Robert Jordan

What is too absurd to be believed is believed because it is too absurd to be a lie.

— Robert Jordan

The best way to avoid trouble is to make sure no one wants to trouble you.

— Robert Jordan

If wishes were wings, pigs would fly.

— Robert Jordan

A man without trust might as well be dead.

— Robert Jordan

What you need isn’t always what you want.

— Robert Jordan

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

— Robert Jordan

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.

— Robert Jordan

The Wheel of Time and the wheel of a man's life turn alike without pity or mercy.

— Robert Jordan

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.

— Robert Jordan

What you want is what you cannot have. What you cannot have is what you want.

— Robert Jordan

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.

— Robert Jordan

Death rides on my shoulder, death walks in my footsteps. I am death.

— Robert Jordan

The wheel of a man's life. No mercy. No pity.

— Robert Jordan

If it hurts too much, make it hurt someone else instead.

— Robert Jordan

Nothing ever goes as you expect. Expect nothing, and you will not be surprised. Expect nothing. Hope for nothing. Nothing.

— Robert Jordan

Break the seals. Break the seals, and end it. Let me die forever.

— Robert Jordan

When a young woman's cheeks redden for no apparent reason, there is usually a man involved.

— Robert Jordan

A cat for a hat, or a hat for a cat. But nothing for nothing.

— Robert Jordan

You cannot please everyone. You cannot soothe everyone.

— Robert Jordan

What I love I destroy. What I destroy, I love.

— Robert Jordan

Women do not become exhausted, they only exhaust others.

— Robert Jordan

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.

— Robert Jordan

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.

— Robert Jordan

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.

— Robert Jordan

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.

— Robert Jordan

Let the dead rest, and care for the living.

— Robert Jordan

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.

— Robert Jordan

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.

— Robert Jordan

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 your fingers in their tea.

— Robert Jordan

Caution once forgotten could be forgotten once too often.

— Robert Jordan

If you try putting a woman on a horse when she does not want to go, she may put a knife in your ribs.

— Robert Jordan

We are going to tickle some Aes Sedai under the chin, rescue a mule, and put a snip-nosed girl on the Lion Throne. Oh, yes. That's Aviendha. Don't look at her crosswise, or she'll try to cut your throat and probably slit her own by mistake.

— Robert Jordan

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

— Robert Jordan

Men always say they didn't mean it that way. You would think they spoke a different language.

— Robert Jordan

If the world is 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.

— Robert Jordan

There are things worth fighting for.

— Robert Jordan

You cannot tell a man he has the power to make the earth shake, then expect him to walk small.

— Robert Jordan

If you pursue two hares, both will escape you.

— Robert Jordan

Often you don't know whether a woman is friend, enemy or lover until it is too late. Sometimes, she is all three.

— Robert Jordan

Cheer the bull, or cheer the bear; cheer both, and you will be trampled and eaten.

— Robert Jordan

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!

— Robert Jordan

I always thought the stole weighed about as much as three good men. The Amyrlin has few easy decisions to make, and fewer where she can be sure. Do what you must, and pay the price if you’re wrong. Sometimes if you are right, too.

— Robert Jordan

Honor? Maybe they're letting him sleep on silk, but a prisoner is still a prisoner.

— Robert Jordan

The only man completely at peace is a man without a navel.

— Robert Jordan

You always had to pay the butcher.

— Robert Jordan

Young men and fools sometimes bear pain they do not have to as a badge of their pride. Or their foolishness.

— Robert Jordan

If you don't know everything, you must go on with what you do know.

— Robert Jordan

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

— Robert Jordan

Whatever can be done, can be undone.

— Robert Jordan

A jealous wife is like a hornets’ nest in your mattress.

— Robert Jordan

What woman could I hate enough to marry her to the Dragon Reborn?

— Robert Jordan

When you leap from a cliff, it is too late for anything but holding to your courage. And hoping there's a haywain at the bottom to land in.

— Robert Jordan

The weak must be bold cautiously.

