The Wise Man’s Fear – Patrick Rothfuss

My favorite quotes from the book The Wise Man’s Fear by Patrick Rothfuss:

I don’t care what they talk, I care what they say.

There was an art to choosing your projects in fishery. It didn’t matter if you made the brightest sympathy lamp or the most efficient heat funnel in the history of artificing until someone bought it you wouldn’t make a bent penny of commission.

Most things fail with the age. Our hands and basks stiffen, our eyes dim, skin roghens and our beauty fades. The only exception is the voice. Properly cared for a voice does nothing but grow sweeter with age and constant use.

We love what we love. So, yes, it had flaws, so what does that had to matter when it comes to the matters of the heart. We love what to love. Reason does not enter into it. In many ways unwise love is the truest love. 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 end pure and perfect.

Why Auri? Because she doesn’t have anyone else, and neither do I. If we don’t look out for each other – who will?

The desire for a knowledge shapes the mind

The second was some rather bad poetry, but it was short and I forced my way through gritting my teeth and occasionally closing one eye, so it is not to damage the entirety of my brain.

If we didn’t have impressive sounding names no one would take us seriously.

You’d be amazed how similar arrogance and confidence look at first glance. And he was generous and rich – which is a nice combination.

Clothes do not make a man, but you need a proper costume if you want to play the part.

They were the best sort of friends. The sort everyone hopes for but no one deserves.

When you’re around it’s easy to forget all the bad parts of my life – who I am – it’s nice to take a vacation from myself every once in a while. You’re my safe harbor in an endless stormy sea. You’re my shady willow on a sunny day. You’re sweet music in a distant room. You’re unexpected cake on a rainy day. You’re my bright penny on the roadside, you are worth more than the moon on the long night walk. You are sweet wine in my mouth, a song in my throat and laughter in my heart. You’re too good for me. You are a luxury I cannot afford. Despite this I insist you come with me today, I will buy you dinner and spend hours waxing rhapsodic landscape of wonder that is you.

Lord woman, if I had tits like yours I’d own half the world by now.

Poetry is a song without music. The song without music is like a body without soul.

Too much looking can get in the way of seeing.

The world needs people like you. You get things done. Not always the best or most sensible way but it gets done. You’re a rare creature. You know exactly what to do. You don’t hesitate – you just see and react.

That’s another problem with power. If you possess too much people don’t date point out your mistakes.

I’ll need to know more about her. Trying to court a woman without knowing her would be worse than foolish.

History tends to be rather dry, but everyone enjoys story.

It’s hard to long for something that is always there. Absence feeds affection.

A secret of the mouth is like a stone in a boot. At first you’re barely aware of it, then grows irritating, then intolerable. Secrets of the mouth grow larger the longer you keep them swelling until they press against your lips. They fight to be let free. Secrets of the heart are different. They are private and painful and we want nothing more than to hide them from the world. They do not swell or press against the mouth, they live in the heart and a longer they are kept the heavier they become. He complains that it’s better to have a mouthful of poison than the secret of a heart. Any fool will spit out poison, but we support these painful treasures. We swallow hard against them every day, forcing them deep inside us. There they sit, growing heavier – given the time they cannot help but crush the heart that holds them.

Nothing in the world is harder than convincing someone of an unfamiliar truth.

Only a fool worries over what he can’t control

Half of seeming clever is keeping your mouth shut at the right times.

Boys are always wearing beards hoping it will make them men.

Leader is not the muscle leader is a mind.

I learned more from a month on the road then I had in three years of classes. No man is brave that has never walked a hundred miles. If you want to know the truth of who you are walk until not a person knows your name. Travel is the great leveler, a great teacher. Bitter as medicine, cruder than glass. Long stretch of road will teach you more about yourself than 100 years of quiet introspective.

But sometimes the best help a person can find is helping someone else.

If a leg goes bad you need to cut it off, and some folks need killing.

They did important things. They made hard choices that no one else was willing to do. That sort of thing frightens people.

It’s one thing to enjoy story but it’s quite another to take it for the truth.