---
title: "Best Gene Wolfe Quotations"
description: "Gene Rodman Wolfe was an American science‑fiction and fantasy writer known for dense, allusive prose, a fascination with memory, and the influence of hi..."
image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b010/author-gene-wolfe-37289.jpg"
---

![Portrait of Gene Wolfe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b010/author-gene-wolfe-37289.jpg)

# Gene Wolfe

(1931–2019)   Writer   United States

 **160** quotes in **576** categories

Rate this collection:  ★ ★ ★ ★ ★   No ratings yet

Gene Wolfe was a writer from the United States, best known for *The Fifth Head Of Cerberus*.

## Quick Facts About Gene Wolfe

Born May 7, 1931

Died April 14, 2019

Nationality United States

Profession Writer

Notable works The Fifth Head Of Cerberus

Known for The Book of the New Sun

## About Gene Wolfe

He was a prolific short‑story writer and novelist who won many literary awards and was honored as a Grand Master by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America.

## Awards & Honors

Nebula Award for Best Novel Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel Prix Tour-Apollo Award World Fantasy Award for Best Novel Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award Edward E. Smith Memorial Award John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel Nebula Award for Best Novella

Show 10 more awards Rhysling Award Premio Gigamesh World Fantasy Award for Best Collection World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement August Derleth Award BSFA Award for Best Novel Locus Award for Best Novella Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame Locus Award for Best Collection Q130744609

##  Quotes by Gene Wolfe · Page 4

> [Whether the medium is ready for consumers is better judged by those consumers. I sometimes read online - but not often. The…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gene-wolfe/whether-the-medium-is-ready-for-consumers-is-better-judged-by-those/)

[Gene Wolfe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gene-wolfe/)

[Attached](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/attached/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/455/gene-wolfe-2530_attached_whether-the-medium-is-ready-for-consumer_2562933.jpg)

> [“into my pocket. We believe that we invent symbols. The truth is that they invent us; we are their creatures, shaped by…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gene-wolfe/into-my-pocket-we-believe-that-we-invent-symbols-the-truth-is-that/)

[Gene Wolfe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gene-wolfe/)

[Pocket](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/pocket/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/46d/gene-wolfe-2530_truth_into-my-pocket-we-believe-that-we-invent_1954811.jpg)

> [“No doubt many a man who walks about and does his work is dying and ignorant of it, and many who lie…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gene-wolfe/no-doubt-many-a-man-who-walks-about-and-does-his-work-is-dying-and/)

[Gene Wolfe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gene-wolfe/)

[Healthier](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/healthier/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/658/gene-wolfe-2530_healthier_no-doubt-many-a-man-who-walks-about-and_2649364.jpg)

> [He's not rewarding us by talking to us. He's talking to us because He has something to say to us directly, as…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gene-wolfe/he-s-not-rewarding-us-by-talking-to-us-he-s-talking-to-us-because-he/)

[Gene Wolfe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gene-wolfe/)

[Humanity](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/humanity/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/05c/gene-wolfe-2530_humanity_he-s-not-rewarding-us-by-talking-to-us-h_1799397.jpg)

> [“Just as the room of the Inquisitor in Dr. Talos's play, with its high judicial bench, lurked somewhere at the lowest level…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gene-wolfe/just-as-the-room-of-the-inquisitor-in-dr-talos-s-play-with-its-high/)

[Gene Wolfe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gene-wolfe/)

[Guilt](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/guilt/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/5d7/gene-wolfe-2530_guilt_just-as-the-room-of-the-inquisitor-in-dr_2200840.jpg)

> [The same authorities who insist upon beginnings, middles, and ends, declare that Great Literature (by which they mean the stories they have…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gene-wolfe/the-same-authorities-who-insist-upon-beginnings-middles-and-ends/)

[Gene Wolfe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gene-wolfe/)

[Admire](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/admire/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/7a2/gene-wolfe-2530_admire_the-same-authorities-who-insist-upon-beg_2907213.jpg)

> [“. . .Consciousness came and went. Consciousness went and came like the errant winds of spring, and I, who so often have…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gene-wolfe/consciousness-came-and-went-consciousness-went-and-came-like-the/)

