New Spring Quotes

“He was swimming in a sea of other people’s expectations. Men had drowned in seas like that.”
― Robert Jordan, New Spring

“The only way was forward, whatever lay at the end.”
― Robert Jordan, New Spring

“Change what you can if it needs
changing, but learn to live with what you can’t change.”
― Robert Jordan, New Spring

“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.”
― Robert Jordan, New Spring

“In war, you say a prayer for your dead and ride on, because there is always another fight over the next horizon."
—al'Lan Mandragoran”
― Robert Jordan, New Spring

“Lan shook his head sightly "He was better. But he thought I was finished, with only one arm. He never understood. You surrender after you're dead.”
― Robert Jordan, New Spring

“In his cradle he had been given four gifts. The ring in his hands and the locket that hung around his neck, the sword on his hip and an oath sworn in his name. The locket, containing the painted images of the mother and father he could not remember seeing in life, was the most precious, the oath the heaviest. “To stand against the Shadow so long as iron is hard and stone abides. To defend the Malkieri while one drop of blood remains. To avenge what cannot be defended.” And then he had been anointed with oil and named Dai Shan, consecrated as the next King of Malkier and sent away from a land that knew it would die.”
― Robert Jordan, New Spring

“He never understood. You surrender after you’re dead.”
― Robert Jordan, New Spring

“Death came for every man eventually, and seldom where or when he expected.”
― Robert Jordan, New Spring

“They were bonded. He rose smoothly, sheathing his sword, studying her. “Men who weren’t there call it the Battle of the Shining Walls,” he said abruptly. “Men who were, call it the Blood Snow. No more. They know it was a battle. On the morning of the first day, I led nearly five hundred men. Kandori, Saldaeans, Domani. By evening on the third day, half were dead or wounded. Had I made different choices, some of those dead would be alive. And others would be dead in their places. In war, you say a prayer for your dead and ride on, because there is always another fight over the next horizon. Say a prayer for the dead, Moiraine Sedai, and ride on.” Startled, she came close to gaping. She had forgotten that the bond’s flow worked both ways. He knew her emotions, too, and apparently could make out hers far better than she could his. After a moment, she nodded, though she did not know how many prayers it would take to clear her mind. Handing her Arrow’s reins, he said, “Where do we ride first?” “Back to Chachin,” she admitted. “And then Arafel, and….” So few names remained that were easy to find. “The world, if need be. We win this battle, or the world dies.” Side by side they rode down the hill and turned south. Behind them the sky rumbled and turned black, another late storm rolling down from the Blight.”
― Robert Jordan, New Spring

“Only a fool believed women less dangerous than men, but women often seemed to think men fools when it came to women.”
― Robert Jordan, New Spring

“The sight of Moiraine always made her smile. Cetalia had been wrong in one particular. She was not a pretty little porcelain doll; she was a beautiful little porcelain doll. On the outside, anyway. Inside, where it counted, was another matter. The first time Siuan saw her, she had been sure the Cairhienin girl would crack like a spindle-shell in a matter of days. But Moiraine had turned out to be as tough as she herself if not tougher. No matter how often she was knocked down, she climbed back to her feet straightaway. Moiraine did not know the meaning of 'give up.”
― Robert Jordan, New Spring

“People had a way of folding what they saw into what they knew and what they wanted to believe.”
― Robert Jordan, New Spring

“There were questions one asked, and questions one did not. That was strong custom. And friendship.”
― Robert Jordan, New Spring

“Let others know you possessed a secret, and some would work to learn it; that was a fact of nature.”
― Robert Jordan, New Spring

“It was easier to ask forgiveness, than permission.”
― Robert Jordan, New Spring

“Almost ten years past now that Edeyn had watched him ride away from Fal Moran, and been gone when he returned, yet he still could recall her face more clearly than that of any woman who had shared his bed since. He was no longer a boy, to think that she loved him just because she had chosen to become his first lover, yet there was an old saying among Malkieri men. Your carneira wears part of your soul as a ribbon in her hair forever. Custom strong as law made it so.”
― Robert Jordan, New Spring

“Nothing remained to be defended now, only a nation to avenge, and he had been trained to that from his first step. With his mother’s gift at his throat and his father’s sword in his hand, with the ring branded on his heart, he had fought from his sixteenth nameday to avenge Malkier. But never had he led men into the Blight. Bukama had ridden with him, and others, but he would not lead men there. That war was his alone. The dead could not be returned to life, a land any more than a man.”
― Robert Jordan, New Spring

“Lan shook his head slightly. “He was better. But he thought I was finished, with only one arm. He never understood. You surrender after you’re dead.”
― Robert Jordan, New Spring

“Men listened closer to calm tones than to the loudest shouts, so long as firmness and certainty accompanied the calm.”
― Robert Jordan, New Spring

“Friends lightened many burdens, even those they did not know of.”
― Robert Jordan, New Spring

“An honorable man protects whoever needs protecting, but children above all, and women above men.”
― Robert Jordan, New Spring

“Change what you can if it needs changing, but learn to live with what you can’t change.”
― Robert Jordan, New Spring

“a man’s word must be as good as an oath sworn beneath the Light or it was no good at all.”
― Robert Jordan, New Spring

“There was a limit to how many insults a man could swallow in silence.”
― Robert Jordan, New Spring

“only the dead could afford oblivion.”
― Robert Jordan, New Spring

“A lean heron of a fellow darted ahead of the others, and Lan danced the forms. Time like cool honey. The graylark sang, and the lean man shrieked as Cutting the Clouds removed his right hand at the wrist, and Lan flowed to one side so the rest could not all come at him together, flowed from form to form. Soft Rain at Sunset laid open a fat man’s face, took his left eye, and a ginger-haired young splinter drew a gash across Lan’s ribs with Black Pebbles on Snow. Only in stories did one man face six without injury. The Rose Unfolds sliced down a bald man’s left arm, and ginger-hair nicked the corner of Lan’s eye. Only in stories did one man face six and survive. He had known that from the start. Duty was a mountain, death a feather, and his duty was to Bukama, who had carried an infant on his back. For this moment he lived, though, so he fought, kicking ginger-hair in the head, dancing his way toward death, danced and took wounds, bled and danced the razor’s edge of life. Time like cool honey, flowing from form to form, and there could only be one ending. Thought was distant. Death was a feather. Dandelion in the Wind slashed open the now one-eyed fat man’s throat—he had barely paused when his face was ruined—a fork-bearded fellow with shoulders like a blacksmith gasped in surprise as Kissing the Adder put Lan’s steel through his heart. And suddenly Lan realized that he alone stood, with six men sprawled across the width of the stableyard. The ginger-haired youth thrashed his heels on the ground one last time, and then only Lan of the seven still breathed. He shook blood from his blade, bent to wipe the last drops off on the blacksmith’s too-fine coat, sheathed his sword as formally as if he were in the training yard under Bukama’s eye.”
― Robert Jordan, New Spring

“most mistakes made by rulers came from not knowing history; they acted in ignorance of the mistakes others had made before them.”
― Robert Jordan, New Spring

“Even the mountains will be worn down with time”
― Robert Jordan, New Spring

“It was beyond unwise to enter battle angry. Anger narrowed the vision and made for foolish choices.”
― Robert Jordan, New Spring