Pride is always a better lever against the nobility than reason.

If I seem to wander, if I seem to stray, remember that true stories seldom take the straightest way

Just a little. Just the first faint breath of love... It wasn’t dramatic, like some bolt of lightning with a crack of thunder following. It was more like when flint strikes steel and the spark fades almost too fast for you to see. But still, you know it’s there, down where you can’t see, kindling.

Close your mouth, E'lir Kvothe, or I will feel obliged to put some vile tonic in it.

We understand how dangerous a mask can be. We all become what we pretend to be.

I take back everything I ever said about that boy being clever." He turned around to face the bar while leveling an accusatory finger at the closed door. "That," he said firmly to the room in general, "is what comes of working with iron every day.

...if I have ever met someone without a single shadow on their heart, it was surely a child too young for speaking.