The Sunlit Man

Failed ideas lead to successful ones, Contemplation. They’re the only thing that does.

Conquest doesn’t remove countries,” Nomad said. “It removes lines on a map. Unity requires something else.

You never get to be ready. You just have to move forward anyway.

We wear away. Ideals are like statues in the wind. They seem so permanent, but truth is erosion happens subtly, constantly.

Sometimes, asking the questions is enough. Because it has to be enough. Because sometimes, that's all there is.

He arranged his arms in a cross pattern, wrists touching, and softly mouthed the words. ‘Bridge four.’ They couldn’t know know the weight those words had for him.

Try some curry powder next time. It has a much better flavor than tyranny. Less nutty.

Even in science," Contemplation said, "faith plays a role. Each experiment done, each step on the path of knowledge, is achieved by striking out into the darkness. You can't know what you will find, or that you will find anything at all. It is faith that drives us - faith in answers that must exist.

Your planet shouldn't have different countries. You should have conquered and unified it all." "Conquest doesn't remove countries," Nomad said. "It removes lines on a map. Unity requires something else.

She knew how she liked to look. And she didn't care that others knew it was artificial. In expressing herself, the artificial became more authentic than the original.

Even in science, faith plays a role. Each experiment done, each step on the path of knowledge, is achieved by striking out into the darkness. You can't know what you will find, or that you will find anything at all. It is faith that drives us—faith in answers that must exist.

Nomad probably had one of his faces on. The one that said "don't touch me, I'm thinking about who to murder next and I'm accepting volunteers.

No, he wasn’t someone different. He was, indeed, still himself. That was what made it painful.

Zeal sighed. “Come. We must petition to the Greater Good and supplicate them for your sake. Adonalsium-Will-Remember-Our-Plight-Eventually, please see to her the best you can.” The tall man nodded. Wait. His name was Adonalsium-Will-Remember-Our-Plight-Eventually? That was the best one Nomad had heard yet. He really needed to keep a list of these Threnodite names.

I had to ask myself, once it was all done, if honor was a sham. If it was a ruse used to make men kill one another - to let them pretend there was a purpose to it. If that concept - the very idea of an honorable soldier - was not the most pernicious evil that had ever blighted the Cosmere.

Most change happens as a slow, steady slide toward the pit.

The Cinder King certainly had learned his lessons in tyranny well. Granted, that wasn’t the sort of thing humans needed mentoring in. Too many of them could intuit how to be terrible all on their own.

Knowing you aren’t strange,” he explained in Alethi, “is helpful. Knowing others felt like you did. Sometimes it’s the only thing that is helpful.

—¿Kal? —preguntó, lanzando su voz a la tormenta. La figura se volvió, dejando a la vista un rostro aguileño y una sonrisa que pedía a gritos un buen puñetazo. —Oh, Condenación —dijo Nómada con un suspiro—. ¿Sagaz? ¿Se puede saber qué diablos haces tú aquí?

This man might not be brilliant or clever, though he'd think himself both. Truth was, he didn't need either to be dangerous. Because he had power and power - wielded by a fool - could crush anyone, smart or not.

The condemned man always sees unfairness in the world around him,

You’re not an idiot, Nomad. An idiot is someone without knowledge or ability. You’re something else: a person with knowledge or ability who misuses it. That makes you a fool instead.

It feels so good. Why do mortals have taboos against it? “We have taboos against everything that is fun,” he said,

People were inside, locked up, hunkered down against the rain. That was universal.

The Cinder King: I am the most powerful man on Canticle, offworlder, you see how they can't protest or resist? How they serve me regardless of how I treat them? I have absolute power over these. Once before I rose to before I rose to my destiny, I was a man who marched prisoners to their fates. There, I realized that true power is not in the ability to kill, but in the ability to control the killers. Auxiliary: Well, that's a perfectly normal and reasonable way of thinking, the knight observes sarcastically. I'm sure he's absolutely the most well-adjusted man on the planet, eh?

You didn’t always get to fight the right people. In fact, you often had to fight the wrong ones—at least until you could stop the men and women who gave the orders.

I thought, from what I read, you’d appreciate what I’m building here. I thought you might be inspired to find a taste of home.” “Wrong taste,” Nomad said. “Try some curry powder next time. It has a much better flavor than tyranny. Less nutty.

Tyranny is awful, but not all authority is to be rejected.

Ideals are like statues in the wind. They seem so permanent, but truth is, erosion happens subtly, constantly.