Quotes

One of the fondest memories of my Granddad Nelson was trading quotes regularly over email. Sadly I lost the email archive when I went on my mission, but it has continued to be an interest of mine. I hope you enjoy my collection of quotes. A bit of everything from religion to politics to leadership.

Find the balance. Accept the pain, but don’t accept that you deserved it.

Plan every battle as if you will inevitably retreat, but fight every battle like there is no backing down.

There are two kinds of important men... There are those who, when the boulder of time rolls toward them, stand up in front of it and hold out their hands. All their lives, they’ve been told how great they are. They assume the world itself will bend to their whims as their nurse did when fetching them a fresh cup of milk.
Those men end up squished.
Other men stand to the side when the boulder of time passes, but are quick to say, ‘See what I did! I made the boulder roll there. Don’t make me do it again!’
These men end up getting everyone else squished.”
Is there not a third type of person?”
There is, but they are oh so rare. These know they can’t stop the boulder. So they walk beside it, study it, and bide their time. Then they shove it—ever so slightly—to create a deviation in its path.

Nobody was strong all the time... Love wasn’t about being right or wrong, but about standing up and helping when your partner’s back was bowed.

You should never debate an idiot... No more than you’d use your best sword to spread butter.

There’s a difference between listening to your elders and just being as frightened as everyone else.

You tried to help the people of the market. You mostly failed. This is life. The longer you live, the more you fail. Failure is the mark of a life well lived. In turn, the only way to live without failure is to be of no use to anyone.

The longer you live, the more you fail. Failure is the mark of a life well lived. In turn, the only way to live without failure is to be of no use to anyone.

Sometimes a hypocrite is nothing more than a person who is in the process of changing.

He’d once believed he had been four men in his life, but he now saw he’d grossly underestimated. He hadn’t lived as two, or four, or six men—he had lived as thousands, for each day he became someone slightly different.
He hadn’t changed in one giant leap, but across a million little steps.
The most important always being the next

The most important step a man can take. It’s not the first one, is it?
It’s the next one. Always the next step, Dalinar.

The question… is not whether you will love, hurt, dream, and die. It is what you will love, why you will hurt, when you will dream, and how you will die. This is your choice. You cannot pick the destination, only the path.

The soldier’s way. Deal with today’s problems, then sleep and deal with tomorrow’s problems tomorrow.

I will take responsibility for what I have done… If I must fall, I will rise each time a better man.