[Gene Wolfe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gene-wolfe/)

[Children](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/children/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a03/gene-wolfe-2530_children_consciousness-came-and-went-consciousnes_407515.jpg)

> [“Even a man who courts a maid thinking he has no rivals has one, and that one is herself. She may give…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gene-wolfe/even-a-man-who-courts-a-maid-thinking-he-has-no-rivals-has-one-and/)

[Gene Wolfe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gene-wolfe/)

[Maid](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/maid/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/27f/gene-wolfe-2530_maid_even-a-man-who-courts-a-maid-thinking-he_2336520.jpg)

> [My whole life experience feeds into my writing. I think that must be true for every writer. Clearly the Army and combat…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gene-wolfe/my-whole-life-experience-feeds-into-my-writing-i-think-that-must-be/)

[Gene Wolfe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gene-wolfe/)

[Army](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/army/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/9a5/gene-wolfe-2530_army_my-whole-life-experience-feeds-into-my-w_1390693.jpg)

> [A hundred wise men have said in various ways that love transcends the power of death, and millions of fools have supposed…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gene-wolfe/a-hundred-wise-men-have-said-in-various-ways-that-love-transcends-the/)

[Gene Wolfe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gene-wolfe/)

[Death](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/death/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/185/gene-wolfe-2530_death_a-hundred-wise-men-have-said-in-various_3188477.jpg)

> [“If I had seen one miracle fail, I had witnessed another; and even a seemingly purposeless miracle is an inexhaustible source of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gene-wolfe/if-i-had-seen-one-miracle-fail-i-had-witnessed-another-and-even-a/)

[Gene Wolfe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gene-wolfe/)

[Failure](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/failure/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/004/gene-wolfe-2530_failure_if-i-had-seen-one-miracle-fail-i-had-wit_1363548.jpg)

> [“We can think only of creatures, of things He's made. Creatures are all we know, and can be all we know until…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gene-wolfe/we-can-think-only-of-creatures-of-things-he-s-made-creatures-are-all/)

[Gene Wolfe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gene-wolfe/)

[Belief](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/belief/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/837/gene-wolfe-2530_belief_we-can-think-only-of-creatures-of-things_1548343.jpg)

> [“Since the time I had ridden Vodalus’s charger out of Saltus, I had supposed in my innocence that all mounts might be…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gene-wolfe/since-the-time-i-had-ridden-vodalus-s-charger-out-of-saltus-i-had/)

[Gene Wolfe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gene-wolfe/)

[Animals](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/animals/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/83d/gene-wolfe-2530_animals_since-the-time-i-had-ridden-vodalus-s-ch_2110293.jpg)

> [Woody Allen once said: "You know there must be intelligent life in space. The question is do they have good Chinese restaurants…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gene-wolfe/woody-allen-once-said-you-know-there-must-be-intelligent-life-in/)

[Gene Wolfe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gene-wolfe/)

[Answers](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/answers/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/53f/gene-wolfe-2530_answers_woody-allen-once-said-you-know-there-mus_2175679.jpg)

> [“We believe that we invent symbols. The truth is that they invent us; we are their creatures, shaped by their hard, defining…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gene-wolfe/we-believe-that-we-invent-symbols-the-truth-is-that-they-invent-us-we/)

[Gene Wolfe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gene-wolfe/)

[Faith](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/faith/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/9d9/gene-wolfe-2530_faith_we-believe-that-we-invent-symbols-the-tr_689036.jpg)

> [“Master Palaemon's hand, dry and wrinkled as a mummy's, groped until it found mine. "Among the initiates of religion it is said,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gene-wolfe/master-palaemon-s-hand-dry-and-wrinkled-as-a-mummy-s-groped-until-it/)

[Gene Wolfe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gene-wolfe/)

[Belief](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/belief/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/9a9/gene-wolfe-2530_belief_master-palaemon-s-hand-dry-and-wrinkled_2808114.jpg)

> [“He had a wild yellow beard and long, tangled hair that stood out from his head in a way that made it…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gene-wolfe/he-had-a-wild-yellow-beard-and-long-tangled-hair-that-stood-out-from/)

