--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: Just as summer-killed meat draws flies…" description: "\"“Just as summer-killed meat draws flies, so the court draws spurious sages, philosophists, and acosmists who remain there as long as their purses and t..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c2e/gene-wolfe-2530_common-life_just-as-summer-killed-meat-draws-flies-s_2488663.jpg" --- # Just as summer-killed meat draws flies, so the court draws… ![“Just as summer-killed meat draws flies, so the court draws spurious sages, philosophists, and acosmists who remain there as long as their purses and their wits will maintain them, in the hope (at first) of an appointment from the Autarch and (later) of obtaining a tutorial position in some exalted…” quote by Gene Wolfe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c2e/gene-wolfe-2530_common-life_just-as-summer-killed-meat-draws-flies-s_2488663.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c2e/gene-wolfe-2530_common-life_just-as-summer-killed-meat-draws-flies-s_2488663.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c2e/gene-wolfe-2530_common-life_just-as-summer-killed-meat-draws-flies-s_2488663.jpg) > ““Just as summer-killed meat draws flies, so the court draws spurious sages, philosophists, and acosmists who remain there as long as their purses and their wits will maintain them, in the hope (at first) of an appointment from the Autarch and (later) of obtaining a tutorial position in some exalted family. At sixteen or so, Thecla was attracted, as I think young women often are, to their lectures on theogony, thodicy, and the like, and I recall one particularly in which a phoebad put forward as an ultimate truth the ancient sophistry of the existence of three Adonai, that of the city (or of the people), that of the poets, and that of the philosophers. Her reasoning was that since the beginning of human consciousness (if such a beginning ever was) there have been vast numbers of persons in the three categories who have endeavored to pierce the secret of the divine. If it does not exist, they should have discovered that long before; if it does, it is not possible that Truth itself should mislead them. Yet the beliefs of the populace, the insights of the rhapsodists, and the theories of the metaphysicians have so far diverged that few of them can so much as comprehend what the others say, and someone who knew nothing of any of their ideas might well believe there was no connection at all between them. May it not be, she asked (and even now I am not certain I can answer), that instead of traveling, as has always been supposed, down three roads to the same destination, they are actually traveling toward three quite different ones? After all, when in common life we behold three roads issuing from the same crossing, we do not assume they all proceed toward the same goal. I found (and find) this suggestion as rational as it is repellent, and it represents for me all that monomaniacal fabric of argument, so tightly woven that not even the tiniest objection or spark of light can escape its net, in which human minds become enmeshed whenever the subject is one in which no appeal to fact is possible. As a fact the Claw was thus an incommensurable. No quantity of money, no piling up of archipelagoes or empires could approach it in value any more than the indefinite multiplication of horizontal distance could be made to equal vertical distance. If it was, as I believed, a thing from outside the universe, then its light, which I had seen shine faintly so often, and a few times brightly, was in some sense the only light we had. If it were destroyed, we were left fumbling in the dark.”” [Gene Wolfe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gene-wolfe/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. The passage critiques intellectual elitism, suggesting scholars often pursue status over truth, and that multiple conflicting paths to knowledge exist. **In simple terms:** Scholars may chase prestige, and truth can be fragmented. Key Takeaway Question authority and seek diverse perspectives. Themes intellectual elitism truth pluralism Mood critical thoughtful Type philosophical critical When to use this quote - university politics - personal belief systems - search for meaning Key Concepts philosophy skepticism academic culture Questions to Reflect On - What drives scholars to prioritize status? - How can we reconcile multiple truths? A Different Perspective The dense language may obscure the core message for some readers. