Robert Jordan famous quotes

Any fool knows men and women think differently at times, but the biggest difference is this. Men forget, but never forgive; women forgive, but never forget.
-- Robert Jordan

#Forgiveness #Women #Thinking

As my Lord says, my Lord's leg is not a side of beef. Thank you, my Lord, for instructing me.
-- Robert Jordan

#Sides #Beef #Legs

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

#Love #Hate #Men

The Creator made women to please the eye, and to boggle the mind.
-- Robert Jordan

#Women #Eye #Mind

He was swimming in a sea of other people’s expectations. Men had drowned in seas like that.
-- Robert Jordan

#Swimming #Men #Sea

The men in my family are strong because the women in my family kill and eat the weak ones.
-- Robert Jordan

#Strong #Men #My Family

Duty is heavier than a mountain, Dai Shan.' That time, Lan did flinch. How long had it been since someone had been able to do that to him with mere words? He remembered teaching that same concept to a youth out of the Two Rivers. A sheepherder, innocent of the world, fearful of the fate laid out before him by the Pattern.
-- Robert Jordan

#Teaching #Fate #Two

In a cruel land, you either learned to laugh at cruelty or spent your life weeping.
-- Robert Jordan

#Land #Laughing #Cruelty

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

#Memories #Long #Leaving

Waiting turns men into bears in a barn, and women into cats in a sack.
-- Robert Jordan

#Cat #Men #Waiting

May you shelter in the palm of the Creator's hand, and may the last embrace of the mother welcome you home.
-- Robert Jordan

#Mother #Home #Hands

The oak fought the wind and was broken, the willow bent when it must and survived.
-- Robert Jordan

#Adversity #Wind #Broken

In wars, boy, fools kill other fools for foolish causes
-- Robert Jordan

#War #Boys #Fool

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

#Wish

Always plan for the worst, child, that way all your surprises are pleasant ones.
-- Robert Jordan

#Children #Way #Surprise

Why, that's like being told to go up in the hills to find lions, only you do not know whether there are any lions, but if there are, they may be hunting you, and they may be disguised as bushes. Oh, and if you find any lions, try not to let them eat you before you can tell where they are. -Elayne
-- Robert Jordan

#Hunting #Trying #Lions

Sometimes, pain is all that lets you know you're alive.
-- Robert Jordan

#Pain #Alive #Sometimes

Surprising what you can dig out of books if you read long enough, isn't it?
-- Robert Jordan

#Book #Long #Enough

the wolf may fight the bear but the rabbit always looses
-- Robert Jordan

#Fighting #May #Bears

A woman's eyes cut deeper than a knife.
-- Robert Jordan

#Eye #Cutting #Knives

Anyone who claimed that old age had brought them patience was either lying or senile.
-- Robert Jordan

#Lying #Age #Wheel Of Time

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

#Lying #Frowning #Doe

She understood his eyes, colder than winter's heart. A man who knew he was dead and couldn't make himself care; you are spared that. Mashiara. His lost love.
-- Robert Jordan

#Lost Love #Heart #Eye

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

#Fall #Age #Shadow

There is one rule, above all others, for being a man. Whatever comes, face it on your feet.
-- Robert Jordan

#Men #Feet #Faces

Better to have one woman on your side than ten men.
-- Robert Jordan

#Loyalty #Men #Your Side

If your enemy offers you two targets, strike at a third.
-- Robert Jordan

#Two #Enemy #Target

If you wish, you may call me Rand Sedai.
-- Robert Jordan

#Wish #May #Call Me

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

#Father #Care #Take Care

And his paths shall be many, and who shall know his name, for he shall be beorn among us many times, in many guises, as he has been and ever will be, time without end. His coming shall be like the sharp edge of the plow, turning our lives in furrows form out of the places where we lie in our silence. The breaker of binds; the forger of chains. The maker of futures; the unshaper of destiny. -from Commentaries on the Prophecies of the Dragon, by Jurith Dorine, Right Hand to the Queen of Almoren, 742 AB, the Third Age
-- Robert Jordan

#Queens #Lying #Destiny

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

#Lions #Ends #Protect

On the heights, all paths are paved with daggers. -Old Seanchan saying
-- Robert Jordan