[Gene Wolfe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gene-wolfe/)

[Tangled hair](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/tangled-hair/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a23/gene-wolfe-2530_tangled-hair_he-had-a-wild-yellow-beard-and-long-tang_198440.jpg)

> [“Some days passed before I could rid my thoughts of Thecla of certain impressions belonging to the false Thecla who had initiated…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gene-wolfe/some-days-passed-before-i-could-rid-my-thoughts-of-thecla-of-certain/)

[Gene Wolfe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gene-wolfe/)

[Men and women](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/men-and-women/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/0ac/gene-wolfe-2530_men-and-women_some-days-passed-before-i-could-rid-my-t_1761709.jpg)

> [“The experienced feel love or desire, or both. The inexperienced are sick with a thousand feelings, most of them unformed: fearful that…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gene-wolfe/the-experienced-feel-love-or-desire-or-both-the-inexperienced-are/)

[Gene Wolfe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gene-wolfe/)

[Desire](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/desire/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/fb1/gene-wolfe-2530_desire_the-experienced-feel-love-or-desire-or-b_175830.jpg)

> [“A web of chain mail, linked rings each flattened where the ends met and clinched with a tiny rivet, rattled about his…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gene-wolfe/a-web-of-chain-mail-linked-rings-each-flattened-where-the-ends-met/)

[Gene Wolfe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gene-wolfe/)

[Green Rings](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/green-rings-3160993/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/78d/gene-wolfe-2530_quote_a-web-of-chain-mail-linked-rings-each-fl_1138262.jpg)

> [It may be that the only reason childhood memories act on us so strongly is that, being the most remote we possess,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gene-wolfe/it-may-be-that-the-only-reason-childhood-memories-act-on-us-so/)

[Gene Wolfe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gene-wolfe/)

[Artistic](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/artistic/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/5e4/gene-wolfe-2530_artistic_it-may-be-that-the-only-reason-childhood_986755.jpg)

> [“She was staring at the low ceiling, and I had the feeling that there was another Severian there, the kind and even…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gene-wolfe/she-was-staring-at-the-low-ceiling-and-i-had-the-feeling-that-there/)

[Gene Wolfe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gene-wolfe/)

[Dorcas Mind](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/dorcas-mind-902261/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/95c/gene-wolfe-2530_dorcas-mind_she-was-staring-at-the-low-ceiling-and-i_2484756.jpg)

> [I could speculate, but it would be just speculation and the kind of thing that you would get in with a science…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gene-wolfe/i-could-speculate-but-it-would-be-just-speculation-and-the-kind-of/)

[Gene Wolfe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gene-wolfe/)

[Come up](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/come-up/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c38/gene-wolfe-2530_come-up_i-could-speculate-but-it-would-be-just-s_639974.jpg)

> [“The castle? The monster? The man of learning? I only just thought of it. Surely you know that just as the momentous…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gene-wolfe/the-castle-the-monster-the-man-of-learning-i-only-just-thought-of-it/)

[Gene Wolfe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gene-wolfe/)

[Dark](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/dark/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/658/gene-wolfe-2530_dark_the-castle-the-monster-the-man-of-learni_573570.jpg)

> [“Because there is no opportunity to act. It is always wise to talk a great deal, discussing what has been done and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gene-wolfe/because-there-is-no-opportunity-to-act-it-is-always-wise-to-talk-a/)

[Gene Wolfe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gene-wolfe/)

[Great political](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/great-political/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/4da/gene-wolfe-2530_quote_because-there-is-no-opportunity-to-act-i_1994312.jpg)

> [All the history of the stage is a struggle, the gasping of a beautiful child born at the point of death. The…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gene-wolfe/all-the-history-of-the-stage-is-a-struggle-the-gasping-of-a-beautiful/)

[Gene Wolfe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gene-wolfe/)

[Actor](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/actor/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/99f/gene-wolfe-2530_actors_all-the-history-of-the-stage-is-a-strugg_1433564.jpg)

> [No intellect is needed to see those figures who wait beyond the void of death - every child is aware of them,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gene-wolfe/no-intellect-is-needed-to-see-those-figures-who-wait-beyond-the-void-2/)