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Family](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/family/) [Human consciousness](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/human-consciousness/) [Philosophers](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/philosophers/) [Ultimate truth](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/ultimate-truth/) ## Related quotes > [The poets and philosophers I once loved had it wrong. Death does not come to us all, nor does the passage of time dim…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/the-poets-and-philosophers-i-once-loved-had-it-wrong-death-does-not/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [Because philosophy arises from awe, a philosopher is bound in his way to be a lover of myths and poetic fables. Poets and philosophers…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-aquinas/because-philosophy-arises-from-awe-a-philosopher-is-bound-in-his-way/) [Thomas Aquinas](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-aquinas/) > [“Only poets and philosophers see the world as it really is, for only to them is it given to live without illusions. To see…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/fernando-pessoa/only-poets-and-philosophers-see-the-world-as-it-really-is-for-only-to/) [Fernando Pessoa](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/fernando-pessoa/) > [In the beginning the Poets and Philosophers taught the world to see. Then after that any form of education was no longer free.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/stanley-victor-paskavich/in-the-beginning-the-poets-and-philosophers-taught-the-world-to-see/) [Stanley Victor Paskavich](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/stanley-victor-paskavich/) > [“When reading, one needs to remember that poets and philosophers are not prescribing courses of action but exploring aspects of existence.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/louise-cowan/when-reading-one-needs-to-remember-that-poets-and-philosophers-are/) Louise Cowan > [“A man is lying under machine-gun fire on a street in an embattled city. He looks at the pavement and sees a very amusing…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/czes-aw-mi-osz/a-man-is-lying-under-machine-gun-fire-on-a-street-in-an-embattled/) [Czesław Miłosz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/czes-aw-mi-osz/) > [We rely upon the poets, the philosophers, and the playwrights to articulate what most of us can only feel, in joy or sorrow. They…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/helen-hayes/we-rely-upon-the-poets-the-philosophers-and-the-playwrights-to/) [Helen Hayes](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/helen-hayes/) > [Poets, not otherwise than philosophers, painters, sculptors, and musicians, are, in one sense, the creators, and, in another, the creations, of their age.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/percy-bysshe-shelley/poets-not-otherwise-than-philosophers-painters-sculptors-and/) [Percy Bysshe Shelley](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/percy-bysshe-shelley/) > [“Poets and philosophers are the unacknowledged legislators of the world.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/percy-bysshe-shelley/poets-and-philosophers-are-the-unacknowledged-legislators-of-the-world/) [Percy Bysshe Shelley](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/percy-bysshe-shelley/) > [People are mostly sane enough, of course, in the affairs of common life: the getting of food, shelter, and so on. But the moment…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-stove/people-are-mostly-sane-enough-of-course-in-the-affairs-of-common-life/) [David Stove](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-stove/) > [In morals, theosophy builds its teachings on the unity, seeing in each form the expression of a common life, and therefore the fact that…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/annie-besant/in-morals-theosophy-builds-its-teachings-on-the-unity-seeing-in-each/) [Annie Besant](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/annie-besant/) > [Each moment of the happy lover's hour is worth an age of dull and common life. -](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/aphra-behn/each-moment-of-the-happy-lover-s-hour-is-worth-an-age-of-dull-and/) [Aphra Behn](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/aphra-behn/) > [Bird taxonomy is a difficult field because of the severe anatomical constraints imposed by flight. There are only so many ways to design a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jared-diamond/bird-taxonomy-is-a-difficult-field-because-of-the-severe-anatomical/) [Jared Diamond](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jared-diamond/) > [We must seek the loving-kindness of God in all the breadth and open-air of common life.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-a-smith/we-must-seek-the-loving-kindness-of-god-in-all-the-breadth-and-open/) [George A. Smith](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-a-smith/) > [It is not the fact that we are united in common goals or purposes that makes us a community. Rather, it is the fact…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jerry-bridges/it-is-not-the-fact-that-we-are-united-in-common-goals-or-purposes/) [Jerry Bridges](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jerry-bridges/) ## More by Gene Wolfe > [Some writers say they cannot write in front of a window; many say they cannot function without almost perfect quiet. A writer with only…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gene-wolfe/some-writers-say-they-cannot-write-in-front-of-a-window-many-say-they/) [Gene Wolfe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gene-wolfe/) > [“Sometimes driven aground by the photon storms, by the swirling of the galaxies, clockwise and counterclockwise, ticking with light down the dark sea-corridors