— Robert Jordan

Wounds to the pride are remembered long after wounds to the flesh.

— Robert Jordan

It is the enemy you underestimate who kills you.

— Robert Jordan

The more bosom a woman displayed, the less she wanted you to look. Openly, at least.

— Robert Jordan

When a woman plays the fool, look for the man. That was one of Lini's favorites. Another was, Kittens tangle your yarn, men tangle your wits, and it's simple as breathing for both.

— Robert Jordan

I killed the whole world, and you can too, if you try hard.

— Robert Jordan

I think the woman was born in Far Madding in a thunderstorm. She probably told the thunder to be quiet. It probably did.

— Robert Jordan

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.

— Robert Jordan

I thought I could build, I was wrong. We are not builders, not you, or I, or the other one. We are destroyers. Destroyers.

— Robert Jordan

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

If a woman does need a hero, she needs him today, not tomorrow.

— Robert Jordan

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

— Robert Jordan

We rode on the winds of the rising storm,

— Robert Jordan

A man should never give promises in bed.

— Robert Jordan

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

— Robert Jordan

The boy was dead eager, which could soon lead to plain dead.

— Robert Jordan

To fight the raven you may make alliance with the serpent until the battle is done.

— Robert Jordan

There is some delight in ale and wineTo dance with Jak O’ the Shadows.

— Robert Jordan

Let the lord of chaos rule.

— Robert Jordan

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 fury, until as one, we beg, "Let it begin."

— Robert Jordan

The end is near," Moridin said. "The Wheel has groaned its final rotation, the clock has lost its spring, the serpent heaves its final gasps. He must know pain of heart. He must know frustration, and he must know anguish. Bring these to him. And you will be rewarded.

— Robert Jordan

Sometimes, a wife must do what her husband cannot.

— Robert Jordan

How was he to cause war, as the prophecies say he must? How was he to break the nations and bind them to him? How could he 'slay his people with the sword of peace' or 'bind the nine moons to serve him' if he was locked away? Do the prophecies say that he will be 'unfettered'? Do they not speak of the 'chaos of his passing'? How can anything pass at all if he is kept in chains?

— Robert Jordan

We can't go back, Mat. The Wheel has turned, for better or worse. And it will keep turning, as lights die and forests dim, storms call and skies break. Turn it will. The Wheel is not hope, and the Wheel does not care, the Wheel simply is. But so long as it turns, folk may hope, folk may care. For with light that fades, another will eventually grow, and each storm that rages must eventually die. As long as the Wheel turns. As long is it turns....

— Robert Jordan

[Aviendha] didn't trust change. It couldn't be spotted or stabbed; it was more silent than any scout, more deadly than any assassin. No, she'd never trust it, but she would accept it.

— Robert Jordan

The more tragic things get, the more I feel like laughing.

— Robert Jordan

What could not be changed must be endured.

— Robert Jordan

Only the dead could afford oblivion.

— Robert Jordan

By the Creator at the moment of creation. May we shelter safe beneath the Light, in the Creator’s hand.

— Robert Jordan

A man’s word must be as good as an oath sworn beneath the Light or it was no good at all.

— Robert Jordan

Anger narrowed the vision and made for foolish choices.

— Robert Jordan

There is some delight in ale and wine

— 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.

— Robert Jordan

In wars, boy, fools kill other fools for foolish causes.

— Robert Jordan

Weep for what is lost forever.

— Robert Jordan

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.

— Robert Jordan

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

— Robert Jordan

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.

— Robert Jordan

Nobody tells us how to be men. We just are.

— Robert Jordan

The best lie is often one too ridiculous to be taken for a lie.

— Robert Jordan

The fact that the price must be paid is proof it is worth paying.

— Robert Jordan

The rose petal floats on water. The kingfisher flashes above the pond. Life and beauty swirl in the midst of death.

— Robert Jordan

When you have never known a thing except to dream, it becomes more than a talisman.

— Robert Jordan

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.

