Brandon Sanderson

A Cosmere Novel

Tress of the Emerald Sea

Kamil Pomykała

"Doug" is the naming equivalent to convergent evolution. And once it arrives, it stays. A linguistic Great Filter; a wakeup call. Once a society reaches peak Doug, it's time for it to go sit in the corner and think about what it has done.

"I once ate an entire watermelon in one sitting," I told her. "And it gave me diarrhea."

Annabelle Gauthier

Beyond that, memories have a way of changing on us. Souring or sweetening over time—like a brew we drink, then recreate later by taste, only getting the ingredients mostly right. You can't taste a memory without tainting it with who you have become.

Ĉeňdoł

Most people never live, Tress, because they're afraid is losing the years they have left... years that also will be spent not living. "

It is a great irony that society tends to look down on those who sell their bodies, but not those who lease out their minds.

It was at this moment that the thought occurred to me that Charlie is fairly likely to be autistic

Sarah

He’d put off this princess by explaining what he'd had for breakfast in intricate detail, as he’d counted the pieces of the scrambled egg and categorized them by size.

"Ulba, would you say our daughter is more practical than we are 

"Yes, I would normally say that," Ulba said. 

"And would you also say she is more thoughtful than we are?" 

"She is always thinking," Tress's mother agreed. 

"How often does she impose upon people or ask for what she wants" 

"With all that in mind, Tress's father said, "it must be the right decision for her to leave. She will have considered all other options. Leaving the island to rescue the man she loves might sound like lunacy, but if every other option has been discarded as impossible, then insanity might—in this case—be practical." 

"But a terrible idea executed brilliantly has to be better than a brilliant idea executed terribly. I mean, look at pelicans."

He smiled. The man was exactly the sort of person who thought every woman in the room was thinking about him. Which they were, as each desperately hoped he would head the other direction. 

It all felt so much more real now. Was she really doing this? Had she really left her home? What were those strange colorful pigeons, and why were they talking to her? 

This last part was a side effect of the poison the captain had ordered put in Tress's drink. There are, unfortunately, no talking pigeons in this story. Merely talking rats.

Tress of the Emerald Sea quotes

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