Top 500 Brandon Sanderson Quotes (2025 Update)
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301. “Time, the Stormfather said. Which, though dross to him, is the most valuable thing a man can have.”

— Brandon Sanderson

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

— Brandon Sanderson

303. “Abandon the guilt,” Prof said. “Abandon the denial. Steelheart did this to her. He’s our goal. That has to be your focus. We don’t have time for grief; we only have time for vengeance.”

— Brandon Sanderson

304. “It turned out that strange little girls grow up to be strange young women.”

— Brandon Sanderson

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

— Brandon Sanderson

306. “Love must be allowed to flow both ways – if it is not, then it is not truly love, I think. It is something else. Infatuation, perhaps? Either way, there are some of us who are far too quick to make martyrs of ourselves. We stand at the side, watching, thinking that we do the right thing by inaction. We fear pain – our own, or that of another.” He.”

— Brandon Sanderson

307. “When I finally lie down, I find sleep elusive. The same thoughts that trouble me during the day are only compounded by the stillness of night.”

— Brandon Sanderson

308. “Two blind men waited at the end of an era, contemplating beauty.”

— Brandon Sanderson

309. “I’ve seen Steelheart bleed.”

— Brandon Sanderson

310. “Very well, you two,” Pattern said. “No mating. NO MATING.” He hummed to himself, as if pleased, then sank down onto a plate.”

— Brandon Sanderson

311. “I’m an expert on one-armed Herdazian jokes. ‘Lopen,’ my mother always says, ’you must learn these to laugh before others do. Then you steal the laughter from them, and have it all for yourself.”

— Brandon Sanderson

312. “Logic doesn’t work on Wayne.” “I bought a ward against it off a traveling fortune-teller,” Wayne explained. “It lets me add two ’n’ two and get a pickle.”

— Brandon Sanderson

313. “Despite that loyalty, Hrathen had never felt what Dilaf now expressed. Hrathen had no hatreds so severe that he wept, no loves so profound that he would risk everything in their name. He had always believed that he was the perfect follower of Jaddeth; that his Lord needed levelheadedness more than He needed unbridled ardor. Now, however, he wondered.”

— Brandon Sanderson

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

— Brandon Sanderson

315. “Metal. In some ways, that was the true mark of mankind. Man tamed the stones, the bones of the earth below. Man tamed the fire, that ephemeral, consuming soul of life. And combining the two, he drew forth the marrow of the rocks themselves, then made molten tools.”

— Brandon Sanderson

316. “Overcome your guilt, Kaladin. Care, but not too much. Take responsibility, but don’t blame yourself.’ Protect, save, help – but know when to give up.”

— Brandon Sanderson

317. “Enjoy the moment,” Evi told him. “Close your eyes and contemplate what the One has given you. Seek the peace of oblivion, and bask in the joy of your own sensation.”

— Brandon Sanderson

318. “Oh, child. The world is monstrous at times, and there are those who would have you believe that you are terrible by association.” “I am.” “No. For you see, it flows the other direction. You are not worse for your association with the world, but it is better for its association with you.”

— Brandon Sanderson

319. “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

320. “I want you to go back into the barrack and tell the men to come out after the storm. Tell them to look up at me tied here. Tell them I’ll open my eyes and look back at them, and they’ll know hat I survived.”

— Brandon Sanderson

321. “Who do you think is stronger?” Adolin asked. “The man who has walked easily his entire life, or the man with no legs? The man who must pull himself by his arms?”

— Brandon Sanderson

322. “I’m Galladon, from the sovereign realm of Duladel. I’m most recently from Elantris, land of sludge, insanity, and eternal perdition. Nice to meet you.”

— Brandon Sanderson

323. “I point out truths when I see them, Brightlord Sadeas. Each man has his place. Mine is to make insults. Yours is to be in-sluts.”

— Brandon Sanderson

324. “But must not even a madman rely on his own mind, his own experience, rather than that of others?”

— Brandon Sanderson

325. “I?” the man said. “I am a drifter. A miscreant. The flame’s last breath, made of smoke at its passing.”

— Brandon Sanderson

326. “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

327. “The finest defense of character is correct action. Acquaint yourself with virtue, and you can expect proper treatment from those around you.”

— Brandon Sanderson

328. “We take to the skies, Stormblessed,” Lunamor said. “We will walk no more in coming days. This is the end.”

— Brandon Sanderson

329. “If we must put our head into the lion’s mouth, let us make certain that he chokes upon our flesh!”

— Brandon Sanderson

330. “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

331. “You are inexperienced. So was I, once. So is every man. The measure of a person is not how much they have lived. It is not how easily they jump at a noise or how quick they are to show emotion. It’s in how they make use of what life has shown them.”

— Brandon Sanderson

332. “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

333. “He needed more than vague explanations and abstract ideas – but those were the very soul of art. If you could explain something perfectly, then you’d never need art. That was the difference between a table and a beautiful woodcutting. You could explain the table: its purpose, its shape, its nature. The woodcutting you simply had to experience.”

— Brandon Sanderson

334. “She assumes,” Wax said, “that our detective style isn’t normally the punchy-punchy, stabby-stabby type.” “To be fair,” Wayne said, “it’s usually a more shooty-shooty, whacky-whacky type.”

— Brandon Sanderson

335. “That a thing is hated is not proof that it’s great art, but the lack of hatred is certainly proof that it is not.”

— Brandon Sanderson

336. “The more limitations you put on a character, often times the better a character you’ll make them, the more interesting the story becomes because the character can’t simply wave a hand and make something happen. They have to work within the framework.”

— Brandon Sanderson

337. “When you’re young, you can assume that everyone older than you has life figured out. Once you get command yourself, you realize we’re all just the same kids wearing older bodies.”

— Brandon Sanderson

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

— Brandon Sanderson

339. “It’s funny, Vasher thought, How many things begin with my getting thrown into prison.”

— Brandon Sanderson

340. “Let the Vorin believe as they wish – the wise among them will find goodness and solace in their faith; the fools would be fools no matter what they believed.”

— Brandon Sanderson

341. “The ways of Wayne are mysterious and incomprehensible.”

— Brandon Sanderson

342. “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

343. “It’s good for you to think of this, son. Ponder. Worry. Stay up nights, frightened for the casualties of your ideology. It will do you good to realize the price of fighting.”

— Brandon Sanderson

344. “I’ve found you can ignore half of what Dox tells you and not miss much-except for maybe they occasional complaint that you’re spending too much.”

— Brandon Sanderson

345. “To cover his embarrassment, he attuned Curiosity and tried Rock’s drink of the day. “This is good! What is in it?” “Ha! Is water I boiled cremlings in, before serving them last night.”

— Brandon Sanderson

346. “The life of a person is more than the chaos of it’s passing. Emotion, Ruin. This is your defeat.”

— Brandon Sanderson

347. “Ignorance may reside in a man hiding from intelligence, but scholarship can seem ignorance hidden behind intelligence.”

— Brandon Sanderson

348. “If you toss a kid into a lions den, can you really blame the lion?”

— Brandon Sanderson

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

— Brandon Sanderson

350. “Sazed, I’ve raised some fifteen daughters,” Tindwyl said, entering the room. “No teenage girl is stable. Some are just better at hiding it than others.”

— Brandon Sanderson