Words of Radiance (The Stormlight Archive, Book 2)

Do not let your assumptions about a culture block your ability to perceive the individual, or you will fail.”

“Expectation. That is the true soul of art. If you can give a man more than he expects, then he will laud you his entire life. If you can create an air of anticipation and feed it properly, you will succeed.

“You sent him to the sky to die, assassin,” Kaladin said, Stormlight puffing from his lips, “but the sky and the winds are mine. I claim them, as I now claim your life.”

Instead, she and the others had ordered the murder of the Alethi king in a desperate gambit to stop the listener gods from returning.

“Spren are . . . power . . . shattered power. Power given thought by the perceptions of men. Honor, Cultivation, and . . . and another. Fragments broken off.”

“I will protect even those I hate,” Kaladin whispered through bloody lips. “So long as it is right.”

As I fear not a child with a weapon he cannot lift, I will never fear the mind of a man who does not think.’”

“I ain’t grouchy,” Teft snapped. “I just have a low threshold for stupidity.”

Expectation wasn’t just about what people expected of you. It was about what you expected of yourself.