Shallan Quotes & Sayings

I can see what you're up to."
"Five foot six inches," Shallan said. "I suspect that's all I will ever be up to, unfortunately. — Brandon Sanderson

Perhaps I am an insensitive rich woman. That doesn't change the fact that you can be downright mean and offensive, Kaladin Stormblessed. — Brandon Sanderson

Storms, woman," [Kaladin] said. "I don't know what to make of you."
"Preferably not a corpse."
"I'm surprised someone hasn't already done that. — Brandon Sanderson

Brightness," the man said as she stepped up to him, "we aren't what you think we are."
"No," Shallan replied. "You aren't what you think yourselves to be. — Brandon Sanderson

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

I'd rather walk these chasms with a compulsive murderer than you. At least then, when the conversation got tedious, I'd have an easy way out."
"And your feet stink," [Shallan] said. "See? Too early. I can't possibly be witty at this hour. So no arguments." She hesitated, then continued more softly. "Besides, no murderer would agree to accompany you. Everyone needs to have some standards, after all. — Brandon Sanderson

The other one knelt and rammed a long, thin knife right into Jasnah's chest. Shallan heard it hit the wood of the floor beneath the body. — Brandon Sanderson

The sensation - it's not sorrow, but something deeper - of being broken. Of being crushed so often, and so hatefully, that emotion becomes something you can only wish for. If only you could cry, because then you'd feel something. Instead, you feel nothing. Just ... haze and smoke inside. Like you're already dead. — Brandon Sanderson

I can see why we need fellows who know how to light fires," Bluth said. "But I don't see why we need people to use fancy words."
"Shhhh," Shallan said. "Don't say that so loudly. If the lighteyes hear, they might stop wasting their time making up new words, and instead start interfering with the business of honest men. — Brandon Sanderson

You like lies?" Shallan asked. "Good lies," Pattern said. "That lie. Good lie." "What makes a lie good?" Shallan asked, taking careful notes, recording Pattern's exact words. "True lies." "Pattern, those two are opposites." "Hmmmm . . . Light makes shadow. Truth makes lies. Hmmmm. — Brandon Sanderson

We actually killed the thing."
"Sad, I know," she said, feeling depressed. "It was beautiful."
"It would be more beautiful if it hadn't tried to eat me."
"From my perspective," Shallan noted, "it didn't try, it succeeded."
"Nonsense," Kaladin said. "It didn't manage to swallow me. Doesn't count. — Brandon Sanderson

This is insanity!"
"No, this is scholarship! — Brandon Sanderson

Can something be "almost" an accident?' Pattern asked, genuinely curious. — Brandon Sanderson

Yet if she returned home without trying every avenue, could she face her brothers? They depended on her. For once in her life, someone needed Shallan. That responsibility excited her. And terrified her. — Brandon Sanderson

Kaladin followed [Shallan]. What else could he do? Explain to Adolin? Yes, princeling. I let your betrothed wander off alone in the darkness to get eaten by a chasmfiend. No, I didn't go with her. Yes, I'm a coward. — Brandon Sanderson

When did you get so peppy?" she shouted.
"Ever since I assumed I was dead, then I suddenly wasn't."
"Then remind me to try to kill you once in a while," she snapped. "If I succeed, it will make me feel better, and if I fail, it will make you feel better. Everyone wins! — Brandon Sanderson

It's not a lie," Shallan said, "if everyone understands and knows what it means."
"Mm. Those are some of the best lies. — Brandon Sanderson

Expectation wasn't just about what people expected of you. It was about what you expected of yourself. — Brandon Sanderson

To be human is to seek beauty, Shallan. Do not despair, do not end the hunt because thorns grow in your way. — Brandon Sanderson

You have no idea what you're saying." "I know," Shallan said. "I'm ignorant. There's a simple cure for that." She — Brandon Sanderson

I seek the truth," Shallan said. "Wherever it may be, whoever may hold it. That's who I am. — Brandon Sanderson

Actually, no," Shallan said. "I'm just fond of hyperbole."
"I'm not," he said. "It's a real bastard to spell"
"Kabsal! — Brandon Sanderson

I probably shouldn't mock our family. House Davar is distinctive and enduring."
Jushu raised his cup. Wikim nodded sharply.
"Of course," she added, "the same could be said for a wart. — Brandon Sanderson

