And so we begin the game that cannot be won,” Thom said, sliding the knife back into its sheath. “Courage to strengthen,” Noal whispered, stepping forward, holding up a lantern with a flickering flame. “Fire to blind. Music to dazzle. Iron to bind.” “And Matrim Cauthon,” Mat added. “To bloody even the odds.” He stepped through the doorway. Light.
The trumpets of war shall sound at his footsteps, the ravens feed at his voice, and he shall wear a crown of swords.
You’re not my enemy, but your Empire is.
He was as much a fool as any man or woman. He just had enough experience to recognize it. It took a few seasons before a man could put that together.
Women were always happy for a chance to educate a boy when he was young; Mat thought they assumed they could educate him out of becoming a man if they tried hard enough.
What you practice too often, you use without thinking.
Never choose the card a man wants you to. Mat should have realized that. It was one of the oldest cons in creation.
A man doesn’t choose to be an idiot, but he does choose to be loyal.
Whatever the Dark One wants, I oppose, so hear this and know it true. Before I let the Dark One have you, I will destroy you myself.
Confidence was one key to victory. The other side believing you were confident was sometimes almost as good as actually being confident.
When you have a wolf by the ears, it’s as hard to let go as to hold on.
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.
That was the trouble with the best of men. They always thought they were doing the right thing.
The fall of the Stone will be one of the major proofs that the Dragon has been reborn. May the Stone stand till I am dust.
Domon would learn; even when a woman needed help, if she did not want it, she made you pay for giving it.
Being in charge isn’t always about telling people what to do. Sometimes, it’s about knowing when to step out of the way of people who know what they’re doing.
If someone offers him enough gold, it becomes a toss of the dice, and not even Mat Cauthon could say how they’ll land.
We try not to dwell too much on what is gone. The strongest heart will break under that strain.
Small hopes can grow surprising fruit.
Nothing remained to be defended now, only a nation to avenge, and he had been trained to that from his first step. With his mother’s gift at his throat and his father’s sword in his hand, with the ring branded on his heart, he had fought from his sixteenth nameday to avenge Malkier. But never had he led men into the Blight. Bukama had ridden with him, and others, but he would not lead men there. That war was his alone. The dead could not be returned to life, a land any more than a man.