“For the former, activity, any kind of activity, was an end in itself; for the latter, activity was but a progress toward the true end, which was rest, and peace of mind. Action was to be undertaken only when equilibrium… — Olaf Stapledon Copy Share Image
No visiting angel, or explorer from another planet, could have guessed that this bland orb [Earth] teemed with vermin, with world-mastering, self-torturing, incipiently angelic… — Olaf Stapledon Copy Share Image
In fact man's career has been less like a mountain torrent hurtling from rock to rock, than a great sluggish river, broken very seldom… — Olaf Stapledon Copy Share Image
I loathe the urchin's cruelty to the cat, but I will not loathe the urchin. I loathe Hitler's mass-torturing, but not Hitler; and the… — Olaf Stapledon Copy Share Image
“We are bound to hurt one another so much, again and again. we are so terribly different.''Yes,' he said, 'But the more different, the… — Olaf Stapledon Copy Share Image
Great are the stars, and man is of no account to them. But man is a fair spirit, whom a star conceived and a star kills. He is greater than those bright blind companies. For though in them there is incalculable potentiality, in him there is achievement, small, but actual. Too soon, seemingly, he comes to his end. But when… — Olaf Stapledon Copy Share
Without Satan, with God only, how poor a universe, how trite a music! — Olaf Stapledon Copy Share Image
I see, indeed I know, that in some sense God is love, and God is wisdom, and God is creative action, yes and God is beauty; but what God actually is, whether the maker of all things, or the fragrance of all things, or just a dream in our own hearts, I have not the art to know. Neither have… — Olaf Stapledon Copy Share
“With characteristic lack of false modesty, John once said to me, "My looks are a rough test of people. If they don't begin to… — Olaf Stapledon Copy Share Image
[S]ervants of darkness had no lasting joy in their service. In all of them the will for darkness was a perversion of the will for the light. In all but a few maniacs the satisfaction of the will for darkness was at all times countered by a revulsion which the unhappy spirit either dared not confess even to itself, or… — Olaf Stapledon Copy Share
“The truth of the matter was something much more subtle and tremendous than any plain physical miracle could ever be. But never mind that. The important thing was that, when I did see the stars (riotously darting in all directions according to the caprice of their own wild natures, yet in every movement confirming the law), the whole tangled horror… — Olaf Stapledon Copy Share
Even when all the worlds have frozen or exploded, and all the suns gone dead and cold, there'll still be time. Oh, God, what… — Olaf Stapledon Copy Share Image
The Tibetan missionaries in their mood of bright confidence disconcerted the imperial governments by laughing the new movement into frustration. For a sham faith… — Olaf Stapledon Copy Share Image
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