[Gene Wolfe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gene-wolfe/)

[Authority](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/authority/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a3c/gene-wolfe-2530_authority_no-intellect-is-needed-to-see-those-figu_2408680.jpg)

> [“There is no wonder, no amazement, quite like that felt when something supposed for amusement's sake to be magical and mysterious actually…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gene-wolfe/there-is-no-wonder-no-amazement-quite-like-that-felt-when-something/)

[Gene Wolfe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gene-wolfe/)

[Curiosity](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/curiosity/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/016/gene-wolfe-2530_curiosity_there-is-no-wonder-no-amazement-quite-li_1347048.jpg)

> [“...the progress of science depends much less upon either theoretical considerations or systematic investigation than is commonly believed, but rather on the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gene-wolfe/the-progress-of-science-depends-much-less-upon-either-theoretical/)

[Gene Wolfe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gene-wolfe/)

[Research](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/research/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/13b/gene-wolfe-2530_research_the-progress-of-science-depends-much-les_309892.jpg)

> [“I am not here to answer your questions. To answer would imply that we conceded some slight possibility of truth to your…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gene-wolfe/i-am-not-here-to-answer-your-questions-to-answer-would-imply-that-we/)

[Gene Wolfe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gene-wolfe/)

[History](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/history/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/804/gene-wolfe-2530_history_i-am-not-here-to-answer-your-questions-t_2139288.jpg)

> [“Rising, the woman who had carried the jar began to dance to the music of the rebab, fevered music that was like…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gene-wolfe/rising-the-woman-who-had-carried-the-jar-began-to-dance-to-the-music/)

[Gene Wolfe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gene-wolfe/)

[Children](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/children/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/8eb/gene-wolfe-2530_children_rising-the-woman-who-had-carried-the-jar_2477365.jpg)

> [“I began, as most young people do, by reading the books I enjoyed. But I found that narrowed my pleasure, in time,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gene-wolfe/i-began-as-most-young-people-do-by-reading-the-books-i-enjoyed-but-i/)

[Gene Wolfe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gene-wolfe/)

[Books](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/books/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/151/gene-wolfe-2530_books_i-began-as-most-young-people-do-by-readi_2297220.jpg)

> [“There is one final point, the point that separates a true multivolume work from a short story, a novel, or a series.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gene-wolfe/there-is-one-final-point-the-point-that-separates-a-true-multivolume/)

[Gene Wolfe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gene-wolfe/)

[Main character](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/main-character/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/85c/gene-wolfe-2530_main-character_there-is-one-final-point-the-point-that_784918.jpg)

> [“Little Ozzie cried until he could cry no more. He could not have said just why he cried, but he cried because…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gene-wolfe/little-ozzie-cried-until-he-could-cry-no-more-he-could-not-have-said/)

[Gene Wolfe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gene-wolfe/)

[Cried](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/cried/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/621/gene-wolfe-2530_weeping_little-ozzie-cried-until-he-could-cry-no_784992.jpg)

> [“Do you know the definition of peace, my friend?” “Not the one you are about to quote, I’m sure.” Beyond the Duko,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gene-wolfe/do-you-know-the-definition-of-peace-my-friend-not-the-one-you-are/)

[Gene Wolfe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gene-wolfe/)

[Friendship](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/friendship/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/88b/gene-wolfe-2530_friendship_do-you-know-the-definition-of-peace-my-f_1968311.jpg)

> [One can't found a novel theology on Nothing, and nothing is so secure a foundation as a contradiction. Look at the great…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gene-wolfe/one-can-t-found-a-novel-theology-on-nothing-and-nothing-is-so-secure/)

[Gene Wolfe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gene-wolfe/)

[Authority](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/authority/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/0af/gene-wolfe-2530_authority_one-can-t-found-a-novel-theology-on-noth_1041375.jpg)

> [“It is a part of our office to stand uncloaked, masked, sword bared, upon the scaffold for a long time before the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gene-wolfe/it-is-a-part-of-our-office-to-stand-uncloaked-masked-sword-bared-upon/)

[Gene Wolfe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gene-wolfe/)

