Robert Jordan Quotes

Couldn’t we camp down by the lakes?” Nynaeve asked, patting her face with her kerchief. “It must be cooler down by the water.”“Light,” Mat said, “I’d just like to stick my head in one of them. I might never take it out.”Just then something roiled the waters of the nearest lake, the dark water phosphorescing as a huge body rolled beneath the surface. Length on man-thick length sent ripples spreading, rolling on and on until at last a tail rose, waving a point like a wasp’s stinger for an instant in the twilight, at least five spans into the air. All along that length fat tentacles writhed like monstrous worms, as many as a centipede’s legs. It slid slowly beneath the surface and was gone, only the fading ripples to say it had ever been.Rand closed his mouth and exchanged a look with Perrin. Perrin’s yellow eyes were as disbelieving as he knew his own must be. Nothing that big could live in a lake that size. Those couldn’t have been hands on those tentacles. They couldn’t have been.“On second thought,” Mat said faintly, “I like it right here just fine.
Robert Jordan
In a cruel land, you either learned to laugh at cruelty or spent your life weeping.
Robert Jordan
Bound by the Oath against lying, Aes Sedai [carry] the half-truth, the quarter-truth and the implication to arts.
Robert Jordan
Larine had a bright future ahead of her, but she had to learn to obey the rules before she could begin learning which could be broken and when.
Robert Jordan
Death is lighter than a feather. Duty, heavier than a mountain.
Robert Jordan
Do you know how to unite people behind you, Child Carridin? The quickest way? No? Loose a lion - a rabid lion - in the streets. And when panic grips the people, once it has turned their bowels to water, calmly tell them you will deal with it. Then you kill it, and order them to hang the carcass up where everyone can see. Before they have time to think, you give another order, and it will be obeyed. And if you continue to give orders, they will continue to obey, for you will be the one who saved them, and who better to lead?
Robert Jordan
Whether the bear beats the wolf or the wolf beats the bear, the rabbit always loses.
Robert Jordan
Heroes in the stories never had to sleep in haystacks, or under hedges. But it was not easy to pretend, anymore, that he was a hero in a story.
Robert Jordan
I've seen men die because they were sure that what should not happen,would not.-Robert Jordan(The eye of the world,Wheel of time)
Robert Jordan
What you practice too often, you use without thinking.
Robert Jordan
Browns seek knowledge, Blues meddle in causes, and Whites consider the questions of truth with implacable logic. We all do some of it all, of course. But to be Green means to stand ready. In the Trolloc Wars, we were often called the Battle Ajah. All Aes Sedai helped where and when they could, but the Green Ajah alone was always with the armies, in almost every battle. We were the counter to the dreadlords. The Battle Ajah. And now we stand ready, for the Trollocs to come south again, for Tarmon Gai'don. the Last Battle. We will be there. That is what it means to be Green. -Alanna
Robert Jordan
A beautiful battle is one you don't have to fight
Robert Jordan
When the Wolf King carries the hammer, thus are the final days known. When the fox marries the raven, and the trumpets of battle are blown.
Robert Jordan
The old blood is indeed still strong in the Two Rivers.
Robert Jordan
Bloody ashes, woman. This isn't a metaphor for anything! It's just boots.
Robert Jordan
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.
Robert Jordan
Victory settles a lot of arguments in most men's heads.
Robert Jordan
Even fools say something worthwhile now and again. Even a blind pig finds an acorn sometimes.
Robert Jordan
Always leave a way out, unless you really want to find out how hard a man can fight when he’s nothing to lose.
Robert Jordan
Times are not what they were, and we cannot be, either. If you sit and wish for what you want, you may not see it this side of the grave.
Robert Jordan
I doubt you can understand the magnitude of the stupidity in your statement
Robert Jordan
You're bloody insane, Karede," Mat said. "Unfortunately, so am I.
Robert Jordan
I surrender to it, and by surrendering, I control it.
Robert Jordan
Better to have one woman on your side than ten men.
Robert Jordan
He was swimming in a sea of other people’s expectations. Men had drowned in seas like that.
Robert Jordan
Bashere shrugged, grinning brhind his grey-streaked moustaches, "When I first slept in a saddle, Muad Cheade was Marshal-General. The man was as mad as a hare in spring thaw. Twice every day he searched his bodyservant for poison, and he drank nothing but vinegar and water which he claimed was sovereign against the poison the fellow fed him, but he ate everything the man prepared for as long as I knew him. Once he had a grove of oaks chopped down because they were looking at him. And then insisted they be given decent funerals; he gave the oration. Do you have any idea how long it takes to dig graves for twenty-three oak trees?" "Why didn't somebody do something? His Family?" "Those not as mad as him, or madder, were afraid to look at him sideways. Tenobia's father wouldn't have let anyone touch Cheade anyway. He might have been insane, but he could outgeneral anyone I ever saw. He never lost a battle. He never even came close to losing.
Robert Jordan
Image perception makes a big difference. That's one of the things I tell entrepreneurs today. Fine, focus on products, focus on customers and all that good stuff - that's necessary. But the image that you project is also key. Don't forget that.
Robert Jordan
Execution is everything. Even if you start a business with the wrong idea or too many competitors, you can out-execute all the better ideas in the right market.
Robert Jordan
Strange clothes you wear, Child of the Dragon. Has the Wheel turned so far? Do the People of the Dragon return to the first Covenant? But you wear a sword. That is neither now nor then.
Robert Jordan
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.