— Robert Jordan

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.

— Robert Jordan

Teach him how you will, a pig will never play the flute.

— Robert Jordan

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

— Robert Jordan

An Aes Sedai never lies, but the truth she speaks, may not be the truth you think you hear.

— Robert Jordan

Love is an odd thing. As odd a thing as there is.

— Robert Jordan

Here, southlander, you can't quit while you are winning. Better than when I'm losing.

— Robert Jordan

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.

— Robert Jordan

It's never over, al'Thor. The battle's never done.

— Robert Jordan

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

— Robert Jordan

There is one rule, above all others, for being a man. Whatever comes, face it on your feet.

— Robert Jordan

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

— Robert Jordan

Men often mistake killing and revenge for justice. They seldom have the stomach for justice.

— Robert Jordan

A pig painted gold is still a pig.

— Robert Jordan

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.

— Robert Jordan

Men! When you cannot win an argument, you either run away or resort to force.

— Robert Jordan

I may be a fool, but I intend to be a live fool.

— Robert Jordan

A man who will not die to save a woman is no man.

— Robert Jordan

All men dream. But I know dreams for dreams. This is reality.

— Robert Jordan

A shaping stone, to make us; a testing ground to prove our worth; and a punishment for the sin.

— Robert Jordan

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

— Robert Jordan

You break your neck, and I’ll see it mended just so I can break it again.

— Robert Jordan

Tonight you will eat fish. Tomorrow, you may die.

— Robert Jordan

Should and would build no bridges.

— Robert Jordan

...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.

— Robert Jordan

A flapping tongue has killed more men than sudden storms ever did.

— Robert Jordan

Most of those we call heroes only did what they had to do.

— Robert Jordan

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.

— Robert Jordan

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

— Robert Jordan

Trust is as slippery as a basket of eels sometimes.

— Robert Jordan

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

— Robert Jordan

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

— Robert Jordan

If a woman does need a hero, she needs him today, not tomorrow.

— Robert Jordan

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

— Robert Jordan

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.

— Robert Jordan

A bloody hero. Thom, if I ever look like acting the hero again, you kick me.""Just kick me!

— Robert Jordan

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.

— Robert Jordan

Better ten days of love than years of regretting.

— Robert Jordan

Does it make you brave to stick your hand in a bear's mouth? Would you do it again just because you didn't die?

— Robert Jordan

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

— Robert Jordan

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.

— Robert Jordan

To lead is neither to push or pull.

— Robert Jordan

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.

— Robert Jordan

It is better to be the hammer than the nail.

— Robert Jordan

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

— Robert Jordan

I expect a civil word for a civil word!

— Robert Jordan

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

— Robert Jordan

Surprising what you can dig out of books if you read long enough, isn't it?

— Robert Jordan

You read too much and understand too little.

— Robert Jordan

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.

— Robert Jordan

The Wheel weaves as the Wheel wills, and we are only the thread of the Pattern.

— Robert Jordan

On the heights, the paths are paved with daggers.

— Robert Jordan

No wine for me. Strange enough things happen when my head is clear. I want to know the difference.

— Robert Jordan

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.

— Robert Jordan

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.

— Robert Jordan

One more dance along the razor's edge finished. Almost dead yesterday, maybe dead tomorrow, but alive, gloriously alive, today.

— Robert Jordan

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.

— Robert Jordan

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

— Robert Jordan

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

— Robert Jordan

A weeping woman is a bucket with no bottom.

— Robert Jordan

It is better to guide people than try to hammer them into a line.

— Robert Jordan

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.

— Robert Jordan

Humankind is made for uncertainty, struggle, choice and change.

— Robert Jordan

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

— Robert Jordan

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.

— Robert Jordan

Courage to strengthen, fire to blind, music to daze, iron to bind.

— Robert Jordan

A flapping tongue can put you in the net instead of the fish.

— Robert Jordan

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

— Robert Jordan

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.

— Robert Jordan

If you fell head first into a pigsty, you'd try to convince everybody you did it on purpose.

