Quotes 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 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

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Popular quotes

“Oh, but it is bleak!” she murmured. “Suppose we should have to stay here all next winter, too,… and the next! What will become of me, Niel?” There was fear, unmistakable fright in her voice. “You see there is nothing for me to do. I get no exercise. I don’t skate; we didn’t in California, and my ankles are weak. I’ve always danced in the winter, there’s plenty of dancing at Colorado Springs. You wouldn’t believe how I miss it. I shall dance till I’m eighty.… I’ll be the waltzing grandmother! It’s good for me, I need it.” They”
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― Joe Meno, quote from Hairstyles of the Damned

“Nor did I grasp the capacity of love's absence to destroy, that my lack of love for myself made my own life unbearable. You take someone whose life experiences have taught them they're worthless, string them out on drugs, and you have one miserable person. How could I have given what I didn't have? It's hard to value another life when you view your own as dispensable, hard to understand how you can have so great an effect on someone else when you don't think you matter.”
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“But as he stood at the brink of that decision, into the vacuum created by that shimmering lure of escape returned his primal conviction that when confronted by authentic evil—and he felt certain this is what pursued him—to move off one’s ground without a fight was an equal if not greater evil. An evil of failure and cowardice. One might pass a lifetime, or an endless string of lifetimes, without ever facing such an unequivocal assault as this against the covenant of what a man holds true about himself. Better to lose your life in defense of its sanctity than to turn tail and live out what remained of one’s allotted days as a beaten dog. It was a hollow refuge that gave no shelter from self-loathing.”
― quote from The List of Seven

“He’s dreaming, Cloquet thought, as he stood over him, revolver in hand. He’s dreaming, and I exist in reality. Cloquet hated reality but realized it was still the only place to get a good steak.”
― Woody Allen, quote from Side Effects

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