The Wheel of Time

This page includes quotes from all The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan.

• The Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth comes again.

The Eye of the World (15 January 1990)

• "Lord of the Morning, I have come for you!"
  • Elan Morin Tedronai, Ishamael, to Lews Therin Telamon, the Dragon

• "Yes, Betrayer of Hope. So have men named me, just as they named you Dragon, but unlike you I embrace the name. They gave me the name to revile me, but I will yet make them kneel and worship it."
  • Elan Morin Tedronai to Lews Therin Telamon

• "For what else you have done, there can be no forgiveness, Betrayer, but for Ilyena's death I will destroy you beyond anything your master can repair."
  • Lews Therin Telamon to Elan Morin Tedronai

• "Remember, you fool! Remember your futile attack on Great Lord of the Dark! Remember his counterstroke! Remember! Even now the Hundred Companions are tearing the world apart, and every day a hundred men more join them. What hand slew Ilyena Sunhair, Kinslayer? Not mine. Not mine. What hand struck down every life that bore a drop of your blood, everyone who loved you, everyone you loved? Not mine, Kinslayer. Not mine. Remember, and know the price of opposing Shai'tan!"
  • Elan Morin Tedronai to Lews Therin Telamon

• "In wars, boy, fools kill other fools for foolish causes."
  • Thom Merrilin

• "Weep for Manetheren. Weep for what is lost forever."
  • Moiraine Damodred

• "What is already woven cannot be undone. It will not make the trees grow again for you to bring the building down on our heads."
  • Moiraine Damodred to Loial

• "Think if you want to stay alive. Fear will kill you if you don't control it."
  • Elyas Machera

• "You'll use it [Perrin's axe], boy, and as long as you hate using it, you would use it more wisely than most men would. Wait. If ever you don't hate it any longer, then will be the time to throw it as far as you can and run the other way."
  • Elyas Machera

• "Nobody tells us how to be men. We just are."
  • Perrin Aybara

• "Loial, didn't you say there was no wind in the Ways?"'
  • Rand al'Thor to Loial

• "Till shade is gone, till water is gone, into the Shadow with teeth bared, screaming defiance with the last breath, to spit into Sightblinder's eye on the Last Day."
  • Aiel Oath

• "The best lie is often one too ridiculous to be taken for a lie."
  • Morgase Trakand

• "The fact that the price must be paid is proof it is worth paying."
  • al'Lan Mandragoran

• "The rose petal floats on water. The kingfisher flashes above the pond. Life and beauty swirl in the midst of death.
  • al'Lan Mandragoran

• "What a strange thing to say," Egwene said. "Why do they use it like that? Peace." "When you have never known a thing except to dream," Lan replied, feeling Mandarb forward, "it becomes more than a talisman."
  • al'Lan Mandragoran and Egwene al'Vere

• "I will never shame you. I will hate the man you choose because he is not me, and love him if he makes you smile. No woman deserves the sure knowledge of widow's black as her brideprice, you least of all."
  • al'Lan Mandragoran to Nynaeve al'Meara

• "Death is lighter than a feather, duty heavier than a mountain."
  • al'Lan Mandragoran

• "The leaf lives its appointed time, and does not struggle against the wind that carries it away. The leaf does no harm, and finally falls to nourish new leaves. So it should be with all men. And women."
  • Aram

• "Teach him how you will, a pig will never play the flute."
  • Thom Merrilin

• "Take life as it comes. Run when you have to, fight when you must, rest when you can."
  • Elyas Machera

• "An Aes Sedai never lies, but the truth she speaks, may not be the truth you think you hear."
  • Tam al'Thor

• "A thousand years of sheep!"
  • Matrim Cauthon

The Great Hunt (15 November 1990)

• "Love is an odd thing. As odd a thing as there is."
  • al'Lan Mandragoran

• "Here, southlander, you can't quit while you are winning" "Better than when I'm losing"
  • Man in Fal Dara and Matrim Cauthon

• "Soon comes the day all shall be free. Even you, and even me. Soon comes the day all shall die. Surely you, but never I."
  • Padan Fain

• "It's never over, al'Thor. The battle's never done."
  • Padan Fain to Rand al'Thor

• There is an old saying here in the Borderlands: "Better to have one woman on your side than ten men."
  • al'Lan Mandragoran

• "There is one rule, above all others, for a man. Whatever comes, face it on your feet."
  • al'Lan Mandragoran