[Long time](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/long-time/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/9f1/gene-wolfe-2530_long-time_it-is-a-part-of-our-office-to-stand-uncl_1085287.jpg)

> [“And as if by magic - and it may have been magic, for I believe America is the land of magic, and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gene-wolfe/and-as-if-by-magic-and-it-may-have-been-magic-for-i-believe-america/)

[Gene Wolfe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gene-wolfe/)

[America](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/america/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/edb/gene-wolfe-2530_america_and-as-if-by-magic-and-it-may-have-been_2449003.jpg)

> [“And what of the dead? I own that I thought of myself, at times, almost as dead. Are they not locked below…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gene-wolfe/and-what-of-the-dead-i-own-that-i-thought-of-myself-at-times-almost/)

[Gene Wolfe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gene-wolfe/)

[Bodies](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/bodies/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/17d/gene-wolfe-2530_death_and-what-of-the-dead-i-own-that-i-though_1801595.jpg)

> [“When we are asleep, so it seems to me, we sleep surrounded by all the years. I have imagined, sleeping, that I…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gene-wolfe/when-we-are-asleep-so-it-seems-to-me-we-sleep-surrounded-by-all-the/)

[Gene Wolfe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gene-wolfe/)

[Books](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/books/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/4e2/gene-wolfe-2530_books_when-we-are-asleep-so-it-seems-to-me-we_1504330.jpg)

