|
Quotes from
The Fires of Heaven Robert Jordan 
|
|
|
With his coming are the dread fires born again. The hills burn, and the land turns sere. The tides of men run out, and the hours dwindle. The wall is pierced, and the veil of parting raised. Storms rumble beyond the horizon, and the fires of heaven purge the earth. There is no salvation without destruction, no hope this side of death.
fragment from The Prophecis of the Dragon
"If you must drown or ride a lionfish, you ride and hope for the best."
Siaun Sanche
"If two women link, they do not double their strength - linking is not as simple as adding together the power of each - but if they are strong enough, they can match a man. Thirteen woman who can barely channel could overpower most men, linked. The thirteen weakest women in the tower could overpower you or any man, and barely breath hard. I came across a saying in Arad Doman. "The more women there are about, the softer a wise man steps." It would not be bad to remember it."
Asmodean
Women seemed to make up their minds whether you were lying without looking at the evidence. On the other hand, if they liked you, they either did not care or else decided even the most outrageous lie was true. 3, Pale Shadows, 94 "There are only three things you can do with a man like that. Stay away from him, kill him, or marry him."
Bair
"I never heard of forkroot, but walking seems to help the effects pass. You can walk most things off."
Nynaeve al'Meara
"Juilin, what were you going to do with the salt and cooking oil? Not exactly. Just a general idea." "I do not know. But they did not either. That is the trick of it; their minds made up worse than I ever could. I have seen a tough man break when I sent for a basket of figs and some mice."
Nynaeve and Juilin
"It seems to me that kings - and queens - can be fools when they forget what they are and act like who they act, but they're worse when they only remember what they are and forget who. Most could do with someone whose only job was to remind them that they eat and sweat and cry the same as any farmer."
Nynaeve al'Meara
"I do not need taming, thank you very much." "Aan'allein will die on the day he learns that you are dead." "You are a dirty fighter."
Nynaeve and Melaine
He strains to hear a whisper who refuses to hear a shout. 15, What Can Be Learned in Dreams, 264 "There is a saying in Cairhien, though I have heard it as far away as Tarabon and Saldaea. 'Take what you want and pay for it.' Siuan and I took the path we wanted, and we knew we would have to pay for it eventually."
Moiraine
"I mean to deal with the world as I find the world, for as long as I can."
Moiraine
"At my age, if I make it up, it's still an old saying."
Lini
Sept before clan, clan before outsiders, but Aiel before wetlanders.
"Men always believe they are in control of everything around them. When they find out they are not, they think they have failed, instead of learning a simple truth women already know."
Aviendha
"Do you finally begin to trust me?" "I trust you like a brother. Until the day you betray me. You have a parole for what you have done, in return for your teaching, and a better bargain than you deserve, but the day you turn against me, I will tear it up and bury it with you."
Asmodean and Rand
Women did not think the same as men, and Aiel women did not think like anybody else in the world.
"The fifth, I give you. But no part of that is to be food. We will live on what can be found wild or hunted or bought - if there is anyone with food to sell - until I can have the Tairens increase what they are bringing up from Tear. If any man takes a penny more than the fifth, or a load of bread without payment, if he burns so much as a hut because it belongs to a treekiller, or kills a man who is not trying to kill him, that man will I hang, whoever he is."
Rand al'Thor
"... I can make an army to take Tar Valon. So long as you know the taking will be bloody and long. "But these are my conditions. First the command is mine. You tell me what I do, but I decide how. You give commands to me, and I give them to the soldiers under me, not you. Not unless I have agreed to it first. I assign men, I promote them, and I discipline them. Not you. Second, if I tell you it can't be done, you will consider what I say. I don't ask to usurp your authority - yet I do not want to waste men because you do not understand war. Third, if you begin this, you will stay the course. I will be putting my head in a noose, and every man who follows along with me, and should you decide half a year from now that Elaida as Amyrlin is preferable to war, you will pull that noose tight for everyone of us who can be hunted down. The nations may stay out of civil war in the Tower, but they'll not let us live if you abandon us. Elaida is see to that."
Gareth Bryne
"What do you mean I have a thousand gold crowns. I've never seen a thousand crowns, much less ten thousand."
Rand al'Thor
"A soldier who takes blame for comrades who fall in battle is a fool."
Elayne Trakand
"I have never abandoned a woman in trouble in my life. You send me away and I will be on your heels like a soarer on a stern-chase."
Juilin Sandar
"... But if I am to be your Warder, even in secret, then I will be Warder to you... Among many other things, it is a Warder's place to tell his - her - Aes Sedai when she pushes herself too hard. Also to provide a dose of caution when she thinks she can walk into the Pit of Doom. And to keep her alive so she can do what she must. I will do these things for you. Never fear for your back when I am near, Elayne."
Birgitte
"If you are going to wear the dress, why cover up? You are a woman. Why not be proud of it?"
Birgitte
"I could live with you a milk-tongued sniveling wretch if that was what you were. I take people as they are, not as I would like them to be, or else I leave them."
