Patrick Rothfuss Quotes
“My shrug was so nonchalant it would make a cat jealous”
Source: The Wise Man's Fear
“Dawn was coming. The Waystone Inn lay in silence, and it was a silence of three parts.”
Source: The Wise Man's Fear
“Beer dulls a memory, brand sets it burning, but wine is the best for a sore heart's yearning.”
Source: The Name of the Wind
“Feel free to call me by my first name: Master.”
Source: The Name of the Wind
“Answers were always important, but they were seldom easy.”
Source: The Slow Regard of Silent Things
“Power is okay, and stupidity is usually harmless. Power and stupidity together are dangerous".”
Source: The Name of the Wind
Source: The Wise Man's Fear
Source: The Name of the Wind (2007), Chapter 45, “Interlude—Some Tavern Tale” (p. 333)
Source: Chapter 14, “The Name of the Wind” (p. 113)
Context: Remember this son, if you forget everything else. A poet is a musician who can’t sing. Words have to find a man’s mind before they can touch his heart. And, some men’s minds are woeful small targets. Music touches their hearts directly, no matter how small or stubborn the mind of the man who listens.
Source: The Name of the Wind
Source: The Slow Regard of Silent Things
“Cruelty never helped the turning of the world.”
Source: The Slow Regard of Silent Things
“Isn't that the way of the world? We want the sweet things, but we need the unpleasant ones.”
Source: The Name of the Wind
“… nothing in the world is harder than convincing someone of an unfamiliar truth.”
Source: The Wise Man's Fear
“Some things simply were too true to stay. Some merely came to visit for a while.”
Source: The Slow Regard of Silent Things
Source: The Name of the Wind (2007), Chapter 7, “Of Beginnings and the Names of Things” (p. 58)
Context: I have been called Kvothe the Bloodless, Kvothe the Arcane, and Kvothe Kingkiller. I have earned those names. Bought and paid for them.
But I was brought up as Kvothe. My father once told me it meant “to know.”
I have, of course, been called many other things. Most of them uncouth, although very few were unearned.
I have stolen princesses back from sleeping barrow kings. I burned down the town of Trebon. I have spent the night with Felurian and left with both my sanity and my life. I was expelled from the University at a younger age than most people are allowed in. I tread paths by moonlight that others fear to speak of during day. I have talked to gods, loved women, and written songs that make the minstrels weep.
You may have heard of me.
Source: The Name of the Wind (2007), Chapter 43, “The Flickering Way” (p. 323)
“My bad luck got tangled up with my bad decisions, and I'm paying for it.”
Source: The Wise Man's Fear
Source: The Name of the Wind (2007), Chapter 40, “On the Horns” (p. 290)
Context: Any student of mine must be able to defend his ideas against an attack. No matter how you spend your life, your wit will defend you more often than a sword. Keep it sharp!
“There is a great deal of difference between a penis and a heart.”
Variant: There is a great difference between being fearless and being brave.
Source: The Wise Man's Fear
Source: The Name of the Wind
Source: The Name of the Wind
Source: The Wise Man's Fear
“If there is one thing I will not abide it is the folly of a willful pride.”
Source: The Name of the Wind
“All explicit knowledge is translated knowledge, and all translation is imperfect.”
Source: The Wise Man's Fear
Source: The Wise Man's Fear
“There was a door, but it was terribly bashful, so Auri politely pretended not to see it.”
Source: The Slow Regard of Silent Things
Variant: Wilem looked at me 'Why are you smiling?'
"I'm relieved", I said honestly." I was worried I had given myself cadmium poisoning, or had a mysterious disease. This is just someone trying to kill me.
Source: The Wise Man's Fear
“By your logic I should also be in charge of Solinade dances, needlework, and horse thieving.”
Source: The Name of the Wind
“There are few things as nauseating as pure obedience.”
Source: The Name of the Wind (2007), Chapter 75, “Interlude—Obedience” (p. 593)
Source: The Name of the Wind (2007), Chapter 63, “Walking and Talking” (p. 468)