• "Death is lighter than a feather, duty heavier than a mountain."
  • Rand al'Thor, The Dragon Reborn

• "Always plan for the worst, that way all your surprises will be pleasant ones."
  • Verin Mathwin

• "Bring your lightnings, Aes Sedai. I will dance with them."
  • Urien to Verin Mathwin

• "Perhaps they do [deserve to die] and perhaps he[Rand al'Thor] would. But men often mistake killing and revenge for justice. They seldom have the stomach for justice."
  • Nynaeve al'Meara

• "An Aes Sedai’s gift is bait for a fish."
  • Matrim Cauthon

• "A pig painted gold is still a pig."
  • Matrim Cauthon

• "My mother always told me the best way to learn to deal with a man was to learn to ride a mule. She said they have about equal brains most of the time. Sometimes the mule is smarter."
  • Egwene al'Vere

• "Men! When you cannot win an argument, you either run away or resort to force."
  • Egwene al'Vere

• "Better to have one woman on your side than ten men."
  • Borderland saying

• "I may be a fool, but I intend to be a live fool."
  • Matrim Cauthon

• "A man who will not die to save a woman is no man."
  • Shienaran saying

• "All men dream. But I know dreams for dreams. This is reality."
  • al'Lan Mandragoran

• "A shaping stone, to make us; a testing ground to prove our worth; and a punishment for the sin."
  • Aiel on the Three Fold Land

• "Jump in a hole without looking, and there’ll be a snake in it every time."
  • Hurin

• "You break your neck, and I’ll see it mended just so I can break it again."
  • Nynaeve al'Meara

The Dragon Reborn (15 October 1991)

• "Do you know how to unite the people behind you, Child Carridin? The quickest way? Loose a lion - a rabid lion - in the streets. And when panic grips the people, once it has turned their bowels to water, calmly tell them you will deal with it. Then you kill it, and order them to hang the carcass up where everyone can see. Before they have time to think, you give another order, and it will be obeyed. And if you continue to give orders, they will continue to obey, for you will be the one who saved them, and who better to lead?"
  • Pedron Niall

• "Tonight you will eat fish. Tomorrow, you may die."
  • Moiraine Damodred to Faile Bashere

• "Should and would build no bridges."
  • Lini

• "... but who can know the heart of a man? Not even he himself, I suspect. A man is the easiest animal to put on a leash, and the hardest to keep leashed. Even when he chooses it himself."
  • Siuan Sanche

• "A flapping tongue has killed more men than sudden storms ever did."
  • Siuan Sanche

• “Most of those we call heroes only did what they had to do."
  • Siuan Sanche

• “Men always seem to refuse to admit they are sick until they’re sick enough to make twice as much work for women. Then they claim they’re well too soon, with the same result.”
  • Siuan Sanche

• "When there are fish heads and blood in the water, you don’t need to see the silverpike to know they are there."
  • Siuan Sanche

• "Trust is as slippery as a basket of eels sometimes."
  • Siuan Sanche

• "Once you decide to gut a fish, there’s no use waiting till it rots."
  • Siuan Sanche

• "One pretty woman means fun at the dance. Two pretty women mean trouble in the house. Three pretty women mean run for the hills."
  • Matrim Cauthon

• "If a woman does need a hero, she needs him today, not tomorrow."
  • Egwene al'Vere

• "Death comes for us all. We can only choose how to face it when it comes."
  • Aviendha

• "I have heard it said that a man caught between his wife and a Wise One often wishes for a dozen old enemies to fight instead. A man caught between a wife and three Wise Ones, and the wife a Wise One herself, must consider trying to slay Sightblinder."
  • Aviendha

• "A bloody hero. Thom, if I ever look like acting the hero again, you kick me." "And what would you have done differently?" "Just kick me!"
  • Matrim Cauthon and Thom Merrilin

• "Any fool knows men and women think differently at times, but the biggest difference is this. Men forget, but never forgive; women forgive, but never forget."
  • Thom Merrilin

• "Better ten days of love than years of regretting."
  • Min Farshaw

• "Men! Too blind to see what a stone could see, and too stubborn to be trusted to think for themselves."
  • Min Farshaw

• "To anger an Aes Sedai is to put your head in a hornets’ nest."
  • Loial

• "The arrogance of men never ceases to amaze me. You all think everything has to do with you, and every woman has to desire you."
  • Min Farshaw