#Path #Daggers #Height

Do not trouble trouble till trouble troubles you.
-- Robert Jordan

#Trouble

He came like the wind, like the wind touched everything, and like the wind was gone. -from The Dragon Reborn. By Loial, son of Arent son of Halan, the Fourth Age.
-- Robert Jordan

#Son #Dragons #Wind

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

#Wheels #Als #Needed

The Golden Crane flies for Tarmon Gai'don!
-- Robert Jordan

#Golden #Cranes

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

#Men #Needs #Said

Men always seem to refuse to admit they are sick until they're sick enough to make twice as much work for women. Then they claim they're well too soon, with the same result.
-- Robert Jordan

#Men #Sick #Enough

No. Please do not name either child after me, Elayne. Let them live their own lives. My shadow will be long enough as it is.' -Rand
-- Robert Jordan

#Children #Names #Long

A wise ruler takes advice, but should never be seen to take it. Let them think you know more than you do. It will not harm them, and it will help you.
-- Robert Jordan

#Wise #Thinking #Advice

Maybe there would be a Tinker city someday, too. They would buy up all of the colored dye, and everyone else in the world would ave to wear brown.' -Mat
-- Robert Jordan

#Cities #World #Would Be

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

#Eye #Missing #Hats

Whether the bear beats the wolf or the wolf beats the bear, the rabbit always loses.
-- Robert Jordan

#Bears #Rabbits #Beats

I surrender to it, and by surrendering, I control it.
-- Robert Jordan

#Surrender

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.
-- Robert Jordan

#War #Years #Perfect

Let the Dragon ride again on the winds of time.
-- Robert Jordan

#Dragons #Wind

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.
-- Robert Jordan

#Greatness #Men #Wheel Of Time

Most of those we call heroes only did what they had to do.
-- Robert Jordan

#Hero #Reborn

Sometimes six and six make a dozen, and sometimes they make a mess
-- Robert Jordan

#Six #Dozen #Sometimes

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.
-- Robert Jordan

#Cutting #Men #Tree

There was a wild light in his eyes. "Bring your lightnings, Aes Sedai. I will dance with them.
-- Robert Jordan

#Eye #Light #Lightning

If wishes had wings, sheep would fly.
-- Robert Jordan

#Wings #Sheep #Wish

If you have a sword, and the Aielman has his bare hands, it is an even fight. If you're good.
-- Robert Jordan

#Fighting #Hands

If the world is ending, a woman will want to fix her hair. If the world's ending, a woman will take the time to tell a man something he's done wrong. -Matrim Cauthon
-- Robert Jordan

#Men #Hair #Done

Well, I can admire stubbornness in a man. There is little to a man who's too easily biddable.
-- Robert Jordan

#Men #Littles #Wheel Of Time

Care for the living. I'll weep for the dead later. - Perrin Aybara
-- Robert Jordan

#Care

A beautiful battle is one you don't have to fight
-- Robert Jordan

#Beautiful #Fighting #Battle

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

#Reading #Breathing #Firsts

I grew up around strong women; weak men were pickled and salted. The women wouldn't waste time raising a weak boy.
-- Robert Jordan

#Strong Women #Boys #Waste

You read too much and understand too little.
-- Robert Jordan

#Littles #Too Much

The Light willing, we will see one another again," Rand said. He held out his hand to Perrin. "Watch out for Mat. I'm honestly not sure what he's going to do, but I have a feeling it will be highly dangerous for all involved." "Not like us," Perrin said, clasping Rand's forearm. "You and I, we're much better at keeping to the safe paths.
-- Robert Jordan

#Hands #Light #Feelings

A slow horse does not always reach the end of the journey.
-- Robert Jordan

#Horse #Journey #Doe

Even a queen stubs her toe, but a wise woman watches the path.
-- Robert Jordan

#Wise #Queens #Path

When the honey's out of the comb, there's no putting it back.
-- Robert Jordan

#Honey

Humankind is made for uncertainty, struggle, choice and change.
-- Robert Jordan

#Struggle #Choices #Made

Men! Too blind to see what a stone could see, and too stubborn to be trusted to think for themselves.
-- Robert Jordan

#Men #Thinking #Stones

The more bosom a woman displayed, the less she wanted you to look. Openly, at least.
-- Robert Jordan

#Looks #Wanted

Young men and fools sometimes bear pain they do not have to as a badge of their pride. Or their foolishness.
-- Robert Jordan

