Some of my Arcanum bunkmates taught me a card game called dogs-breath. I returned the favor by giving an impromptu lesson in psychology, probability, and manual dexterity. I won almost two whole talents before they stopped inviting me back to their games.

Patrick Rothfuss

Categorized in : Two Games Dog

There are times when the mind is dealt such a blow it hides itself in insanity. While this may not seem beneficial, it is. There are times when reality is nothing but pain, and to escape that pain the mind must leave reality behind.

Patrick Rothfuss

pain blow time

So yes. It had flaws, but what does that matter when it comes to matters of the heart? We love what we love. Reason does not enter into it. In many ways, unwise love is the truest love. Anyone can love a thing because. That's as easy as putting a penny in your pocket. But to love something despite. To know the flaws and love them too. That is rare and pure and perfect.

Patrick Rothfuss

perfect heart love

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.

Patrick Rothfuss

growing-up children thinking

Secrets of the heart. We swallow hard against them every day, forcing them deep inside us. There they sit, growing heavier, festering. Given enough time, they cannot help but crush the heart that holds them.

Patrick Rothfuss

crush secret heart

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.

Patrick Rothfuss

fire heart men

No man is brave that has never walked a hundred miles. If you want to know the truth of who you are, walk until not a person knows your name. Travel is the great leveler, the great teacher, bitter as medicine, crueler than mirror-glass. A long stretch of road will teach you more about yourself than a hundred years of quiet introspection.

Patrick Rothfuss

teacher men travel

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.

Patrick Rothfuss

heart men son

Do not mistake me for my mask. You see light dappling on the water and forget the deep, cold dark beneath.

Patrick Rothfuss

light dark mistake

The truth is that the world is full of dragons, and none of us are as powerful or cool as we’d like to be. And that sucks. But when you’re confronted with that fact, you can either crawl into a hole and quit, or you can get out there, take off your shoes, and Bilbo it up.

Patrick Rothfuss

shoes dragons powerful

It was wise enough to know itself, and brave enough to be itself, and wild enough to change itself while somehow staying altogether true.

Patrick Rothfuss

enough brave wise

Only a fool worries over what he can’t control. by Patrick Rothfuss

Only a fool worries over what he can’t control.

Patrick Rothfuss

fool worry

The cost of a loaf is a simple thing, and so a loaf is often sought, but some things are past valuing: laughter, land, and love are never bought.

Patrick Rothfuss

laughter simple past

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

Patrick Rothfuss

wisdom wise life

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.

Patrick Rothfuss

identity healing life

Sleep marks passing time, giving us distance from the things that have hurt us. When a person is wounded they will often fall unconscious. Similarly, someone who hears traumatic news will often swoon or faint. This is the mind's way of protecting itself from pain.

Patrick Rothfuss

distance pain hurt

You do not know the first note of the music that moves me. by Patrick Rothfuss

You do not know the first note of the music that moves me.

Patrick Rothfuss

notes moving firsts

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

Patrick Rothfuss

knowing soul wind

Could you help me catch the moon?” “I might be able to give you some advice,” the old man said reluctantly. “But first you should think this over, boy. When you love something, you have to make sure it loves you back, or you’ll bring about no end of trouble chasing it.

Patrick Rothfuss

moon love-you boys

Half of seeming clever is keeping your mouth shut at the right ti... by Patrick Rothfuss

Half of seeming clever is keeping your mouth shut at the right times.

Patrick Rothfuss

keeping-your-mouth-shut half clever

If I seem to wander, if I seem to stray, remember that true stori... by Patrick Rothfuss

If I seem to wander, if I seem to stray, remember that true stories seldom take the straightest way

Patrick Rothfuss

stories remember way