• "To lead is neither to push or pull."
  • Leane Sharif

• "Nimble finger and nimble wits will take you a good deal further than a sword and muscles. Sharp eyes help as well, but fortunately, I have these things."
  • Faile Bashere

• "It is better to be the hammer than the nail."
  • Egwene al'Vere

• "Men fight when they should run, and fools fight when they should run. But I had no need to say it twice."
  • Faile Bashere

• "I came to bloody rescue you. Burn me if I expected to be greeted as if I had come to steal a pie."
  • Matrim Cauthon

The Shadow Rising (15 September 1992)

• "There's no time for winking at the men when you're busy bailing the boat."
  • Siuan Sanche

• "Surprising what you can dig out of books if you read long enough, isn't it?"
  • Rand al'Thor

• "Are you so eager to destroy us?"
  • Amys to Rand al'Thor

• "Rand al’Thor is a mule-headed, stone-willed fool of a...a...a man!"
  • Moiraine Damodred

• "You read too much and understand too little."
  • Moiraine Damodred

• "Prophecy is most dangerous when you try to make it happen... The Pattern weaves itself around you, but when you try to weave it, even you cannot hold it."
  • Moiraine Damodred

• "If I knew everything, Matrim, I would not need to ask questions."
  • Moiraine Damodred to Matrim Cauthon

• "The Wheel weaves as the Wheel wills, and we are only the thread of the Pattern."
  • Moiraine Damodred

• "On the heights, the paths are paved with daggers."
  • Seanchan saying

• "A Warder once told me Trollocs call the Aiel Waste 'the Dying Ground.' I mean to make them give that name to the Two Rivers."
  • Perrin Aybara

• "You have made a place in my heart where I thought there was no room for anything else. You have made flowers grow where I cultivated dust and stones. Remember this, on this journey you insist on making. If you die, I will not survive you long."
  • al'Lan Mandragoran

• "As well you try to understand the sun, Perrin. It simply is, and it is not to be understood. You cannot live without it, but it exacts a price. So with women."
  • Gaul

• "A Myrddraal has less cunning than a woman, and a Trolloc fights with more honor. And a goat has more sense."
  • Gaul

• "For the young, death is an enemy they wish to try their strength against. For those of us a little older, she is an old friend, an old lover, but one we are not eager to meet again soon."
  • Rhuarc

• "You have to understand, child. Everyone wants someone in their life, someone who cares for them, someone they can care for. Even a queen."
  • Thom Merrilin

• "Rand is the one who is supposed to go mad. And here I am, talking to an axe!"
  • Perrin Aybara

• "Before I knew what was happening, I had a fistful of spears around my neck like a collar. I could have shaved myself with one sneeze."
  • Mat recalling the Maiden's Kiss

• "You could weave silk from pig bristles before you could make a man anything but a man."
  • Lini

• "A weeping woman is a bucket with no bottom."
  • Lini

• "It is better to guide people than try to hammer them into a line."
  • Morgase Trakand

• "Whatever you can do, Lews Therin, I can do. And better."
  • Lanfear

• "I always get what I want in the end. And I think I want...ornamental ironwork. For the windows of my bedchamber."
  • Berelain sur Paendrag Tanreal of House Paeron

• "I do read sometimes."
  • Matrim Cauthon

• "Do not trouble trouble till trouble troubles you."
  • A saying in Maule, Tear

• "A ship is alive, and he is like a man, with a true man’s heart. Treat him well and care for him properly, and he will fight for you against the worst sea. He will fight to keep you alive even after the sea has long since given him his own deathstroke. Neglect him, though, ignore the small warnings he gives of danger, and he will drown you in a flat sea beneath a cloudless sky."
  • Jorin din Jubai White Wing

• "Humankind is made for uncertainty, struggle, choice and change."
  • Amys

• "If you plan for the worst, all surprises are pleasant."
  • Gaul

• "I’ll not have you bleeding to death on me. That would be just like you, to die and leave me the work of burying you. You have no consideration."
  • Faile Bashere

• "Courage to strengthen, fire to blind, music to daze, iron to bind."
  • Snakes and Foxes Game

• "Nothing like a little dance with Trollocs to ready you for sleep. Right Aviendha?"
  • Mat Cauthon

• "Wanting won’t make a stone cheese. But he still smells like cheese to me."
  • Perrin Aybara on Lord Luc

