The voices / 95 fragments

Robert Jordan

Dates not recorded

Name supplied in the contributor-provided quotation collection. Basic attribution label; identity, lifetime and quotation authenticity have not been independently verified.

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▷ Play this voice Search within this voice ↗Place in time ↗death nature mind knowledge friendship life time wisdom

Archive entries

01Undated

A woman's eyes cut deeper than a knife.

Robert Jordan / quote

02Undated

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

Robert Jordan / quote

03Undated

What did you spend so much time talking about with Ila? If you weren’t dancing with that long-legged fellow, you were talking to her like it was some kind of secret.”“Ila was giving me advice on being a woman,” Egwene replied absently. He began laughing, and she gave him a hooded, dangerous look that he failed to see.“Advice! Nobody tells us how to be men. We just are.”“That,” Egwene said, “is probably why you make such a bad job of it.

Robert Jordan / quote

04Undated

Women do not become exhausted they only exhaust others.

Robert Jordan / quote

05Undated

Let most men have a finger and they will have the whole hand before you know. Let a clan cheif have a finger and he will have the entire arm.

Robert Jordan / quote

06Undated

In Shinear, a woman [is] safe anywhere, any time-except from Trollocs and Myrddraal, of course-and any man [will] die to see it so.

Robert Jordan / quote

07Undated

Who knows a woman's heart? Most women will shrug off what a man would kill you for, and kill you for what a man would shrug off.

Robert Jordan / quote

08Undated

They were the sort who berated a man for meddling and chased him away, then berated him again for not being there when he was needed. Not that they would admit he was needed, even then, not them. Raise a hand to help and you were interfering, do nothing and you were an un-trustworthy wastrel.

Robert Jordan / quote

09Undated

Sometimes, pain is all that lets you know you're alive.

Robert Jordan / quote

10Undated

We rode on the winds of the rising storm,We ran to the sounds of the thunder.We danced among the lightning bolts,and tore the world asunder.

Robert Jordan / quote

11Undated

The Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and pass. What was, what will be, and what is, may yet fall under the Shadow.

Robert Jordan / quote

12Undated

I'll never forget the first time Davram took me by the scruff of my neck and showed me he was the stronger of us. It was magnificent! If a woman is stronger than her husband, she comes to despise him. She has the choice of either tyrannizing him or else making herself less in order not to make him less. If the husband is strong enough, though, she can be as strong as she is, as strong as she can grow to be.

Robert Jordan / quote

13Undated

All was shattered, and all but memory lost, and one memory above all others, of him who brought the Shadow and the Breaking of the World. And him they named Dragon.

Robert Jordan / quote

14Undated

Anyone who claimed that old age had brought them patience was either lying or senile.

Robert Jordan / quote

15Undated

The only rules he wanted to remember were "never kiss a girl whose brothers have knife scars" and "never gamble without knowning a back way out

Robert Jordan / quote

16Undated

And yet many of us do it without families," Nynaeve said. "Without love, without passion beyond our own particular interests. So even while we try to guide the world, we separate ourselves from it.We risk arrogance, Egwene. We always assume we know best, but risk making ourselves unable to fathom the people we claim to serve.

Robert Jordan / quote

17Undated

Oh, how long were the days of a man.When he strode upon the broken land.He sailed as far as a man could steer.And he never wished to lose his fear.For the fear of man is a thing untold.It keeps him safe, and it proves him bold!Don’t let fear make you cease to strive,for that fear it proves you remain alive!I will walk this broken road,and I will carry a heavy load!So come at me with your awful lies,I’m a man of truth and I’ll meet your eyes!

Robert Jordan / quote

18Undated

I'm not a clever man, but I'm willing to listen to people who are, and I think you are. Just don't try poking me in the direction you want me to go. I don't like that Master Balwer.

Robert Jordan / quote

19Undated

I'd run. But maybe you can't run. Think of that, too.' His yellow eyes seemed to look inward, and he sounded tired. 'Sometimes you can't run.

Robert Jordan / quote

20Undated

Those intricate curves and patterns your people create are beyond human eyes and hands to make. Perhaps we wished to avoid a poor imitation that would only have been an ever-present reminder to us of what we had lost. There is a different beauty in simplicity, in a single line placed just so, a single flower among the rocks. The harshness of the stone makes the flower more precious. We try not to dwell too much on what is gone. The strongest heart will break under that strain.

Robert Jordan / quote

21Undated

Juilin," she asked hesitantly, "what were you going to do with the salt and cooking oil? Not exactly," she added more quickly. "Just a general idea." He looked at her for a moment. "I do not know. But they did not, either. That is the trick of it; their minds made up worse then I ever could. I have seen a tough man break when I sent for a basket of figs and some mice.

Robert Jordan / quote

22Undated

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 anyway.

Robert Jordan / quote

23Undated

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.

Robert Jordan / quote

24Undated

The oak fought the wind and was broken, the willow bent when it must and survived.

Robert Jordan / quote