Patrick Rothfuss Quotes

When we are children we seldom think of the future. This innocence leaves us free to enjoy ourselves as few adults can. The day we fret about the future is the day we leave our childhood behind.

Words are pale shadows of forgotten names. As names have power, words have power. Words can light fires in the minds of men. Words can wring tears from the hardest hearts.

I have, of course, been called many other things. Most of them uncouth, although very few were unearned

The world is a mess and I just need to rule it.

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

It's like everyone tells a story about themselves inside their own head. Always. All the time. That story makes you what you are. We build ourselves out of that story.

It was wise enough to know itself, and brave enough to be itself, and wild enough to change itself while somehow staying altogether true.

If I seem to wander, if I seem to stray, remember that true stories seldom take the straightest way

There are three things all wise men fear: the sea in storm, a night with no moon, and the anger of a gentle man.

Do not mistake me for my mask. You see light dappling on the water and forget the deep, cold dark beneath.

You do not know the first note of the music that moves me.

The cost of a loaf is a simple thing, and so a loaf is often sought, but some things are past valuing: laughter, land, and love are never bought.

It's the questions we can't answer that teach us the most. They teach us how to think.

I guess I'm destined to be loveless

Anger can keep you warm at night, and wounded pride can spur a man to wondrous things.

I've waited a long time to show these flowers how pretty you are.

Each woman is like an instrument, waiting to be learned, loved, and finely played, to have at last her own true music made.

It is quite a thing. There are so many men, all endlessly trying to sweep me off my feet. And there is one of you, trying just the opposite. Making sure my feet are firm beneath me lest I fall.

Too much truth confuses the facts. Too much honesty makes you sound insincere.

The day we fret about the future is the day we leave our childhood behind.

You,” I said, “are sweet music in a distant room.

“I will admit, I've never had a student offer himself up for a vicious beating in order to prove he's worth my time.” “This was nothing... Once I jumped off a roof.”

Stories only happen to people who can tell them.

Only priests and fools are fearless and I've never been on the best of terms with God.

We understand how dangerous a mask can be. We all become what we pretend to be.

If you fall, you fall," Elodin shrugged. "Sometimes falling teaches us things too." In dreams you often fall before you wake.

I spoke it soft, but close enough to brush against her lips. I spoke it quiet, but near enough so that the sound of it went twining through her hair. I spoke it hard and firm and dark and sweet.

I always read. You know how sharks have to keep swimming or they die? I’m like that. If I stop reading, I die.

If I could sum it up in 50 words, I wouldn't have needed to write a whole novel about it.

But to love something despite. To know the flaws and love them too. This is rare and pure and perfect.

Knowing your own ignorance is the first step to enlightenment.

I firmly believe that we're all good people, but sometimes it's hard to understand how to do good.

It’s not over if you’re still here,” Chronicler said. “It’s not a tragedy if you’re still alive.

After a certain point is reached the numbers cease to matter, and all that remains is the faceless mass of a crowd.

A poet is a musician who can't sing.

Bones mend. Regret stays with you forever.

How odd to watch a mortal kindle / Then to dwindle day by day / Knowing their bright souls are tinder / And the wind will have its way

Music sounds different to the one who plays it. It is the musician's curse.

Using words to talk of words is like using a pencil to draw a picture of itself, on itself. Impossible. Confusing. Frustrating ... but there are other ways to understanding.

Books are a poor substitute for female companionship, but they are easier to find.

That is how heavy a secret can become. It can make blood flow easier than ink.

I've always liked the moonless night best. It's easier to say things in the dark. It's easier to be yourself.

I am no poet. I do not love words for the sake of words. I love words for what they can accomplish. Similarly, I am no arithmetician. Numbers that speak only of numbers are of little interest to me.

Practice makes the master.

It might not be true, but that doesn't mean it's nonsense.

I know," she said. "You have a stone in your heart, and some days it's so heavy there is nothing to be done. But you don't have to be alone for it. You should have come to me. I understand.

Character is half the reason we read. We're excited because of the plot, but we care because of the characters.

Words have to find a man's mind before they can touch his heart, and some men's minds are woefully small targets.

Truth is a troublesome motherfucker unless it's handled properly

I won the only duel I ever lost.