#dalinar

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

The ancient code of the Knights Radiant says “journey before destination.” Some may call it a simple platitude, but it is far more. A journey will have pain and failure. It is not only the steps forward that we must accept. It is the stumbles. The trials. The knowledge that we will fail. That we will hurt those around us.

But if we stop, if we accept the person we are when we fall, the journey ends. That failure becomes our destination. To love the journey is to accept no such end. I have found, through painful experience, that the most important step a person can take is always the next one.

“I will take responsibility for what I have done," whispered Dalinar. “If I must fall, I will rise each time a better man.”

I have spent too much of my time worrying about what people think, Navani. When I thought my time had arrived, I realized that all my worrying had been wasted. In the end, I was pleased with how I had lived my life.

‘What is a man’s life worth?’ Dalinar asked softly.

‘The slavemasters say one is worth about two emerald broams,’ Kaladin said, frowning.

‘And what do you say?’

‘A life is priceless,’ he said immediately, quoting his father.

Dalinar smiled, wrinkle lines extending from the corners of his eyes.

‘Coincidentally, that is the exact value of a Shardblade. So today, you and your men sacrificed to buy me twenty-six hundred priceless lives. And all I had to repay you with was a single priceless sword. I call that a bargain.’