I can tell you of the waves and water, but you don’t begin to get an inkling of its size until you stand on the shore. You don’t really understand the ocean until you are in the midst of it, nothing but ocean on all sides, stretching away endlessly. Only then do you realize how small you are, how powerless.
She tried to slide it back to proper true, but couldn’t see the shape of it and couldn’t tell the way of things and if it was a place where it was right.
Those were the worst memories. Precious and perfect. Sharp as a mouthful of glass. I lay in bed, clenched into a trembling knot, unable to sleep, unable to turn my mind to other things, unable to stop myself from remembering again. And again. And again.
I started to leave, then stopped. “Is it true? The story.” I made an inarticulate gesture. “The part you told today?” “All stories are true,” Skarpi said. “But this one really happened, if that’s what you mean.” He took another slow drink, then smiled again, his bright eyes dancing. “More or less. You have to be a bit of a liar to tell a story the right way. Too much truth confuses the facts. Too much honesty makes you sound insincere.
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. Would I could my own fire lend. What does your flickering portend?
Distrust turns quickly to dislike.
It’s she who should take care, for when she strikes, my heart will make a sound so beautiful and bright that it can’t help but bring her back to me in winged flight.
She listened, then opened up the door and looked again. Nothing. But simply seeing did not help. She knew that seeming wasn’t hardly half of things.
There’s no good story that doesn’t touch the truth.
I’ll see you where the roads meet.
What about falling?′ I asked. ‘If you fall, you fall.’ Elodin shrugged. ‘Sometimes falling teaches us things too. In dreams you often fall before you wake.
I looked down at the board. “The point isn’t to win?” I asked. “The point,” Bredon said grandly, “is to play a beautiful game.
You’d be surprised at the sorts of things hidden away in children’s songs.
Now,” Kvothe said angrily, “you’ve both acted understandably, but that does not by any means mean that either of you have behaved well.
No breath of wind disturbed the surface of the water. So as we climbed out onto the fallen stone the stars reflected themselves in double fashion; as above, so below.
Losing Foxen was bad. It would leave her blind and lonely in the dark. Being trapped beneath the pipes and choking out her life was awful too. But neither of those things were wrong.
My parents were never really married, by which I mean they never bothered making their relationship official with any church. I’m not embarrassed by the fact. They considered themselves married and didn’t see much point in announcing it to any government or God. I respect that. In truth, they seemed more content and faithful than many officially married couples I have seen since.
If it’s something everyone knows, I can’t afford to ask.
Cease these sweet words,” I protested. “You seek to bend me to your will, but it will not work. Your flattery is naught to me but wind!
The difference is between saying something to a person, and saying something about a person. The first might be rude, but the second is always gossip.