Patrick Rothfuss Quotes

“You have to be a bit of a liar to tell a story the right way.”

“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.”

“You are not wise enough to fear me as I should be feared. You do not know the first note of the music that moves me.”

“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.”

“Power is okay, and stupidity is usually harmless. Power and stupidity together are dangerous.”

“You see, women are like fires, like flames. Some women are like candles, bright and friendly. Some are like single sparks, or embers, like fireflies for chasing on summer nights. Some are like campfires, all light and heat for a night and willing to be left after. Some women are like hearthfires, not much to look at but underneath they are all warm red coal that burns a long, long while.”

“But there’s a better way. You show her she is beautiful. You make mirrors of your eyes, prayers of your hands against her body. It’s hard, very hard, but when she truly believes you...Suddenly the story she tells herself in her own head changes. She transforms. She isn’t seen as beautiful. She is beautiful, seen.”

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

“If you can find someone like that, someone who you can hold and close your eyes to the world with, then you’re lucky. Even if it only lasts for a minute or a day.”

“As with all truly wild things, care is necessary in approaching them. Stealth is useless. Wild things recognize stealth for what it is, a lie and a trap. While wild things might play games of stealth, and in doing so may even occasionally fall prey to stealth, they are never truly caught by it.”

“Perhaps the greatest faculty our minds possess is the ability to cope with pain.”

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

“But Taborlin knew the name of all things, and so all things were his to command.”

“Music is a proud, temperamental mistress. Give her the time and attention she deserves, and she is yours. Slight her and there will come a day when you call and she will not answer.”

“All stories are true.”

“I learned to love the feel of good words.”

“Call a jack a jack. Call a spade a spade. But always call a whore a lady. Their lives are hard enough, and it never hurts to be polite.”

“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.”

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

“Bones mend. Regret stays with you forever.”