You have quite the clever tongue on you!"
"I've never actually had someone's tongue on me," Shallan said, turning a page and not looking up, "clever or not. I'd hazard to consider it an unpleasant experience."
"It ain't so bad," Gaz said. — Brandon Sanderson

That caravan looks as if it's all Vorin. Also, you look a little spindly for a Horneater."
"Did you just insult the princess's weight?" Tyn asked, aghast.
Storms! She was good. She actually managed to produce angerspren with the remark.
Well, nothing to do but soldier on.
"I am offend!" Shallan yelled.
"You have offended Her Highness again!"
"Very offend!"
"You'd better apologize."
"No apologize!" Shallan declared. "Boots! — Brandon Sanderson

It is beautiful because it could have been. It should have been. — Brandon Sanderson

Practice," Shallan said. "I should suspect that is how everyone learns, eventually. — Brandon Sanderson

I'm sorry that your mystical, godlike powers do not instantly work as you would like them to. — Brandon Sanderson

I wasn't complaining', Pattern complained. — Brandon Sanderson

Shallan, weren't you supposed to be reading?"
"I ... had trouble concentrating."
"So you came up on deck," Jasnah said, "to sketch pictures of young men working without their shirts on. You expected this to help your concentration? — Brandon Sanderson

The only time you seem honest is when you're insulting someone!"
"The only honest things I can say to you are insults. — Brandon Sanderson

Are you that afraid of being wrong? One would assume you'd be accustomed to it by now."
He grunted. "Be careful, girl. You wouldn't want to accidentally insult a man."
"The last thing I'd want to do is accidentally insult you, Vathah," Shallan said. "To think that I
couldn't manage it on purpose if I wanted! — Brandon Sanderson

Truth is individual."
"What? No it's not. Truth is ... it's Truth. Reality."
"Your truth is what you see," Pattern said, sounding confused. "What else could it be? That is the truth that you spoke to me, the truth that brings power. — Brandon Sanderson

Shallan sat down on the plush, white bed, and sank almost down to her neck. What had they made the thing out of? Air and wishes? It felt luxurious. — Brandon Sanderson

Brightness ... I believe you stray into sarcasm."
"Funny.I thought I'd run straight into it,screaming at the top of my lungs. — Brandon Sanderson

It frightens me," Shallan said, "because we all see the world by some kind of light personal to us, and that light changes perception. I don't see clearly. I want to, but I don't know if I ever truly can. — Brandon Sanderson

The world isn't fair? What a huge revelation! Some people in power abuse those they have power over? Amazing! When did this start happening? — Brandon Sanderson

Love is like a classical melody." Shallan grinned. "If you end your performance too quickly, your audience is disappointed? — Anonymous

You live lies," Pattern said. "It gives you strength. But the truth . . . Without speaking truths you will not be able to grow, Shallan. I know this somehow. — Brandon Sanderson

Please," she whispered, sounding more frantic. "Don't leave me down in these chasms alone."
He smiled wryly. "Is it really this hard for you to let me win one single argument?"
"Yes! — Brandon Sanderson

Words are where most change begins. — Brandon Sanderson

What think you? Can beauty be taken from a man? If he could not touch, taste, smell, hear, see ... what if all he knew was pain? Has that man had beauty taken from him?"
"I ... " What did this have to do with anything? "Does the pain change day by day?"
"Let us say it does," the messenger said.
"Then beauty, to that person, would be the times when the pain lessens. Why are you telling me this story?"
The messenger smiled. "To be human is to seek beauty, Shallan. Do not despair, do not end the hunt because thorns grow in your way. Tell me, what is the most beautiful thing you can imagine?"
...
"I see," the messenger said softly. "You do not yet understand the nature of lies. I had that trouble myself, long ago. The Shards here are very strict. You will have to see the truth, child, before you can expand upon it. Just as a man should know the law before he breaks it. — Brandon Sanderson

Jasnah sniffed. Your tutors were idiots. Youthful immaturity is one of the cosmere's great catalysts for change, Shallan. — Brandon Sanderson

Ah, the outdoors,' Shallan said. 'I visited that mythical place once. — Brandon Sanderson

Shallan's mental image of Jasnah Kholin was of someone almost divine. It was, upon reflection, an odd way to regard a determined atheist. — Brandon Sanderson