#Pain #Pride #Men

If you pursue two hares, both will escape you.
-- Robert Jordan

#Two #Hares #Pursue

You cannot please everyone. You cannot soothe everyone.
-- Robert Jordan

#Please

Dance well with a woman, and she's halfway yours.
-- Robert Jordan

#Wells #Halfway

What you want is what you cannot have. What you cannot have is what you want.
-- Robert Jordan

#Want #What You Want

A crafty enemy will set a weak ambush you are meant to break through. Confident because you have dealt with the threat, your guard relaxed, you walk into the second, stronger ambush.
-- Robert Jordan

#Enemy #Stronger #Weak

It was easier to trip a fool than to knock him down.
-- Robert Jordan

#Fool #Easier

Better to face the bear than run from it.
-- Robert Jordan

#Running #Bears #Faces

You have to understand, child. Everyone wants someone in their life, someone who cares for them, someone they can care for. Even a queen.
-- Robert Jordan

#Queens #Children #Care

Rand al'Thor is a mule-headed, stone-willed fool of a...a...a man!
-- Robert Jordan

#Men #Als #Fool

To anger an Aes Sedai is to put your head in a hornets' nest.
-- Robert Jordan

#Nests #Hornets

Trust is as slippery as a basket of eels sometimes.
-- Robert Jordan

#Eels #Sometimes #Baskets

When there are fish heads and blood in the water, you don't need to see the silverpike to know they are there.
-- Robert Jordan

#Blood #Water #Needs

To fight the raven you may make alliance with the serpent until the battle is done.
-- Robert Jordan

#Fighting #Ravens #Battle

You never escape the traps you spin yourself. Only a greater power can break a power, and then you're trapped again. Trapped forever so you cannot die.
-- Robert Jordan

#Forever #Break #Traps

A man must know when to retreat from a woman, but a wise man knows that sometimes he must stand and face her.
-- Robert Jordan

#Wise #Men #Faces

Better to try understanding the sun than a woman.
-- Robert Jordan

#Understanding #Trying #Sun

You will serve the Cyrstal Throne well. It would be a shame to see you assassinated too early. I will make certain that the first I send after you are newly trained, so that you may stop them with ease." -General Galgan to Mat
-- Robert Jordan

#Ease #May #Firsts

The Black Tower stands with the Lion of Andor." -Logain
-- Robert Jordan

#Black #Lions #Towers

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.
-- Robert Jordan

#Circles #Said #Empresses

Mat had tried to make her say she saw a hat floating around Mat's head. That would persuade Tuon to stop trying to get rid of his, would it not?
-- Robert Jordan

#Trying #Saws #Hats

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.
-- Robert Jordan

#Expression #Ideas #People

He doesn't know what to make of me," Mat said softly. "How very uncommon. I can't think of anyone else who has reacted that way to you, Mat.
-- Robert Jordan

#Thinking #Way #Said

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

#Winning #Two #Trying

Tuon's eyes snapped open, and despite the dim light, she focused directly on Mat. She saw the knife in his hand, ready to throw. Then she looked over her shoulder.
-- Robert Jordan

#Eye #Knives #Light

You are as eloquent as ever, Mat," Egwene said dryly. "Do you still have your pet fox?" "I do," Mat said. "He's snuggled up nice and warm.
-- Robert Jordan

#Nice #Pet #Foxes

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.
-- Robert Jordan

#Eye #Fighting #Together

I have never known anyone else," Egwene said to him, "who will work so hard to avoid hard work, Matrim Cauthon.
-- Robert Jordan

#Hard Work #Said

A gnarled old branch dulls the blade that severs a sapling.
-- Robert Jordan

#Saplings #Branches #Blades

Sleep well and wake, Rand al'Thor.
-- Robert Jordan

#Sleep #Als #Sleep Well

For the young, death is an enemy they wish to try their strength against. For those of us a little older, she is an old friend, an old lover, but one we are not eager to meet again soon.
-- Robert Jordan

#Old Friends #Enemy #Trying

A Myrddraal has less cunning than a woman, and a Trolloc fights with more honor. And a goat has more sense.
-- Robert Jordan

#Fighting #Honor #Goats

Better ten days of love than years of regretting.
-- Robert Jordan

#Regret #Years