Perhaps he had been looking for that branching point in his life where he had stepped down the wrong path. He”
― Brandon Sanderson, quote from The Emperor's Soul
Brandon Sanderson
Born place: in Lincoln, Nebraska, The United States
See more on GoodReads
“When you love someone, you sacrifice.”
― Kiera Cass, quote from The One
“Once you educate the boys, they tend to leave the villages and go search for work in the cities, but the girls stay home, become leaders in the community, and pass on what they’ve learned. If you really want to change a culture, to empower women, improve basic hygiene and health care, and fight high rates of infant mortality, the answer is to educate girls.”
― Greg Mortenson, quote from Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace ... One School at a Time
“And oh, how she pitched herself into things. She would draw pictures all day long for weeks on end, then throw out the pencils and never draw another thing. Then it was embroidery with her, she had to learn it, and she'd make the most beautiful thing, fussing at herself for the least little mistake, then throw down the needles and be done with that forevermore. I never saw a child so changeable. It was as though she was looking for something to which she could give herself, and she never found it. Least ways not while she was a little girl.”
― Anne Rice, quote from The Witching Hour
“Romance isn't in my repertoire, Eva. But a thousand ways to make you come are. Let me show you.”
― Sylvia Day, quote from Bared to You
“This love was a torment, and he resented bitterly the subjugation in which it held him; he was a prisoner and he longed for freedom.
Sometimes he awoke in the morning and felt nothing; his soul leaped, for he thought he was free; he loved no longer; but in a little while, as he grew wide awake, the pain settled in his heart, and he knew that he was not cured yet.”
― W. Somerset Maugham, quote from Of Human Bondage
Millennium Approache...
Tiger's Destiny
Homeland
The Nanny Diaries
Nevermore
Written in My Own He...BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.
We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.
Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.