Birgitte
People who claimed they were collecting money to help others often had a way of letting a good bit stick in their own pockets, or else they liked the power that spreading it about gave them, liked it far too much.
"Hear me, Shienarans. I am Galadedrid Damodred, and this woman is under my protection. As for her companion, I would count it small loss to die in order to save her the smallest harm. If you allow either to come to the smallest harm, I will find both of you and kill you."
Galad Damodred
"never kiss a girl whose brothers have knife scars."
Matrim Cauthon
"If you surround Couladin, trap him between you and the city, you might crush him against it. But you might push him right over the walls too. From what I hear, he's nearly gotten over twice already, even without miners or siege-engines, and the city is hanging on by its teeth. Press him hard enough and you'll find yourself fighting in Cairhien. Nasty thing, fighting in a city. And the idea is to save the place, not finish ruining it. "Best if you try to shove him away. Hit him from the south, mainly. There are bridges up here. Leave the Shaido a clear path to them. Always leave a way out, unless you really want to find out how hard a man can fight when he's nothing to lose..."
Matrim Cauthon
"Everything always changes. The best plan lasts until the first arrow leaves the bow."
Matrim Cauthon
... he knew he would draw them back, ta'veren pulling ta'veren, and he the strongest. Moiraine had named it no coincidence, three such growing up in the same village, all nearly the same age; the Wheel wove happenstance and coincidence into the Pattern, but it did not lay down the likes of the three of them for no reason. Eventually he would pull his friends back to him, however far they went, and when they came, he would use them, however he could. However he had to. Because he did have to. Because whatever the Prophecy of the Dragon said, he was sure the only chance he had of winning Tarman Gai'don lay in having all three of them, three ta'veren who had been tied together since infancy, tied together once more.
"I came to ask why you've taken to wearing a sword again... You can make a sword from the Power, or kill without, but suddenly you are wearing steel on your hip again, Why?" "It's hardly fair to use the Power that way. Especially against someone who can't channel. I might as well fight a child."
Lan and Rand
"Set a hundred man, or a thousand, with no purpose but to find and take him [Couladin]. But do not be fool enough to fight him! You are good with a blade now - very good - but Aielman are all but born with spear and buckler in hand. A spear through you heart, and all would have been for naught." "So I should avoid the fighting? Would you, if Moiraine had no claims on you? Will Rhuarc, or Bael, or any of them?" "I am not the Dragon Rebord. The fate of the world does not rest on me." "I'll not take needless risks, Lan, but I can't run from them all."
Lan and Rand
"A woman is no less a woman because she carries a spear. Did you ever one who could be diverted from anything she really wanted?"
al'Lan Mandragoran
"Sammael. I remember when he was first named Destroyer of Hope. After he betrayed the Gates of Hevan, and carried the shadow down into the Rorn M'doi and the heart of Satelle. Hope did seem to die that day. Culan Cuhan wept."
Rand al'Thor
"I can rest when I am dead."
Rand al'Thor
"If you truly serve the Car'a'carn as you claim Jasin Natael, you should guard his rest as they do." "It is the Dragon Reborn I follow, young woman. The Car'a'carn I leave to you."
Aviendha and Asmodean
"Sometimes, it is difficult to see the difference between oneself and one's enemies."
Asmodean
Vultures filled the sky around Cairhien in spiraling layers of black wings. On the ground they flapped about among clouds of buzzing flies, squawking hoarsely at glossy ravens that tried to usurp their rights to the dead... Vultures and ravens and flies together could not really have made the sunlight dimmer, yet it seemed so.
... however hard Tairens or Cairhienin or anyone else tried to puff up his head, he could rely on her [Aviendha] and the maidens, at least, to take the swelling down. And Egwene. And Moiraine. And Elayne and Nynaeve, for that matter, if he ever saw either again. Come to think of it, the lot of them seemed to make that a large part of their life's work.
... it was easier to trip a fool than to knock him down...
"And I knew a woman like you, once. Mathena looked down her nose at men, too, and even had a poor fellow executed for coming on her by accident while she swam naked. She had never even been kissed, until Zheres stole one from her. You'd have thought she had discovered men for the first time. She became so besotted, Zheres had to go live on a mountain to escape her. Watch out for the first man to kiss you. One has to come along sooner or later."
Birgitte
"Did you ever know a woman who listened to sense when she didn't want to?"
Thom Merrilyn
"You are supposed to be my Warder. You are supposed to to help me depend myself when I cannot Channel." "I will defend you when you are in danger, but if the danger is only of being turned over someone's knees because you've behaved like a spoiled child, I will have to decide whether it's better to let you learn a lesson that might save you the same or worse another time. Telling her you were heir to the Throne! Really! If you are going to be Aes Sedai, you had better start practicing how to bend the truth, not break it into shards."
Elayne and Birgitte
Men were willing to wear the same clothes until they rotted off.
"An open sack hides nothing, and open door hides little, but an open man is surely hiding something."