• "Light! Two! Oh, burn me! He’s the luckiest man in the world or the biggest fool since creation."
  • Mat Cauthon

• "You were never meant for greatness, Asmodean, only to follow those who are great."
  • Lanfear

The Fires of Heaven (15 October 1993)

• "A flapping tongue can put you in the net instead of the fish."
  • Siuan Sanche

• "I will run no more."
  • Aviendha

• "Fall in love with a man, and you end up doing laundry, even if it does belong to another man."
  • Min Farshaw

• "Sleep well and wake, Rand al'Thor."
  • Aviendha

• "It seems to me that kings — and queens — can be fools when they forget what they are and act like who they are, but they’re worse when they only remember what they are and forget who."
  • Nynaeve al'Meara

• "If you fell head first into a pigsty, you'd try to convince everybody you did it on purpose."
  • Egwene al'Vere to Nynaeve al'Meara

• “Schemes within schemes. The Great Serpent is a good sign for you Aes Sedai, I think. Someday you may swallow yourselves by accident.”
  • Melaine

• "I know how to take a man out of his miseries. Give him a swift kick, or else get him drunk and find him a pr-..."
  • Thom Merrilin to Elayne Trakand

• Absently he fingered the neat slice across the shoulder of his coat. Good shooting, at a moving target only half seen through the trees. He could have admired it more had he not been the target.
  • Matrim Cauthon

• "He strains to hear a whisper who refuses to hear a shout."
  • Two Rivers saying

• And as for words of wisdom, the first she had heard out of him had been a fervent promise never to throw a rock at anyone again, offered after she had paddled his young backside for it.
  • Nynaeve al'Meara about Rand al'Thor

• "I once saw a man hanging from a cliff,"' he said slowly. "'The brink was crumbling beneath his fingers, and the only thing near enough to grasp was a tuft of grass, a few long blades with roots barely clinging to the rock. The only chance he had of climbing back up on the cliff. So he grabbed it.'" His abrupt chuckle held no mirith. "'He had to know it would pull free."
  • Asmodean to Rand al'Thor

• Mat was caught up in it now. He more than merely liked gambling, and battle was a gamble to make dicing in taverns a thing for children and toothless invalids. Lives were the stake here, yours and other men's, men who were not even there. Make the wrong wager, a foolish bet, and cities died, or whole nations. Natael's somber music was fit accompaniment. At the same time, this was a game that set the blood racing.
  • Matrim Cauthon

• "A woman's flaming rights are whatever she flaming says they are." Uno laughed. "That's what women in Shienar say, anyway."
  • Uno Nomesta

• "Oh, I do remember you. The one with the fla- the mouth. Ragan thought you could skin and butcher a blo- bull at ten paces with your tongue. Chaena and Nangu thought fifty."
  • Uno Nomesta to Nynaeve al'Meara

• That was all he ever really wanted from women; a smile, a dance, a kiss, and to be remembered fondly.
  • Matrim Cauthon

• "The Creator made women to please the eye and trouble the mind."
  • Two Rivers saying

• "Take what you want, and pay for it."
  • Cairhien saying

• "We are alike in many ways, you and I. There is a darkness in us. Darkness, pain, death. They radiate from us. If ever you love a woman, Rand, leave her and let her find another. It will be the best gift you can give her."
  • al'Lan Mandragoran to Rand al'Thor

• "We all have our limits. And we set them further out than we have any right."
  • Lews Therin Telamon

• "The more women there are about, the softer a wise man steps."
  • Arad Doman saying

• "A man is a man, on a throne or in a pigsty."
  • Lini

• "A shoat squealing under a fence just attracts the fox, when it should be trying to run."
  • Lini

• "I have seen a tough man break when I sent for a basket of figs and some mice."
  • Juilin Sandar

• "Not thinking about a thorn doesn’t make it hurt your foot less."
  • Lini

• "A fool puts her hand into a hollow tree without finding out what’s inside first."
  • Lini

• "If you don’t look for snakes, you cannot complain when one bites you."
  • Lini

• "A gnarled old branch dulls the blade that severs a sapling."
  • Lini

• "When the honey’s out of the comb, there’s no putting it back."
  • Lini

• "Better to face the bear than run from it."
  • Lini

• "A fool puts a burr under the saddle before she rides."
  • Lini

• "At my age, if I make it up, it’s still an old saying."
  • Lini

• "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

• "When a woman says she will obey you, of her own will, it is time to sleep lightly and watch your back."
  • Asmodean