## Gene Wolfe by topic

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                        "text": "Whether the medium is ready for consumers is better judged by those consumers. I sometimes read online - but not often. The stigma is attached to pay scales. Much online publication is no pay or small pay.",
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                        "text": "The same authorities who insist upon beginnings, middles, and ends, declare that Great Literature (by which they mean the stories they have been taught to admire) is about love and death, while mere popular fiction like this is about sex and violence. One reader's sex, alas, is another's love; and one's violence, another's death.",
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                        "text": "A hundred wise men have said in various ways that love transcends the power of death, and millions of fools have supposed that they meant nothing by it. At this late hour in my life I have learned what they meant. They meant that love transcends death. They are correct.",
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                        "text": "“Since the time I had ridden Vodalus’s charger out of Saltus, I had supposed in my innocence that all mounts might be divided into two sorts: the highbred and swift, and the cold-blooded and slow. The better, I thought, ran with the graceful ease, almost, of a coursing cat; the worse moved so tardily that it hardly mattered how they did it. It used to be a maxim of one of Thecla’s tutors that all two-valued systems are false, and I discovered on that ride a new respect for him. My benefactor’s mount belonged to that third class (which I have since discovered is fairly extensive) comprising those animals that outrace the birds but seem to run with legs of iron upon a road of stone. Men have numberless advantages over women and for that”",
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                        "text": "Woody Allen once said: \"You know there must be intelligent life in space. The question is do they have good Chinese restaurants and do they deliver?\" Which is really a joke, but it is also a very profound remark. When you say do they have good Chinese restaurants, what you're really saying is, \"How much are they like us?\" And when you say, \"Do they deliver?\" you're saying, \"Can they get here?\" Both of which are profound questions. And at the present, we have no answers.",
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                        "text": "“We believe that we invent symbols. The truth is that they invent us; we are their creatures, shaped by their hard, defining edges. When soldiers take their oath they are given a coin, an asimi stamped with the profile of the Autarch. Their acceptance of that coin is their acceptance of the special duties and burdens of military life—they are soldiers from that moment, though they may know nothing of the management of arms. I did not know that then, but it is a profound mistake to believe that we must know of such things to be influenced by them, and in fact to believe so is to believe in the most debased and superstitious kind of magic. The would-be sorcerer alone has faith in the efficacy of pure knowledge; rational people know that things act of themselves or not at all.”",
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                        "text": "“Master Palaemon's hand, dry and wrinkled as a mummy's, groped until it found mine. \"Among the initiates of religion it is said, 'You are an epopt always.' The reference is not only to knowledge but to their chrism, whose mark, being invisible, is ineradicable. You know our chrism.\" I nodded again. \"Less even than theirs can it be washed away. Should you leave now, men will only say, 'He was nurtured by the torturers.' But when you have been anointed they will say, 'He is a torturer.' You may follow the plow or the drum, but still you will hear, 'He is a torturer.' Do you understand that?”",
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                        "text": "“He had a wild yellow beard and long, tangled hair that stood out from his head in a way that made it seem too large for his shoulders, though they were twice the width of mine. But these were not the things I noticed first. Nor, I think, the things that anyone would notice first. Before anything else, I saw his eyes: They were huge, and yellow as gold. And after that, I saw the way he moved. Cim Glowing is beautiful, and walks with liquid grace; but sometimes she looks clumsy beside him. I think I had guessed who he was before she called his name. “Ketin,” she said, and raised the endieva wand as though to strike, backing away until her shoulders were against the wall. “Yes, Ketin,” the bearded man said. His voice was like a storm five kilometers off.”",
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                        "text": "“Some days passed before I could rid my thoughts of Thecla of certain impressions belonging to the false Thecla who had initiated me into the anacreontic diversions and fruitions of men and women. Possibly this had an effect opposite to that Master Gurloes intended, but I do not think so. I believe I was never less inclined to love the unfortunate woman than when I carried in my memory the recent impressions of having enjoyed her freely; it was as I saw it more and more clearly for the untruth it was that I felt myself drawn to redress the fact, and drawn through her (though I was hardly conscious of it at the time) to the world of ancient knowledge an privilege she represented. The books I has carried to her became my university, she my oracle.”",
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                        "text": "“The experienced feel love or desire, or both. The inexperienced are sick with a thousand feelings, most of them unformed: fearful that they may be unable to love or to inspire love; fearful of what they may do if once they allow their emotions to carry them away; fearful that they may be unable to cut the cord that binds them still to the superficial affections of childhood; longing for adventure and yet unable to see that their adventure is in the present, that there will soon be nothing left but love and desire.”",
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                        "text": "“A web of chain mail, linked rings each flattened where the ends met and clinched with a tiny rivet, rattled about his knees. Mark felt the fine powdering of rust that fell from the rings. It was green. The rings had turned to greenness in their decay, as herbs did in health. Where the greenness had fallen away, the knees beating it out slowly like fine green snow, the metal was hot and bright and yellow. It began to chime when the green decay was gone; gongs struck by imperious lords in their tens of thousands, calling their servitors to battle with demanding yellow sound. A”",
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                        "text": "It may be that the only reason childhood memories act on us so strongly is that, being the most remote we possess, they are the worst remembered and so offer the least resistance to that process by which we mold them nearer and nearer to an ideal which is fundamentally artistic, or at least nonfactual.",
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                        "text": "“She was staring at the low ceiling, and I had the feeling that there was another Severian there, the kind and even noble Severian who existed only in Dorcas’s mind. All of us, I suppose, when we think we are talking most intimately to someone else, are actually addressing an image we have of the person to whom we believe we speak.”",
