Robert Jordan Quotes

A man without trust is a man without life.

Violence harms the one who does it as much as the one who receives it. You could cut down a tree with an axe. The axe does violence to the tree, and escapes unharmed. Is that how you see it? Wood is soft compared to steel, but the sharp steel is dulled as it chops, and the sap of the tree will rust and pit it. The mighty axe does violence to the helpless tree, and is harmed by it. So it is with men, though the harm is in the spirit.

Rand, maybe that's the answer they give to everybody. Those snake people, I mean. Got to Rhuidean. Maybe we don't have to be here at all.' He did not believe it, but with that fog staring him in the face. ... Rand turned his head to look at him, not speaking. Finally he said, 'They never mentioned Rhuidean to me, Mat.' 'Oh, burn me,' he muttered.

A man should never give promises in bed.

Almost dead yesterday, maybe dead tomorrow, but alive, gloriously alive, today. -- Mat Cauthon

Life is a dream from which we all must wake before we can dream again.

Reading is like breathing. If you take it away, first I become antsy, then violent.

That man,' Elayne said, 'is never where he needs to be.' 'And yet,' Perrin said, 'he always arrives there eventually.

Moiraine: It seems Ryne was wrong as well as a Darkfriend. You were better than he. Lan: He was better. But he thought I was finished, with only one arm. He never understood. You surrender after you're dead.

The Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and pass. What was, what will be, and what is, may yet fall under the Shadow.

The Wheel weaves as the Wheel wills, Perrin. We've become what we needed to become."- Rand Al'Thor

We should ask our commanders..." Elayne trailed off. "If there are any we trust not to be under Compulsion." "There's only one," Mat said grimly, meeting her eyes. "And he's telling you we are finished if we continue as we have. The earlier plan was a good enough one, but after what we lost today...Elayne, we're dead unless we choose one place to stand, gather together, and fight." One last toss of the dice.

By the way, I saved Moiraine. Chew on that as you try to decide which of the two of us is winning." -Mat

At my age, if I make it up, it's still an old saying.

Loial, son of Arent, son of Halen, had secretly always wanted to be hasty.

If you ask the lion to protect from from wolves, you have only chosen to end in one belly instead of another.

Duty is heavy as a mountain, death is light as a feather.

Taren Ferry folk had a reputation for slyness and trickery. If you shook hands with a Taren Ferry man, people said, you counted your fingers afterwards.

Has anyone ever told you that you should wear a hat? It would fit the missing eye quite well.' -Kathana to Mat

These?" Mat said, gesturing to his coat and shirt. "I really have no idea. They were just down there. I'm completely baffled." He had been very pleased to learn that Seanchan guards-for all their stoic expressions and too-straight backs-responded to bribes like other people.

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.

Out of the night Hopper came, and Perrin was one with the wolf. Hopper, the cub who had watched the eagles soar, and wanted so badly to fly through the sky as the eagles did. The cub who hopped and jumped and leaped until he could leap higher than any other wolf, who never lost the cub's yearning to soar through the sky. [...] Something crashed into his head, and as he fell, he did not know if it was Hopper or himself who died.

Tonight you will eat fish. Tomorrow, you may die.

Perrin, my father says a general can take care of the living or weep for the dead, but he cannot do both.

Taking responsibility takes all the joy out of life, and drains a man to dust.

My mother says men are different from us. She says we want to be in love, but only with the one we want; a man needs to be in love, but he will love the first woman to tie a string to his heart. - Egwene, speaking to Elayne

Some men […] choose to seek greatness, while others are forced to it. It is always better to choose than to be forced. A man who is forced is never completely his own master. He must dance on the strings of those who forced him.

From the time an Aiel boy becomes a man he will not sing anything but battle chants, or their dirge for the slain. I have heard them singing over their dead, and over those they have killed. That song is one to make the stones weep.

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.

The best lie is often one too ridiculous to be taken for a lie.

You're welcome in my house when this is over. We'll open a cask of Master al'Vere's best brandy. We'll remember those who fell, and we'll tell our children how we stood when the clouds turned black and the world started to die. We'll tell them we stood shoulder to shoulder, and there was just no space for the Shadow to squeeze through.

Time to toss the dice

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.

I will hate the man you choose because he isn't me, and love him if he makes you smile.

Take what you want, and pay for it.

Belief and order give strength. Have to clear rubble before you can build.

Women," Mat declared as he rode Pips down the dusty, little-used road, "are like mules." He frowned. "Wait. No. Goats. Women are like goats. Except every flaming one thinks she's a horse instead, and a prize racing mare to boot. Do you understand me, Talmanes?" "Pure poetry, Mat," Talmanes said, tamping the tabac down into his pipe.

Two days' hunger made a fine sauce for anything.

As the Wheel of Time turns, places wear many names. Men wear many names, many faces. Different faces, but always the same man. Yet no one knows the Great Pattern the Wheel weaves, or even the Pattern of an Age. We can only watch, and study, and hope.

The wheel weaves as the wheel wills

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.

There's no time for winking at the men when you're busy bailing the boat.

A man who trusts everyone is a fool and a man who trusts no one is a fool. We are all fools if we live long enough.

We are always more afraid than we wish to be, but we can always be braver than we expect.

Only a battle lost is sadder than a battle won.

Dovie'andi se tovya sagain (It's time to roll the dice) - Matrim Cauthon

I do not like odd things until I can understand them.

Fantasy is an area where it is possible to talk about right and wrong, good and evil, with a straight face. In mainstream fiction and even in a good deal of mystery, these things are presented as simply two sides of the same coin. Never really more than a matter of where you happen to be standing.