• "I lead no armies, Warder. I command nothing save myself, and not always that."
  • Asmodean to al'Lan Mandragoran

• "I trust you like a brother. Until the day you betray me. You have a parole for what you’ve 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."
  • Rand al'Thor to Asmodean

• All he wanted from life was some good wine, a game of dice, and a pretty girl or three.
  • Matrim Cauthon

• "In my day, girls jumped when a Wise One said jump, and continued jumping until they were told to stop. As I am still alive it is still my day. Need I make myself clearer?"
  • Sorilea

• "Better to try understanding the sun than a woman."
  • Thom Merrilin

• "Even a queen stubs her toe, but a wise woman watches the path."
  • Lini

• "If you must mount the gallows, give a jest to the crowd, a coin to the hangman, and make the drop with a smile on your lips."
  • Birgitte Silverbow

• "Never kiss a girl whose brothers have knife scars."
  • Matrim Cauthon

• "Never gamble without knowing a back way out."
  • Matrim Cauthon

• "I can rest when I’m dead."
  • Rand al'Thor

• "Have you finished sharing your wisdom, Jasin Natael?"
  • Aviendha to Jasin Natael

• "The louder a man tells you he’s honest, the harder you must hold onto your purse."
  • Two Rivers saying

• "The fox often offers the duck its pond."
  • Two Rivers saying

• "Waiting turns men into bears in a barn, and women into cats in a sack."
  • Lini

• "”Wish” and “want” trip the feet, but “is” makes the path smoother."
  • Lini

• "I will see you tonight. Or I will see you dead."
  • Rand al'Thor to Asmodean

• He recalled countering Sammael's last move with something particulary nasty, but he could not pull the memory to the surface. Not balefire. "Mustn't use that. Threatens the fabric of the Pattern. Not even for Ilyena? I would burn the world and use my soul for tinder to hear her laugh again."
  • Lews Therin Telamon

• "It was easier to trip a fool than to knock him down."
  • Moiraine Damodred

• "I’m no lord. I’ve more respect for myself than that."
  • Matrim Cauthon

• "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

• "I’m a gambler, a farmboy, and I’m here to take command of your bloody army!"
  • Matrim Cauthon

• "If you are not mine, then you are dead."
  • Lanfear

• "Take what you can have. Rejoice in what you can save, and do not mourn your losses too long."
  • Lews Therin Telamon

• "There’s no point letting honey age too long before you eat it."
  • Lini

• "It’s too late to change your mind after you’ve jumped off the cliff.”
  • Lini

• “I have made up my mind, young Tallanvor, and I do not expect you to question me when I have done so.”
  • Morgase Trakand

• "You will do well."
  • Moiraine Damodred to Rand al'Thor

Lord of Chaos (15 October 1994)

• "The lions sing and the hills take flight. The moon by day, and the sun by night. Blind woman, deaf man, jackdaw fool. Let the Lord of Chaos rule."
  • Chant from a children’s game heard in Great Arvalon, the Fourth Age

• "THE CHOSEN DWINDLE, DEMANDRED. THE WEAK FALL AWAY. WHO BETRAYS ME SHALL DIE THE FINAL DEATH. ASMODEAN, TWISTED BY HIS WEAKNESS. RAHVIN DEAD IN HIS PRIDE. HE SERVED WELL, YET EVEN I CANNOT SAVE HIM FROM BALEFIRE. EVEN I CANNOT STEP OUTSIDE OF TIME... DONE BY MY ANCIENT ENEMY, THE ONE CALLED DRAGON. WOULD YOU UNLEASH THE BALEFIRE IN MY SERVICE, DEMANDRED?"
  • The Dark One

• "An Aiel, Hal, can hide in a fold in the ground you wouldn’t even stumble over."
  • Gawyn Trakand

• "A slow horse does not always reach the end of the journey."
  • Lini

• "The best way to apologize to a man is to trip him in a secluded part of the garden."
  • Breane

• "You want to know what the Great Lord told me? Very well. But it stays here, held close. Since Sammael chose to stay away, he learns nothing. Nor do the others, whether alive or dead. The first part of the Great Lord’s message was simple. ‘Let the Lord of Chaos rule.’ His words, exact."
  • Demandred

