Quotes
One of the fondest memories of my Granddad Nelson was trading quotes regularly over email. Sadly I lost the email archive when I went on my mission, but it has continued to be an interest of mine. I hope you enjoy my collection of quotes. A bit of everything from religion to politics to leadership.
When we are young, we want simple answers. There is no greater indication of youth, perhaps, than the desire for everything to be as it should. As it has ever been.
The older we grow, the more we question. We begin to ask why. And yet, we still want the answers to be simple. We assume that the people around us—adults, leaders—will have those answers. Whatever they give often satisfies us.
…as we age. Indeed, it seems to me that aging, wisdom, and wondering are synonymous. The older we grow, the more likely we are to reject the simple answers. Unless someone gets in our way and demands they be accepted regardless.
If I should die… then I would do so having lived my life right. It is not the destination that matters, but how one arrives there.
Find the balance. Accept the pain, but don’t accept that you deserved it.
Plan every battle as if you will inevitably retreat, but fight every battle like there is no backing down.
No one ever accomplished anything by being content with who they were… We accomplish great things by reaching toward who we could become.
There are two kinds of important men... There are those who, when the boulder of time rolls toward them, stand up in front of it and hold out their hands. All their lives, they’ve been told how great they are. They assume the world itself will bend to their whims as their nurse did when fetching them a fresh cup of milk.
Those men end up squished.
Other men stand to the side when the boulder of time passes, but are quick to say, ‘See what I did! I made the boulder roll there. Don’t make me do it again!’
These men end up getting everyone else squished.”
Is there not a third type of person?”
There is, but they are oh so rare. These know they can’t stop the boulder. So they walk beside it, study it, and bide their time. Then they shove it—ever so slightly—to create a deviation in its path.
Nobody was strong all the time... Love wasn’t about being right or wrong, but about standing up and helping when your partner’s back was bowed.
You should never debate an idiot... No more than you’d use your best sword to spread butter.
Always read contracts with friends an extra time… being cheated is a terrible feeling. Being cheated by someone you love is worse. Discovering such a deception is like finding yourself in a deep dark ocean with nothing around you but formless shadows of things you once thought you understood and enjoyed. It is painful beyond explanation. But that is never a reason to pretend it can’t happen. So read those contracts again. Just in case.
Life before death. Strength before weakness. Journey before destination
Some people charged toward the goal, running for all they had. Others stumbled. But it wasn’t the speed that mattered. It was the direction they were going.
Love… is like a pile of chull dung… for even as we try to avoid both, we end up stepping in them anyway.
There’s a difference between listening to your elders and just being as frightened as everyone else.
Expectation wasn’t just about what people expected of you. It was about what you expected of yourself.
You tried to help the people of the market. You mostly failed. This is life. The longer you live, the more you fail. Failure is the mark of a life well lived. In turn, the only way to live without failure is to be of no use to anyone.
The longer you live, the more you fail. Failure is the mark of a life well lived. In turn, the only way to live without failure is to be of no use to anyone.
I ain’t grouchy… I just have a low threshold for stupidity.
A man’s emotions are what define him, and control is the hallmark of true strength. To lack feeling is to be dead, but to act on every feeling is to be a child.
Sometimes a hypocrite is nothing more than a person who is in the process of changing.
Respect is like manure. Use it where needed, and growth will flourish. Spread it on too thick, and things just start to smell.
He’d once believed he had been four men in his life, but he now saw he’d grossly underestimated. He hadn’t lived as two, or four, or six men—he had lived as thousands, for each day he became someone slightly different.
He hadn’t changed in one giant leap, but across a million little steps.
The most important always being the next
That was the true purpose of a merchant. To find complementary needs, then bridge the distance between them so everyone benefited. It wasn’t about what you could get from people, but what you could get for them that made a successful merchant.
The most important step a man can take. It’s not the first one, is it?
It’s the next one. Always the next step, Dalinar.
War is the last option of the state that has failed, But it is better than having no options.
Beauty was out there, all around. To create art was not to capture it, but to participate in it.
The question… is not whether you will love, hurt, dream, and die. It is what you will love, why you will hurt, when you will dream, and how you will die. This is your choice. You cannot pick the destination, only the path.
The soldier’s way. Deal with today’s problems, then sleep and deal with tomorrow’s problems tomorrow.
Never be afraid to show a little respect to those you depend upon
I will take responsibility for what I have done… If I must fall, I will rise each time a better man.
[The] purpose of a storyteller is not to tell you how to think, but to give you questions to think upon.
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.
To age truly was to suffer the ultimate treason, that of one’s body against oneself.
It will [get worse] but then it will get better. Then it will get worse again. Then better. This is life, and I will not lie by saying every day will be sunshine. But there will be sunshine again, and that is a very different thing to say. That is truth. I promise you… You will be warm again.
