Kindle Highlights from Mistborn Trilogy by Brandon Sanderson

At the end of 2014, I started the Mistborn Trilogy. It was fun, it was fantasy, and I enjoyed the magic! I couldn’t wait to keep reading and would just plow through tons at a time.

I don’t think I’m too picky of a reader and if it keeps my interest, I’m going to call it good. If it doesn’t, I probably won’t read enough to bother writing about it 🙂

As it turns out, the next few books I’ve read (and “read” via Audible.. which means no highlights) were Sanderson books. I could probably read his work for at least a year straight and have no issue with that.

There were a LOT of highlights on this because this list is from all three books 🙂

While I refer to the trilogy version that I purchased all together, here are the separate links:

Mistborn Trilogy by Brandon Sanderson

You have 126 highlighted passages
You have 1 note
Last annotated on January 16, 2015

  • “One would think,” Tresting noted, “that a thousand years of working in fields would have bred them to be a little more effective at it. – Location 106
  • New tastes are like new ideas, young man—the older you get, the more difficult they are for you to stomach. – Location 227
  • “When you get to be my age, you have to be very careful where you waste your energy. Some battles just aren’t worth fighting. – Location 232
  • “You ask why I smile, Goodman Mennis? Well, the Lord Ruler thinks he has claimed laughter and joy for himself. I’m disinclined to let him do so. This is one battle that doesn’t take very much effort to fight. – Location 248
  • When you’re alone, no one can betray you. – Location 337
  • If men read these words, let them know that power is a heavy burden. Seek not to be bound by its chains. – Location 467
  • Why does it still bother me so? Everyone betrays everyone else. That’s the way life is – Location 618
  • The only reason to be subservient to those with power is so that you can learn to someday take what they have. – Location 970
  • you let someone get too close, it would just give them better opportunities to betray you. – Location 1022 NOTE: Tallulah, it’s easier to live alone than fear the time it’s over
  • We know how to take an incredibly large task and break it down to manageable pieces, then deal with each of those pieces. We know how to get what we want. – Location 1235
  • “You should try not to talk so much, friend,” he suggested. “You’ll sound far less stupid that way.” – Location 1348
  • “the entire point of life is to find ways to get others to do your work for you. Don’t you know anything about basic economics? – Location 1872
  • “You’re insane!” she said quietly. Kelsier smiled. “I think that’s the second time today you’ve said that to me. You need to pay better attention—if you’d been listening to everyone else, you’d know that my sanity departed long ago.” – Location 2404
  • She was uncomfortable amid such finery; she felt as if she stood out like a black spot on a clean rug. – Location 2686
  • The right belief is like a good cloak, I think. If it fits you well, it keeps you warm and safe. The wrong fit, however, can suffocate. – Location 2718
  • manipulating others is something that all people do. In fact, manipulation is at the core of our social interaction. – Location 3051
  • “The emotions will fade, won’t they?” Vin said as a red-clothed serving girl entered the crowd. “Yes,” Breeze said, sitting back and sliding the panel closed. “But memories stay. If people associate strong emotion with an event, they’ll remember it better.” – Location 3187
  • I just don’t feel right unless someone tells me I’m crazy. – Location 3991
  • “The best liars are those who tell the truth most of the time. – Location 4356
  • “How can those things be right or wrong? That’s just the way things are. – Location 4549
  • I climbed down inside those caves every day for a year, and I always came back out. I beat them. They have no power over me. – Location 5570
  • Let them see my weakness, and let them see me overcome it. – Location 5573
  • “Actually, you were right about me. You believed in me when this started—we’re only here because of you. – Location 5597
  • I know how you feel, my friend, Kelsier thought. I’m a thief, not a prophet. Sometimes, we just have to be what the job requires. – Location 5659
  • In the end, I must trust in myself. I have seen men who have beaten from themselves the ability to recognize truth and goodness, and I do not think I am one of them. I can still see the tears in a young child’s eyes and feel pain at his suffering. If I ever lose this, then I will know that I’ve passed beyond hope of redemption. – Location 6383
  • “But, what is money? A physical representation of the abstract concept of effort. – Location 6411