• "Clutch the bramble and you will be pricked."
  • Rand al'Thor

• "The only way to live is to die. I must die. I deserve only death."
  • Lews Therin Telamon

• "Victors write history. Had I taken the Stone of Tear, history would have shown I was born on the slopes of Dragonmount, of a woman never touched by a man, and that the heavens opened up in radiance to herald my coming. The sort of thing they say about you, now."
  • Mazrim Taim

• "Do you have any idea how long it takes to dig graves for twenty-three oak trees?"
  • Davram Bashere

• "I am going to defeat them, Taim. All of them. They think they can tear everything down. It’s always tearing down, never building up! I’m going to build something, leave something behind. Whatever happens, I will do that! I’ll defeat the Dark One. And cleanse saidin, so men don’t have to fear going mad, and the world doesn’t have to fear men channeling. I’ll . . . "
  • Rand al'Thor to Mazrim Taim

• "Men believe the worst easily, and women believe it hides something still darker."
  • Two Rivers saying

• "A woman’s eyes cut deeper than a knife."
  • Two Rivers saying

• "What happened with the pond? Surely the water is the point of the story."
  • Somara

• "Dance with her, and she will forgive much; dance well, and she will forgive anything."
  • Matrim Cauthon

• "Dance well with a woman, and she’s halfway yours."
  • Matrim Cauthon

• "No man should have another man's voice in his head."
  • Rand al'Thor

• "It was a gelding, and it would not have hurt me. Horses like me. I am not a little boy: I am nine. And my name is Olver, not boy."
  • Olver to Matrim Cauthon

• "An arrow may not be a shocklance, yet it can still kill you."
  • Sammael to Graendal

• "What can’t be changed must be endured."
  • Lini

• "The pike does not ask the frog’s permission before dining."
  • Lini

• "We are all fools sometimes, child, yet a wise woman learns to limit how often. Since you seem to have finished breakfast, I suggest you rid yourself of that mug and find something to do before you find yourself in hot water instead. Have you ever considered cutting your hair short? No matter. Off with you."
  • Lelaine Akashi to Nynaeve al'Meara

• "What is too absurd to believe is believed because it is too absurd to be a lie."
  • Sebban Balwer

• "If I could find a way to escape my destiny, do I deserve to?"
  • Rand al'Thor

• "We hear less, Davram Bashere, but perhaps sometimes we see more."
  • Bael to Davram Bashere

• "Pride fills me. I am sick with the pride that destroyed me."
  • Lews Therin Telamon

• "A man must know when to retreat from a woman, but a wise man knows that sometimes he must stand and face her."
  • Davram Bashere

• There was a price to be paid for any decision he made. There was a price for who he was. Other people paid it.
  • Rand al'Thor

• "I am the Dragon Reborn. Denying won’t change it. Wishing won’t change it. I’m not the man you knew back in Emond’s Field. Do you understand now? Do you?"
  • Rand al'Thor

• "First things first; take care of what can be done now before worrying too long over what might never be."
  • Verin Mathwin

• "The gall of the man. The utter gall! Detaining us! Restricting us!"
  • Alanna Mosvani, referring to Rand al'Thor

• "A man without trust might as well be dead."
  • Lews Therin Telamon

• "The best way to avoid trouble is to make sure no one wants to trouble you."
  • Birgitte Trahelion

• "You must surrender before you can guide."
  • Theodrin Dabei to Nynaeve al'Meara

• "If wishes were wings, pigs would fly."
  • Old saying in Randland

• "What you need isn’t always what you want."
  • Lini

• "A man's dreams are a maze even he cannot know."
  • Bair

• "And she learned to guard her tongue better. I will wager she did. When we left them, she was still yelping and trying to get those scarlet puffers out of her dress. A scarlet puffer looks much like a red adder if your eye is dull like a wetlander’s, but it is not poisonous. It does wriggle when confined, though."
  • Bair, referring to Carlinya

• "The woman learns nothing. The Aes Sedai we served in the Age of Legends could not have been such fools."
  • Amys, referring to Carlinya

• "How people see you first is what they hold hardest in their minds. It is the way of the world. You can step down from a throne, and even if you behave like a farmer in a pigsty, some part in each of them will remember that you did descend from a throne. But if they see only a young man first, a country man, they will resent him stepping up to his throne later, whatever his right, whatever his power."
  • Moiraine Damodred