Robert Jordan
He hadn’t asked to become a leader, but did that absolve him of responsibility? People needed him. The world needed him. And, with an understanding that cooled in him like molten rock forming into a shape, he realized that he wanted to lead. If someone had to be lord of these people, he wanted to do it himself. Because doing it yourself was the only way to see that it was done right.
Robert Jordan
A secret spoken finds wings.
Robert Jordan
Nynaeve shook her head. She supposed it was one way to find money for the poor. Simply rob anyone who was not poor. Of course, that would just make everyone poor in the end, but it might work for a time
Robert Jordan
Rand had changed a number of laws in Tear, especially those that weighed heavily on the poor, but he had been unable to change everything. He had not even known how to begin. Lews Therin began to maunder on about taxes and money creating jobs, but he might as well have been spilling out words at random for all the sense he made.
Robert Jordan
That was a thing of wolves; they could know the past and the future, yet keep their attention on the hunt. Could he do the same? Allow himself to be consumed when needed, yet keep balance in other parts of his life?
Robert Jordan
Always something new, always something I didn't expect, and sometimes it isn't horrible.
Robert Jordan
Sandar came to stand beside him, frowning down at the crumpled High Lord. "He does not look so mighty lying there," he said wonderingly. "He does not look so much greater than me.
Robert Jordan
But men often mistake killing and revenge for justice. They seldom have the stomach for justice.
Robert Jordan
To believe a thing is not to make it true.
Robert Jordan
It's not evil, Rand. I know something evil when I smell it. This isn't evil, it's just incredibly stupid.
Robert Jordan
Sometimes she thought the Creator had only made men to cause trouble for women.
Robert Jordan
Facing them (men) with knives and spears was much easier than loving them, much easier.
Robert Jordan
Advice!Nobody tells us how to be men. We just are." "That is probably why you make such a bad job of it.- Perrin and Egwene
Robert Jordan
A man without trust might as well be dead.
Robert Jordan
If someone offers him enough gold, it becomes a toss of the dice, and not even Mat Cauthon could say how they’ll land.
Robert Jordan
Give me your trust, said the Aes Sedai.On my shoulders I support the sky.Trust me to know and to do what is best,And I will take care of the rest.But trust is the color of a dark seed growing.Trust is the color of a heart's blood flowing.Trust is the color of a soul's last breath.Trust is the color of death.Give me your trust said the queen on her throne,for I must bear the burden alone.Trust me to lead and to judge and to rule, and no man will think you a fool.But trust is the sound of the grave-dog's bark.Trust is the sound of betrayal in the dark.Trust is the sound of a soul's last breath.Trust is the sound of death.
Robert Jordan
No man can walk so long in the Shadow that he cannot come again to the Light.
Robert Jordan
The oak fought the wind and was broken, the willow bent when it must and survived.
Robert Jordan
The Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth comes again.
Robert Jordan
You can never know everything, and part of what you know is always wrong. Perhaps even the most important part. A portion of wisdom lies in knowing that. A portion of courage lies in going on anyway.
Robert Jordan
Juilin," she asked hesitantly, "what were you going to do with the salt and cooking oil? Not exactly," she added more quickly. "Just a general idea." He looked at her for a moment. "I do not know. But they did not, either. That is the trick of it; their minds made up worse then I ever could. I have seen a tough man break when I sent for a basket of figs and some mice.
Robert Jordan
Those intricate curves and patterns your people create are beyond human eyes and hands to make. Perhaps we wished to avoid a poor imitation that would only have been an ever-present reminder to us of what we had lost. There is a different beauty in simplicity, in a single line placed just so, a single flower among the rocks. The harshness of the stone makes the flower more precious. We try not to dwell too much on what is gone. The strongest heart will break under that strain.
Robert Jordan
I'd run. But maybe you can't run. Think of that, too.' His yellow eyes seemed to look inward, and he sounded tired. 'Sometimes you can't run.
Robert Jordan
I'm not a clever man, but I'm willing to listen to people who are, and I think you are. Just don't try poking me in the direction you want me to go. I don't like that Master Balwer.
Robert Jordan
Oh, how long were the days of a man.When he strode upon the broken land.He sailed as far as a man could steer.And he never wished to lose his fear.For the fear of man is a thing untold.It keeps him safe, and it proves him bold!Don’t let fear make you cease to strive,for that fear it proves you remain alive!I will walk this broken road,and I will carry a heavy load!So come at me with your awful lies,I’m a man of truth and I’ll meet your eyes!
Robert Jordan
And yet many of us do it without families," Nynaeve said. "Without love, without passion beyond our own particular interests. So even while we try to guide the world, we separate ourselves from it.We risk arrogance, Egwene. We always assume we know best, but risk making ourselves unable to fathom the people we claim to serve.
Robert Jordan
The only rules he wanted to remember were "never kiss a girl whose brothers have knife scars" and "never gamble without knowning a back way out
Robert Jordan
Anyone who claimed that old age had brought them patience was either lying or senile.
Robert Jordan
All was shattered, and all but memory lost, and one memory above all others, of him who brought the Shadow and the Breaking of the World. And him they named Dragon.
Robert Jordan
I'll never forget the first time Davram took me by the scruff of my neck and showed me he was the stronger of us. It was magnificent! If a woman is stronger than her husband, she comes to despise him. She has the choice of either tyrannizing him or else making herself less in order not to make him less. If the husband is strong enough, though, she can be as strong as she is, as strong as she can grow to be.
Robert Jordan