Brandon Sanderson Quotes

Anyone who claims to have an entirely clear conscience is almost certainly a bore.

Cops and criminals aren't that different. They just play by different sets of rules. And the lines get blurred. There's no such thing as 'right' and 'wrong.' There's always a grey area. There are always hypocrisies.

Every villain has their belief system that makes perfect sense to them.

Power always sincerely, conscientiously, de très bon foi, believes itself right. Power always thinks it has a great soul and vast views, beyond the comprehension of the weak.

I don't tend to think in terms of a moral authority - be a good boy, do good things - more in terms of what feels right.

People who lie, particularly those who lie really big, can't do it effectively unless they feel that there's a righteous power behind what they're doing. You're entitled to lie because the end justifies the means.

I was fascinated that everybody in the story thinks that they're in the right.

I have a strong moral sense - by my standards.

We don't have some message from God that gives us a list of what's good and what's not good. Obviously, we have to make our own flawed judgments about each thing.

Every way of a man is right in his own eyes

I always tried to play the bad guys as guys who didn't know they were bad guys. There are villains we run into all the time, but they don't think they are doing anything wrong. If they do, they think they are cunning and smart. When people break laws and ethical rules, they justify it in their own terms.

I don't think any evil character thinks that they are evil - they think they have insight that people don't.

Observe this, that tho a woman swear, forswear, lie, dissemble, back-bite, be proud, vain, malicious, anything, if she secures the main chance, she's still virtuous; that's a maxim.

What thou meanest by seizing the whole earth; but because I do it with a petty ship, I am called a robber, whilst thou who dost it with a great fleet art styled emperor.

Every man's conscience is vile and depraved / You cannot depend on it to be your guide when it’s you who must keep it satisfied.

Keep in mind, Eragon, that no one thinks himself a villain, and few make decisions they think are wrong. A person may dislike his choice, but he will stand by it because, even in the worst circumstances, he believes that it was the best option available to him at the time.

Every villain is a hero in his own mind.

Power is neither good nor evil.

What you think in your own mind to be good, or what people of the world think is good, is not necessarily good.

Whether it's the Axis of Evil, or the evils of eating meat, it is a concept that has all but lost the impact it once had, because everyone thinks different things in this world are evil. PETA thinks what we do to animals is evil, but I think their overzealous approach is evil. Evil, in more ways than one, is comparable to the truth: definitions vary from one individual to the next.

Might does not make right but it sure makes what is.

Adrian!You Used compulsion on that guy. That.... I mean, it's....." "Awesome?Yeah,I Know

Vices and virtues are of a strange nature, for the more we have, the fewer we think we have.

Justification is a remarkable thing-takes all those solid lines and blurs them, so that honor becomes as supple as a willow, and ethics burst like soap bubbles.

One's sanctions for truth and goodness are established largely by individual preferences.