• "The Wheel of Time and the wheel of a man's life turn alike without pity or mercy."
  • Lews Therin Telamon

• "Take this message back to Sammael. Every death he has caused since waking, I lay at his feet and call due. Every murder he has ever done or caused, I lay at his feet and call due. He escaped justice in the Rorn M’doi, and at Nol Caimaine, and Sohadra . . . " More of Lews Therin’s memories, but the pain of what had been done there, the agony of what Lews Therin’s eyes had seen, burned across the Void as if Rand’s. " . . . But I will see justice done now. Tell him, no truce with the Forsaken. No truce with the Shadow."
  • Rand al'Thor to Sammael's messenger

• "You never escape the traps you spin yourself. Only a greater power can break a power, and then you're trapped again. Trapped forever so you cannot die."
  • Lews Therin Telamon

• "What you want is what you cannot have. What you cannot have is what you want."
  • Lews Therin Telamon

• "The yellowfly is almost too small to see, but if you leave its egg in your skin, you will lose an arm or leg before it hatches - if it does not kill you."
  • Rhuarc

• "Death rides on my shoulder, death walks in my footsteps. I am death."
  • Lews Therin Telamon

• "The wheel of a man's life. No mercy. No pity."
  • Lews Therin Telamon

• "If it hurts too much, make it hurt someone else instead."
  • Lews Therin Telamon

• "Nothing ever goes as you expect. Expect nothing, and you will not be surprised. Expect nothing. Hope for nothing. Nothing."
  • Lews Therin Telamon

• "Break the seals. Break the seals, and end it. Let me die forever."
  • Lews Therin Telamon

• "When a young woman's cheeks redden for no apparent reason, there is usually a man involved."
  • Sorilea to Egwene al'Vere

• "You do talk nonsense sometimes."
  • Egwene al'Vere to Rand al'Thor

• "A cat for a hat, or a hat for a cat. But nothing for nothing."
  • Taren Ferry saying

• "You put your cat in your hat and stuff it down your breeches, Rand al’Thor."
  • Egwene al'Vere

• "You cannot please everyone. You cannot soothe everyone."
  • Moiraine Damodred to Rand al'Thor

• "The great and powerful Car’a’carn gave his honor to Far Dareis Mai to carry. If the mighty Car’a’carn dies in ambush while the Maidens protect him, Far Dareis Mai has no honor left. If the all-conquering Car’a’carn does not care, perhaps Enaila is right. Perhaps the omnipotent Car’a’carn is a willful boy who should be held by the hand lest he run over a cliff because he will not look."
  • Sulin to Rand al'Thor

• "You trouble me so, Rand al’Thor. Light, sometimes I think the Creator made you just to trouble me."
  • Aviendha to Rand al'Thor

• "What I love I destroy. What I destroy, I love."
  • Lews Therin Telamon

• "Women do not become exhausted, they only exhaust others."
  • Ogier saying

• "The road ahead of you is long, dark, and, I very much fear, bloodstained. I also very much fear that you will take us all down that road. But you must live to reach the end of it."
  • Elder Haman to Rand al'Thor

• "As my Lord says, my Lord's leg is not a side of beef. Thank you, my Lord, for instructing me."
  • Nerim to Matrim Cauthon

• "Let most men have a finger, and they will have the whole hand before you know. Let a clan chief have a finger, and he will have the entire arm."
  • Sorilea

• "When you wish for so long that you could hear something, and then suddenly, with no warning, you do, is like a lightning strike and rain on parched ground at the same time. You're stunned, but you cannot hear enough."
  • Gawyn Trakand

• "Never prod at a woman unless you must. She will kill you faster than a man and for less reason, even if she weeps over it after."
  • Lews Therin Telamon

• "You are a very lucky man, Dimir Faral. You are going to watch you're friends hang. Then you'll be given a horse, and you will go tell Pedron Niall that one day I will hang him too for what happened here."
  • Rand al'Thor

• "Let the dead rest, and care for the living."
  • Old saying in Randland

• "A crafty enemy will set a weak ambush you are meant to break through. Confident because you have dealt with the threat, your guard relaxed, you walk into the second, stronger ambush."
  • Caldin

• "Young men can be impetuous, young men can be rush, young men can be fools, but the Car'a'carn cannot let himself be a young man."
  • Nandera to Rand al'Thor

