The Wise Man's Fear (The Kingkiller Chronicle, Book 2)

“The point of all of this is control. First you must have control of yourself. Then you can gain control of your surroundings. Then you gain control of whoever stands against you. This is the Lethani.”

“It’s the questions we can’t answer that teach us the most. They teach us how to think. If you give a man an answer, all he gains is a little fact. But give him a question and he’ll look for his own answers.”

“Songs choose their hour and their own season. When your tune’s tin, there is a reason. The tone of a tune is your heart’s mettle, and there’s no clear water from a muddy well. All you can do is let the silt settle, or you’ll sound sour as a broken bell.”

Anyone can love a thing because. That’s as easy as putting a penny in your pocket. But to love something despite. To know the flaws and love them too. That is rare and pure and perfect.

“What a useful lesson this has already been,” Kvothe said dryly. “You’ve deduced a universal truth: things are usually unfair.”

The other feeling is what you were brought up to think. It is like an old shirt that no longer fits you. And now, when you look at it closely, you can see it was ugly to begin with.”

“I am a listener,” the old man said. “I listen to things to see what they have to say.” “Ah,” Jax said carefully. “And this is a good place for that?” “Quite good. Quite excellent good,” the old man said. “You need to get a long ways away from people before you can learn to listen properly.”

“What makes this a good place?” He looked out over the water for a long time before he answered. “It is an edge,” he said at last. “It is a high place with a chance of falling. Things are more easily seen from edges. Danger rouses the sleeping mind. It makes some things clear. Seeing things is a part of being a namer.”

Then Vashet made a conciliatory gesture. “She is also an excellent fighter, of course. We would not have a leader who could not fight. Shehyn’s Ketan is without equal. But a leader is not a muscle. A leader is a mind.”