  • If you always hit your hardest, you’ll tire faster and you’ll give your opponent information about your limitations. A smart man hits his hardest at the end of a battle, when his opponent is weakest. And, in an extended battle—like a war—the smart soldier – Location 6578
  • “Though most expect young men to be fools, I’ve noticed that just a little bit of age can make a man far more foolish than he was as a child. – Location 6820
  • You might have been their motivation, but you didn’t make the choice for them. – Location 6836
  • He forced himself to smile—not out of pleasure, and not out of satisfaction. He smiled despite the grief he felt at the deaths of his men; he smiled because that was what he did. That was how he proved to the Lord Ruler—and to himself—that he wasn’t beaten. – Location 6855
  • “If you’re always on time, it implies that you never have anything better you should be doing. – Location 7125
  • Everything’s going to change, Sazed, and I can’t stop it.” Sazed smiled fondly. “Then, Mistress,” he said quietly, “simply enjoy what you have. The future will surprise you, I think. – Location 7816
  • Our belief is often strongest when it should be weakest. That is the nature of hope. – Location 7987
  • “Your witty verbal attacks have no effect on me, for I’m far too dense to understand them. – Location 8295
  • “Young ladies do not run around in their undergarments, no matter how much those undergarments may resemble regular clothing. – Location 8316
  • “You don’t stop loving someone just because they hurt you,” he said. “It would certainly make things easier if you did. – Location 8373
  • you can’t help who you love. Trust me, there are some people I really would rather not have loved. They didn’t deserve it. – Location 8638
  • that’s kind of what trust is, isn’t it? A willful self-delusion? You have to shut out that voice that whispers about betrayal, and just hope that your friends aren’t going to hurt you. – Location 8676
  • “Belief isn’t simply a thing for fair times and bright days, I think. What is belief—what is faith—if you don’t continue in it after failure? – Location 9309
  • When you remember me, please remember that. Remember to smile. – Location 9413
  • May you rule in wisdom. – Location 9414
  • “Sometimes we just have to wait long enough, Mistress,” he said. “Then we find out why exactly it was that we kept believing. – Location 9442
  • He was probably the best man she had ever known. Earnest, determined, clever, and caring. – Location 10816
  • Women are difficult enough to understand, he thought, and I had to go and pick the oddest one of the lot. Still, he couldn’t really complain. She loved him. He could deal with her idiosyncrasies. – Location 10919
  • She seemed suspicious and paranoid, yet she trusted her friends with a dogmatic loyalty. – Location 10955
  • Being a good man doesn’t always make one likable, however. – Location 11244
  • “Good men don’t become legends,” he said quietly. “Good men don’t need to become legends.” She opened her eyes, looking up at him. “They just do what’s right anyway. – Location 11320
  • With her around, everybody else looks bland by comparison.” – Location 11542
  • She’d been abandoned far too many times. Even after what they’d been through, even after his proposal of marriage, Elend had to keep promising Vin that he wasn’t going to leave her. – Location 11545
  • “If everyone is a nobleman, then there is no such thing as a nobleman. Everyone can’t be rich, and everyone can’t be in charge. – Location 11934
  • “What is a government but an institutionalized method of making sure somebody else does all the work? – Location 12781
  • “Sometimes, giving up is better than failing. – Location 12917
  • she’d rather trust him and be wrong than deal with the worry of mistrust. – Location 12989
  • Unapplied knowledge benefited no one. – Location 13033
  • Easy to dismiss, perhaps, but difficult to hate. – Location 13291
  • “A good king is one who is trusted by his people—and one who deserves that trust. – Location 13344
  • There had been something…endearing about that mixture of earnest competence and distracted inattention. – Location 13385
  • That was one nice thing about books and notes. They could always wait for another time. – Location 13395
  • And, can a man love something he doesn’t understand? – Location 13553
  • A man was defined not by his flaws, but by how he overcame them. – Location 13600
  • He chose a god—Duis, a god once said to watch over wearied travelers—and said a quick, silent prayer. – Location 13803
  • If she thought too much, she could spot seeming discrepancies in anyone. – Location 14020
  • “Successful leaders all share one common trait—they believe that they can do a better job than the alternatives. – Location 14123
  • “I don’t understand her, but yes. I love her. – Location 14143