• "By the look of you, Nynaeve, I could almost think you were angry, but I know you have such a sweet disposition people ask you to dabble you fingers in their tea."
  • Thom Merrilin to Nynaeve al'Meara

• "Caution once forgotten could be forgotten once too often."
  • Nynaeve al'Meara

• "We are always more afraid than we wish to be, but we can always be braver than we expect."
  • Sorilea

• If the world was ending, a woman will want time to fix her hair. If the world's ending, a woman will take time to to tell a man something he's done wrong.
  • Matrim Cauthon

• I will use anybody I must. You said it yourself; I am who I am. And I'm using myself up, Perrin, because I have to. Just like I'll use anybody I have to. We don't have a choice anymore. Not me, not you, not anybody!
  • Rand al'Thor

• Kneel to the Lord Dragon, or you will be knelt.
  • Mazrim Taim, after the battle of Dumai's Wells

• "They will pay. I am the Lord of the Morning."
  • Lews Therin Telamon

A Crown of Swords (15 May 1996)

• Only a fool thinks his enemies stand still when he isn't looking, my Lord Dragon.
  • Damer Flinn

The Path of Daggers (20 October 1998)

• I killed the whole world, and you can too, if you try hard.
  • Lews Therin Telamon

Winter's Heart (9 November 2000)

• "I think the woman was born in Far Madding in a thunderstorm. She probably told the thunder to be quiet. It probably did."
  • Basel Gill, referring to Lini

• "A man who trusts everyone is a fool, and a man who trusts no one is a fool. We are all fools, if we live long enough."
  • Lews Therin Telamon

• "I thought I could build, I was wrong. We are not builders, not you, or I, or the other one. We are destroyers. Destroyers."
  • Lews Therin Telamon to Rand

• "Any day you wake up, maybe you die."
  • Deni

• "You can never know everything, and part of what you know is always wrong. Perhaps even the most important part. A portion of wisdom lies in knowing that. A portion of courage lies in going on anyways."
  • Lan Mandragoran

Crossroads of Twilight (7 January 2003)

• If a woman does need a hero, she needs him today, not tomorrow.
  • Egwene al'Vere

• Sometimes, pain is all that lets you know you're alive.
  • Lews Therin Telamon

Knife of Dreams (11 October 2005)

• Lan told me once that Malkier lives so long as one man wears the hadori in pledge that he will fight the Shadow, so long as one woman wears the ki'sain in pledge that she will send her sons to fight the shadow. I wear the ki'sain, Master Aldragoran. My husband wears the hadori. So do you. Will Lan Mandragoran ride to the last battle alone?
  • Nynaeve ti al'Meara Mandragoran

• A man should never give promises in bed.
  • Rand al'Thor

• Mourn if you must. But mourn on the march to Tarmon Gai'don.
  • Logain Ablar

• A beautiful battle is one you don't have to fight.
  • Mat Cauthon

• The boy was dead eager, which could soon lead to plain dead.
  • Mat, about Olver

• To fight the raven you may make alliance with the serpent until the battle is done.
  • Byar, Children of the Light

• There is some delight in ale and wine
  And some in girls with ankles fine
  But my delight, yes always mine
  Is to dance with Jak O’ the Shadows
  
  We will toss the dice however they fall
  And snuggle the girls be they short or tall
  Then follow lord Mat whenever he calls
  To dance with Jak O’ the Shadows
  • Song of the Band of the Red Hand

• Besides, you must remember the old saying. Let the lord of chaos rule.
  • Taim

The Gathering Storm (27 October 2009)

• Ravens and crows. Rats. Mists and clouds. Insects and corruption. Strange events and odd occurences The ordinary twisted and strange. Wonders. The dead are beginning to walk and some see them. Others do not, but more and more, we all fear the night. These have been our days. They rain upon us beneath a dead sky, crushing us with their furry, until as one, we beg, "Let it begin."
  • General of the unknown scholar, entry for the feast of Fraya 1000 NE

New Spring (January 2004)

• "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.'"
  • al'Lan Mandragoran

• "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."
  • Siuan Sanche, referring to Moiraine

See also

• Robert Jordan
• The Wheel of Time
• The Eye of the World
• The Great Hunt
• The Dragon Reborn
• The Shadow Rising
• The Fires of Heaven
• Lord of Chaos
• A Crown of Swords
• The Path of Daggers
• Winter's Heart
• Crossroads of Twilight
• New Spring
• Karaethon Cycle