Top 500 Brandon Sanderson Quotes (2025 Update)
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201. “I am a writer who works from an outline. What I generally do when I build an outline is I find focal, important scenes, and I build them in my head and I don’t write them yet, but I build towards them.”

— Brandon Sanderson

202. “We are not creatures of destinations. It is the journey that shapes us.”

— Brandon Sanderson

203. “Once the soul grows accustomed to the wound, it’s much harder to fix.”

— Brandon Sanderson

204. “Though most expect young men to be fools, I’ve noticed that just a little bit of age can make a man far more foolish than he was as a child.”

— Brandon Sanderson

205. “Priests are always easy to blame. They make convenient scapegoats – after all, anyone with a strong faith different from your own must either be a crazy zealot or a lying manipulator.”

— Brandon Sanderson

206. “Dalinar said. “You’ve grown, soldier. Few men have the wisdom to realize when they need help. Fewer still have the strength to go get it. Well done. Very well done.”

— Brandon Sanderson

207. “Welcome, Ruin said, to godhood.”

— Brandon Sanderson

208. “You are whatever you want to be, Wayne. You’re the wind. You’re the stars. You are all endless things.”

— Brandon Sanderson

209. “I was thinking that work is like fertilizer in that I’m glad it exists; I just don’t ever want to get stuck in it.”

— Brandon Sanderson

210. “The first step to being in control was to see yourself as capable of being in control.”

— Brandon Sanderson

211. “People are elastic, Wax thought. We can keep reshaping ourselves. And if we’re not quite the same as before, well, that’s good. It means we can grow.”

— Brandon Sanderson

212. “Two blind men waited at the end of an era, contemplating beauty. They sat atop the world’s highest cliff, overlooking the land and seeing nothing.”

— Brandon Sanderson

213. “I think given the choice between loving Mare – betrayal included – and never knowing her, I’d chose love. I risked, and I lost, but the risk was still worth it.”

— Brandon Sanderson

Featured in: Betrayal Quotes

214. “So I can but repeat what has been done before?’ “ ‘In some things, yes. You will love. You will hurt. You will dream. And you will die. Each man’s past is your future.’ “ ‘Then what is the point?’ I asked. ‘If all has been seen and done?’ “ ‘The question,’ she replied, ’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.”

— Brandon Sanderson

215. “Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

— Brandon Sanderson

216. “Life before death, strength before weakness, journey before pancakes -Lopen.”

— Brandon Sanderson

217. “Szeth-son-son-Vallano, Truthless of Shinovar, sat atop the highest tower in the world and contemplated the End of All Things.”

— Brandon Sanderson

218. “You don’t stop loving someone just because they hurt you” he said. “It would certainly make things easier if you did.”

— Brandon Sanderson

219. “I strive for nothing if not consistency.”

— Brandon Sanderson

220. “And Vin liked solitude. When you’re alone, no one can betray you.”

— Brandon Sanderson

221. “This is not an easy time in which to live. That does not mean that it has to be a difficult time to love...”

— Brandon Sanderson

222. “The means by which we achieve victory are as important as the victory itself.”

— Brandon Sanderson

223. “Can you feel it? Something just changed. I believe that’s the sound the world makes when it pisses itself.”

— Brandon Sanderson

224. “Their heads are heads of rock, their hearts set upon rock. Set your sights on something higher. Something more grand.”

— Brandon Sanderson

225. “Syl was silent for a moment. “Do you want to be a miracle?” “No,” Kaladin whispered. “But for them, I will be.”

— Brandon Sanderson

226. “I had a splinter once,” Shallan noted. “It eventually got out of hand.”

— Brandon Sanderson

227. “My dear, did you just try to prove the existence of God through the use of your cleavage?”

— Brandon Sanderson

228. “I am mountains that crush. I am waves that crash. I am storms that shatter. I am the end.”

— Brandon Sanderson

229. “Unknowing ignorance is preferable to informed stupidity.”

— Brandon Sanderson

230. “We follow the codes not because they bring gain, but because we loathe the people we would otherwise become.”

— Brandon Sanderson

231. “A story doesn’t live until it is imagined in someone’s mind.”

— Brandon Sanderson

Featured in: Quotes About Stories

232. “The world just changed, Gaz,” Kaladin said, leaning in close. “I died down at that chasm. Now you’ve got my vengeful spirit to deal with.”

— Brandon Sanderson

233. “You’ve managed – in our short three years together – to kill not only my god, but my father, my brother, and my fiance. That’s kind of like a homicidal hat trick. It’s a strange foundation for a relationship, wouldn’t you say?”

— Brandon Sanderson

234. “Hello?” M-Bot said. “Spensa? Are you dead?” “Maybe.” “Oooh. Like the cat!”

— Brandon Sanderson

235. “They were the lowest in the army, and yet they bore the weight of kings.”

— Brandon Sanderson

236. “Weakness can imitate strength if bound properly, just as cowardice can imitate heroism if given nowhere to flee.”

— Brandon Sanderson

237. “My dear man!” Breeze said, leaning down. “Have I taught you nothing? Being in charge isn’t about doing anything – it’s about making certain that other people do what they’re supposed to! Delegation, my friend. Without it, we would have to bake our own bread and dig our own latrines!” Then, Breeze leaned in. “And, trust me. You don’t want to taste anything I’ve had a hand in baking. Ever. Particularly after I’ve cleaned a latrine.”

— Brandon Sanderson

238. “Adolin is right,” Veil said. “He’s always been right about you. Tell me. Who is the strongest of mind? The woman whose emotions are always on her side? Or the woman whose own thoughts betray her? You have fought this fight every day of your life, Shallan. And you are not weak.”

— Brandon Sanderson

239. “Power was an illusion of perception, as Jasnah had said. The first step to being in control was to see yourself as capable of being in control.”

— Brandon Sanderson

240. “The life of a person is more than the chaos of its passing.”

— Brandon Sanderson

241. “Don’t worry that you aren’t giving people what they want. Give them who you are, and let that be enough.”

— Brandon Sanderson

242. “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.”

— Brandon Sanderson

243. “Logically,” Shallan said, “the bright side is the only side you can look on, because the other side is dark.”

— Brandon Sanderson

244. “How did a man like you ever end up at a table of negotiation?” “I was trained by a surly Mistborn, a sarcastic Terrisman, and a group of disrespectful thieves,” Elend said, sighing. “Plus, on top of that, I was a fairly insufferable person to begin with. But, kindly continue with your insult – I didn’t mean to interrupt.”

— Brandon Sanderson

245. “You’re starting to sound a lot like my mother.” “Captivating?” Syl said. “Amazing, witty, meaningful?” “Repetitive.” “Captivating?” Syl said. “Amazing, witty, meaningful?” “Very funny.”

— Brandon Sanderson

246. “I’m not odd! I’m beautiful and articulate.”

— Brandon Sanderson

247. “Jasnah raised an eyebrow. “You will find wise men in any religion, Shallan, and good men in every nation. Those who truly seek wisdom are those who will acknowledge the virtue in their adversaries and who will learn from those who disabuse them of error. All others – heretic, Vorin, Ysperist, or Maakian – are equally closed-minded.”

— Brandon Sanderson

248. “Being in charge isn’t always about telling people what to do. Sometimes, it’s about knowing when to step out of the way of people who know what they’re doing. – Tam al’Thor.”

— Brandon Sanderson

249. “I consider myself to be a man of principle. But, what man does not? Even the cutthroat, I have noticed, considers his actions “moral” after a fashion.”

— Brandon Sanderson

250. “You can’t put a price on a person’s life,” Kaladin.”

— Brandon Sanderson