  • “Sometimes a bad situation is still better than the alternative. You did what you needed to do to survive. – Location 14404
  • Every scholar knew that one of the greatest dangers in research was the desire to find a specific answer. – Location 14641
  • The same thoughts that trouble me during the day are only compounded by the stillness of night. – Location 14700
  • “I’ve found that a child’s instincts are often the most honest,” Zane said. “The most natural.” – Location 14737
  • It’s easy to forget the value of something when you use it so often. When it becomes commonplace and convenient to you. When it becomes…just a tool.” – Location 14762
  • She is a product of her upbringing, just as you are. If you judge her worth based on frivolities, then you are doing the same as those who judge you based on your simple clothing.” – Location 14863
  • she seems to know how to recognize what is good in a person. That is a talent many lack. “Your king is a humble scholar and thinker, but he has the – Location 14899
  • Don’t worry that you aren’t giving people what they want. Give them who you are, and let that be enough.” – Location 15197
  • “Do not dismiss someone’s beliefs because you do not understand them, – Location 16415
  • He’d always been well-intentioned, but he’d rarely been able to deliver. – Location 16642
  • But, good men had failed relationships, didn’t they? People grew apart—particularly people who were so different to begin with. – Location 16764
  • A man can only stumble for so long before he either falls or stands up straight. – Location 16869
  • “Sometimes, people only seem determined upon one course because they have been offered no other options. – Location 17427
  • “these were not men who sat and planned the best ways to hide. They fought; they sought victory. Sometimes, they were reckless—and other men called them fools. Yet, when the dice were cast and the bodies counted, they were men who changed things. – Location 17443
  • There was no correcting past mistakes, especially since he could see no real “mistakes” he had made. He had done the best he could, and that had proven insufficient. – Location 18284
  • He had come to rely on her simple bluntness. He needed her genuine realism—her sheer sense of concreteness—to keep him grounded. He needed to hold her, so that he could know that there was something more important than theories and concepts. He loved her. – Location 18918
  • “I wish I knew the right things to say, Vin,” he whispered. “Seeing you like this makes every protective instinct inside of me twist. I want to make it better—I want to fix everything—but I don’t know how. Tell me what to do. Just tell me how I can help! – Location 19010
  • “I want him to talk to me, even if I don’t understand what he’s saying. Anything to keep him there, with me. I want to be better because of him. – Location 19155
  • Love must be allowed to flow both ways—if it is not, then it is not truly love, I think. – Location 19171
  • “At first glance, the key and the lock it fits may seem very different,” Sazed said. “Different in shape, different in function, different in design. The man who looks at them without knowledge of their true nature might think them opposites, for one is meant to open, and the other to keep closed. Yet, upon closer examination, he might see that without one, the other becomes useless. The wise man then sees that both lock and key were created for the same purpose. – Location 19223
  • This is what cornered men are like, my dear Terrisman, Breeze thought. This is what happens when they lose hope. They might be able to keep up appearances in front of the soldiers, but put them alone with their friends – Location 19344
  • But he had decided to become something more. In doing so, he had committed terrible atrocities. Yet, could she blame him for the decision itself? He had become what he’d thought he needed to be. – Location 19485
  • He remembered just the day before, when Vin had spoken of leaving, and the wrenching he had felt. He thought of how much he depended on her wisdom, and her bluntness, and her simple—but not simplistic—devotion to him. Yes, he did love her. – Location 19874
  • Those who take lightly promises they make to those they love are people who find little lasting satisfaction in life. – Location 19887
  • there were few things more quickly dismissed than a young, silly girl. – Location 20221
  • Yet, he was coming to realize that he could love her even if he didn’t completely understand her. – Location 20285
  • “When they accept the devotion of others, they must accept the responsibility that comes with it. – Location 20493
  • strong like the wind. Always there, so willing to bend, but never apologetic for the times when you must be firm. – Location 20509