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                        "text": "I could speculate, but it would be just speculation and the kind of thing that you would get in with a science fiction story. And if I was doing a science fiction story then I would come up with what can go wrong with this system.",
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                        "text": "“The castle? The monster? The man of learning? I only just thought of it. Surely you know that just as the momentous events of the past cast their shadows down the ages, so now, when the sun is drawing toward the dark,our own shadows race into the past to trouble mankind's dreams.”",
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                        "text": "No intellect is needed to see those figures who wait beyond the void of death - every child is aware of them, blazing with glories dark or bright, wrapped in authority older than the universe. They are the stuff of our earliest dreams, as of our dying visions. Rightly we feel our lives guided by them, and rightly too we feel how little we matter to them, the builders of the unimaginable, the fighters of wars beyond the totality of existence.",
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                        "text": "“There is no wonder, no amazement, quite like that felt when something supposed for amusement's sake to be magical and mysterious actually manifests the properties imagination has assigned it in jest--when the toy pistol shoots real bullets, the wishing well grants actual wishes, lovers from down the street fling themselves into Death's bright arms from Lovers' Leap”",
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                        "text": "“...the progress of science depends much less upon either theoretical considerations or systematic investigation than is commonly believed, but rather on the transmittal of reliable information, gained by chance or insight, from one set of men to their successors.”",
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                        "text": "“I am not here to answer your questions. To answer would imply that we conceded some slight possibility of truth to your assertions of innocence, and we do not concede that. Truth is something which is to be had from us, not from you. Ours is the most remarkable government in the history of mankind; because we, and only we, have accepted as a working principle what every sage has taught and every government has feigned to accept: the power of the truth. And because we do, we rule as no other government has ever ruled. You have often asked me what your crime is, why we detain you. It is because we know you are lying—do you understand what I am telling you?”",
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                        "text": "“Little Ozzie cried until he could cry no more. He could not have said just why he cried, but he cried because he knew, in some deep part of him where the knowledge would remain till he was dead, that the world was a more horrible place than he could imagine. He might think of monsters or mad dogs, but the world would beat him. It would turn the people he loved and trusted into monsters; it would reveal those meant to help him as mad dogs. He wept for himself, and he wept because he knew there would never really be anyone else to weep for him.”",
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                        "text": "“Do you know the definition of peace, my friend?” “Not the one you are about to quote, I’m sure.” Beyond the Duko, I saw Oreb flash past the windows—and heard him, too: “Here Silk! Silk here!” “Peace, as you intend peace, is but the slice of cheese in a sandwich, a period of cheating between two periods of fighting. Your peace would endure only until Blanko felt strong enough to throw us off, probably when we were deeply committed elsewhere. No, my friend, Pas would agree to no such peace, and neither will I. Would your Blanko consent to surrender all its weapons, every big gun, every slug gun, every needler, every sword and every knife?” I said that I did not know, but that I felt sure the Corpo would at least consider such a demand. “Then I make it. I make it because after you have complied with it, I can do whatever I wish.”",
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                        "text": "One can't found a novel theology on Nothing, and nothing is so secure a foundation as a contradiction. Look at the great successes of the past--they say their deities are the masters of all the universes, and yet that they require grandmothers to defend them, as if they were children frightened by poultry. Or that the authority that punishes no one while there exists a chance for reformation will punish everyone when there is no possibility anyone will become the better for it.",
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                        "text": "“It is a part of our office to stand uncloaked, masked, sword bared, upon the scaffold for a long time before the client is brought out. Some say this is to symbolize the unsleeping omnipresence of justice, but I believe the real reason is to give the crowd a focus, and the feeling that something is about to take place. A crowd is not the sum of the individuals who compose it. Rather it is a species of animal, without language or real consciousness, born when they gather, dying when they depart. Before the Hall of Justice, a ring of dimarchi surrounded the scaffold with their lances, and the pistol their officer carried could, I suppose, have killed fifty or sixty before someone could snatch it from him and knock him to the cobblestones to die. Still it is better to have a focus, and some open symbol of power. Wolfe, Gene (1994-10-15). Shadow & Claw: The First Half of 'The Book of the New Sun' (p. 184). Tom Doherty Associates. Kindle Edition.”",
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                        "text": "“And as if by magic - and it may have been magic, for I believe America is the land of magic, and that we, we now past Americans, were once the magical people of it, waiting now to stand to some unguessable generation of the future as the nameless pre-Mycenaean tribes did to the Greeks, ready, at a word, each of us now, to flit piping through groves ungrown, our women ready to haunt as laminoe the rose-red ruins of Chicago and Indianapolis when they are little more than earthen mounds, when the heads of the trees are higher than the hundred-and-twenty-fifth floor - it seemed to me that I found myself in bed again, the old house swaying in silence as though it were moored to the universe by only the thread of smoke from the stove.”",
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                        "text": "“And what of the dead? I own that I thought of myself, at times, almost as dead. Are they not locked below ground in chambers smaller than mine was, in their millions of millions? There is no category of human activity in which the dead do not outnumber the living many times over. Most beautiful children are dead. Most soldiers, most cowards. The fairest women and the most learned men – all are dead. Their bodies repose in caskets, in sarcophagi, beneath arches of rude stone, everywhere under the earth. Their spirits haunt our minds, ears pressed to the bones of our foreheads. Who can say how intently they listen as we speak, or for what word? ”",
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}
```