Lini
"If I thought Moghedian was hunting me, I would run. If there was no other place to run than a badger's hole, I would wriggle in and curl into a ball and sweat until she was gone. I would not stand in front of one of Cerandin's s'redit if it charged, either, and neither is cowardice. You must choose your own time and your own ground, and come at her in the way she least expects. I will take my revenge on her if ever I can, but that is the only way I will. Anything else would be foolish."
Birgitte
"He's a smuggler, but he did pay for that goods. Nynaeve had no right to seize them." "A woman's flaming rights are whatever she flaming says they are."
Thom and Uno
"This place is full of dangerous fools and dreamers. They think they can dispose Elaida. That's why Gareth Bryne is here. To raise an army for them." "Not fools. Madwomen and madmen. I don't care if Elaida was there the day Logain was born. They're mad to think they can pull down an Amyrlin sitting in the White Tower from here."
Thom and Juilin
Elayne: "You must go to, Thom. And you, Jiulin. There is no point in remaining. We have no need of you now, but Rand will." Thom: "Perhaps in a few days." Juilin: "A few days." Uno: "I could do with a little rest if I'm going to be running from Warders halfway to Cairhien." Elayne: "If you're think you're still following Rand al'Thor's orders to look after us -" Nynaeve: "You promised to do as you were told, and I mean to see -" Thom: "Nothing like that. Nothing at all like. Can't an old man with a limp want a little rest?" Juilin: "To tell the truth, I am just staying because Thom owes me money. Dice."
"I once knew a fellow with a name much like yours. A skilled player of a certain game." "I once knew a fellow who looked much like you. He tried hard to put me in chains. I think he'd have cut my head off if he ever laid hands on me." "A long time ago, that would be? Men do strange things to women sometimes."
Thom and Gareth
"If I teach you anything, it's because I want to. If I do, I want something in return. To study you and Leane. I want to know if stilling can be Healed." "It can't. Now -" "Anything short of death should be." "'Should be' isn't 'is', girl."
Nynaeve and Siuan
"She will be avenged. Rahvin, Mat. Not Gaebril. Rahvin. I'll lay him by the heels if I ever do another thing! I can be in Caemlyn in a hour. A raid - right, Mat? - a raid, not a war. I'll rip Rahvin's heart out."
Rand al'Thor
"Stopping a man from what he wants to do is like taking a sweet from a child. Sometimes you have to do it, but sometimes it just isn't worth the trouble."
Egwene al'Vere
The Creator made women to please the eye and trouble the mind.
"She is gone. I cannot feel her presence."
al'Lan Mandragoran
"The Wheel weaves. She was a soldier, a warrior in her way as much as I. This could happen two hundred times these past twenty years. She knew it, and so did I. It was a good day to die."
al'Lan Mandragoran
"Peace favor your sword. Tai'shar Manetheren." "Tai'shar Malkier... The last embrace of of the mother welcome you home, Lan."
Lan and Rand
"How can you be so cheerful?" "Because I'm alive. What do you want me to do, cry? Burn me, if we're going to do this thing, let's do it. Dovie'andi se tovya sagain." "What?" "I said it's time to roll the dice."
Rand and Mat
We all make our limits. And we set them out further than we have any right.
Falling forever through endless black. Would sanity crack before death came, of starvation or thirst or fear?
Take what you can have. Rejoice in what you can save, and do not mourn your losses too long.
"The White Tower allowed Mazrim Taim to escape. The false Dragon" "You cannot have him, Lord Bashere. I am announcing an amnesty. I can channel, Lord Bashere. Why should another man be hunted down and killed or gentled because he can do what I can? I will announce that any man who can touch the True Source, any man who wants to learn, can come to me and have my protection. The Last Battle is coming, Lord Bashere. There may not be time for any of us to go mad before, and I would not waste one man for the risk anyway. When the Trollocs came out of the Blight in the Trollocs Wars, they marched with Dreadlords, men and women who wielded te Power for the Shadow. We will face that again at Tarmon Gai'don. I don't know how many Aes Sedai will be at my side, but I won't turn away any man who channels if he will march with me."
Davram and Rand
"You have taken Caemlyn. I hear that Tear is yours, and Cairhien soon will be if it is not already. Do you mean to conquer the world with your Aiel and your army of men channeling the One Power?" "If I must. I'll welcome any ruler as an ally who welcomes me, but so far all I've seen is maneuvering for power, or outright hostility. Lord Bashere, there's anarchy in Tarabon and Arad Doman, and not far from it in Cairhien. Amadicia is eyeing Altara. The Seanchan - you may have heard rumors of them in Saldaea; the worst are likely true - the Seanchan on the other side of the world eyeing us all. Men fighting their own petty battles with Tarmon Gai'don on the horizon. We need peace. Time before the Trollocs come, before the Dark One breaks free, time to ready ourselves. If the only way I can find time and peace for the world is to impose it, I will. I don't want to, but I will."
Davram and Rand
|
|