  • She had a job to do. The fact that she didn’t understand it didn’t stop her from acknowledging that she had to try to accomplish it. – Location 20537
  • “Patience brings the greater prize. – Location 21724
  • The situation they faced, it couldn’t easily fit into his logical world. But Vin had never really needed logic. And he didn’t need it either, if he trusted her. – Location 22071
  • was – Location 22112
  • It isn’t love unless you learn to respect him—not what you assume is best, but what he actually wants – Location 22191
  • An easy life taught one very little. – Location 23194
  • Vin had a tendency to be paranoid and assume the worst. Of course, she also had a habit of being right. – Location 23608
  • Ruin could plan and carefully plot, knowing if he built one thing up, he could use it to knock down two others. The nature of the world is that when we create something, we often destroy something else in the process. – Location 24009
  • We know how to take an incredibly large task and break it down to manageable pieces, then deal with each of those pieces. – Location 25837
  • Ruthlessness is the very most practical of emotions – Location 25892
  • The balance between who we wish to be and who we need to be.” He sighed. “But for now,” he said, nodding to the side, “we simply have to be satisfied with who we are. – Location 25923
  • “But, you can never have back what you’ve missed. – Location 27079
  • logic and thought had always been his refuge. However, his emotions didn’t respond to logic. No amount of thinking about what he should be doing could help him. – Location 27323
  • “Sometimes, I don’t understand either,” Elend said. “I can’t ever come up with any logical reason why she would want to be with me. I just . . . have to trust her judgment. – Location 27473
  • ‘Sit down to dine with evil, and you will ingest it with your meal. – Location 27496
  • It was a shallow thing, this acceptance, but sometimes even shallow things feel important. – Location 27606
  • I always felt that this was wrong. I didn’t have to work for it, so I couldn’t believe that I deserved it. – Location 27616
  • “You’d be surprised at what men will go through in order to get themselves properly intoxicated. – Location 28419
  • holding you off. It – Location 28964
  • It really was a simple plan—the best ones usually were. – Location 29017
  • Never let your life depend on the competence of someone whose life isn’t also on the line. – Location 29110
  • Reen, life had been about survival—the simple, harsh facts of survival. Trust nobody. Make yourself invaluable to your team, but don’t be too threatening. Be ruthless. Stay alive. – Location 29204
  • There is a beauty in death—the beauty of finality, the beauty of completion. For nothing is truly complete until the day it is finally destroyed. – Location 29429
  • “A man is what he has passion about,” Breeze said. “I’ve found that if you give up what you want most for what you think you should want more, you’ll just end up miserable. – Location 30016
  • This isn’t about good or evil. Morality doesn’t even enter into it. Good men will kill as quickly for what they want as evil men—only the things they want are different.” – Location 31162
  • “Just because he interprets things differently from you or me does not mean he’s being dishonest when he expresses his view. – Location 31694
  • How did men believe in something that preached love on one hand, yet taught destruction of unbelievers on the other? How did one rationalize belief with no proof? How could they honestly expect him to have faith in something that taught of miracles and wonders in the far past, but carefully gave excuses for why such things didn’t occur in the present day? – Location 31918
  • Why do I lie to myself? I still care. I never stopped caring. If I’d stopped caring, then I wouldn’t still be searching. If I didn’t care so much, then being betrayed wouldn’t feel so painful. – Location 31934
  • That’s what trust is, Sazed thought. It’s about giving someone else power over you. Power to hurt you. – Location 31949
  • “Those quakes are the earth’s final sighs,” Ruin said. “Like an old man, moaning as he dies, calling for his children so that he can pass on his last bits of wisdom. – Location 32040
  • “Your faith is commendable. But sometimes, you just have to know when to give up and move on!” – Location 32429
  • Tindwyl had believed in giving people hope, even if one had to tell them lies to do so. That’s the credit she had given to religion: lies that made people feel better. – Location 32504
  • the winning side wasn’t always the right side. – Location 32894
  • We create things to watch them grow, Ruin, she said. To take pleasure in seeing that which we love become more than it was before. – Location 34316

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