— Robert Jordan

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

— Robert Jordan

The Creator made women to please the eye and trouble the mind.

— Robert Jordan

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.

— Robert Jordan

We all have our limits. And we set them further out than we have any right.

— Robert Jordan

I always say, 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.

— Robert Jordan

The more women there are about, the softer a wise man steps.

— Robert Jordan

A man is a man, on a throne or in a pigsty.

— Robert Jordan

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

— Robert Jordan

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

— Robert Jordan

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

— Robert Jordan

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

— Robert Jordan

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

— Robert Jordan

Better to face the bear than run from it.

— Robert Jordan

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

— Robert Jordan

Til shade is gone,

— Robert Jordan

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

— Robert Jordan

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.

— Robert Jordan

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

— Robert Jordan

I lead no armies, Warder. I command nothing save myself, and not always that.

— Robert Jordan

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.

— Robert Jordan

Better to try understanding the sun than a woman.

— Robert Jordan

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

— Robert Jordan

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.

— Robert Jordan

Time to toss the dice

— Robert Jordan

Never kiss a girl whose brothers have knife scars.

— Robert Jordan

Never gamble without knowing a back way out.

— Robert Jordan

I can rest when I’m dead.

— Robert Jordan

The louder a man tells you he’s honest, the harder you must hold onto your purse.

— Robert Jordan

The fox often offers the duck its pond.

— Robert Jordan

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

— Robert Jordan

"Wish" and "want" trip the feet, but "is" makes the path smoother.

— Robert Jordan

I will see you tonight. Or I will see you dead.

— Robert Jordan

I would burn the world and use my soul for tinder to hear her laugh again.

— Robert Jordan

It was easier to trip a fool than to knock him down.

— Robert Jordan

I’m no lord. I’ve more respect for myself than that.

— Robert Jordan

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.

— Robert Jordan

Death comes to us all; we can only choose how to face it when it comes.

— Robert Jordan

If you are not mine, then you are dead.

— Robert Jordan

Take what you can have. Rejoice in what you can save, and do not mourn your losses too long.

— Robert Jordan

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

— Robert Jordan

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

— Robert Jordan

The lions sing and the hills take flight.Let the Lord of Chaos rule.

— Robert Jordan

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

— Robert Jordan

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

— Robert Jordan

Clutch the bramble and you will be pricked.

— Robert Jordan

The only way to live is to die. I must die. I deserve only death.

— Robert Jordan

Victors write history.

— Robert Jordan

Men believe the worst easily, and women believe it hides something still darker.

— Robert Jordan

A woman’s eyes cut deeper than a knife.

— Robert Jordan

Dance with her, and she will forgive much; dance well, and she will forgive anything.

— Robert Jordan

Dance well with a woman, and she’s halfway yours.

— Robert Jordan

No man should have another man's voice in his head.

— Robert Jordan

An arrow may not be a shocklance, yet it can still kill you.

— Robert Jordan

What can’t be changed must be endured.

— Robert Jordan

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

— Robert Jordan

We are all fools sometimes, child, yet a wise woman learns to limit how often.

— Robert Jordan

What is too absurd to believe is believed because it is too absurd to be a lie.

— Robert Jordan

A man falling off a cliff to certain death will stretch out a hand even to his worst enemy.

— Robert Jordan

If I could find a way to escape my destiny, do I deserve to?

— Robert Jordan

We hear less, Davram Bashere, but perhaps sometimes we see more.

— Robert Jordan

Pride fills me. I am sick with the pride that destroyed me.

— Robert Jordan

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

— Robert Jordan

The end of time?" Ba'alzamon mocked. "You live like a beetle under a rock, and you think your slime is the universe. The death of time will bring me power such as you could not dream of, worm.

— Robert Jordan

There was a price to be paid for any decision he made. There was a price for who he was. Other people paid it.

— Robert Jordan

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

— Robert Jordan

A man without trust might as well be dead.

— Robert Jordan