lined…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gene-wolfe/sometimes-driven-aground-by-the-photon-storms-by-the-swirling-of-the/) [Gene Wolfe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gene-wolfe/) > [Ambiguity is necessary in some of my stories, not in all. In those, it certainly contributes to the richness of the story. I doubt…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gene-wolfe/ambiguity-is-necessary-in-some-of-my-stories-not-in-all-in-those-it/) [Gene Wolfe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gene-wolfe/) > [“There are beings—and artifacts—against which we batter our intelligence raw, and in the end make peace with reality only by saying, “It was an…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gene-wolfe/there-are-beings-and-artifacts-against-which-we-batter-our/) [Gene Wolfe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gene-wolfe/) > [Science has so accustomed us to devising and accepting theories to account for the facts we observe, however fantastic, that our minds must begin…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gene-wolfe/science-has-so-accustomed-us-to-devising-and-accepting-theories-to/) [Gene Wolfe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gene-wolfe/) > [“The experienced feel love or desire, or both. The inexperienced are sick with a thousand feelings, most of them unformed: fearful that they may…](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/) > [“For those who have never attended a science fiction convention, masquerades are features of most of the larger ones. Awards are presented for best…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gene-wolfe/for-those-who-have-never-attended-a-science-fiction-convention/) [Gene Wolfe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gene-wolfe/) > [“He had a wild yellow beard and long, tangled hair that stood out from his head in a way that made it seem too…](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/) > [ ...in some situations winning consist\[s\] of disentangling oneself. ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gene-wolfe/in-some-situations-winning-consist-s-of-disentangling-oneself/) [Gene Wolfe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gene-wolfe/) > [“For after all, if the lives of most men are examined in detail, it will be found that they have been experts of immense…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gene-wolfe/for-after-all-if-the-lives-of-most-men-are-examined-in-detail-it-will/) [Gene Wolfe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gene-wolfe/) > [You never learn how to write a novel. You just learn how to write the novel that you're writing.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gene-wolfe/you-never-learn-how-to-write-a-novel-you-just-learn-how-to-write-the/) [Gene Wolfe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gene-wolfe/) > [There is no magic. There is only knowledge, more or less hidden.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gene-wolfe/there-is-no-magic-there-is-only-knowledge-more-or-less-hidden/) [Gene Wolfe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gene-wolfe/) > [“...the progress of science depends much less upon either theoretical considerations or systematic investigation than is commonly believed, but rather on the transmittal of…](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/) > [“Whatever we may say, all of us suffer from disturbed sleep at times. Some in truth hardly sleep, though some who sleep copiously swear…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gene-wolfe/whatever-we-may-say-all-of-us-suffer-from-disturbed-sleep-at-times/) [Gene Wolfe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gene-wolfe/) > [“. . .Consciousness came and went. Consciousness went and came like the errant winds of spring, and I, who so often have had difficulty…](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/) [Explore all 160 Gene Wolfe quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gene-wolfe/) ## More Common life quotes > [It is not the fact that we are united in common goals or purposes that makes us a community. Rather, it is the fact…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jerry-bridges/it-is-not-the-fact-that-we-are-united-in-common-goals-or-purposes/) [Jerry Bridges](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jerry-bridges/) > [We must seek the loving-kindness of God in all the breadth and open-air of common life.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-a-smith/we-must-seek-the-loving-kindness-of-god-in-all-the-breadth-and-open/) [George A. Smith](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-a-smith/) > [Bird taxonomy is a difficult field because of the severe anatomical constraints imposed by flight. There are only so many ways to design a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jared-diamond/bird-taxonomy-is-a-difficult-field-because-of-the-severe-anatomical/) [Jared Diamond](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jared-diamond/) > [Each moment of the happy lover's hour is worth an age of dull and common life. -](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/aphra-behn/each-moment-of-the-happy-lover-s-hour-is-worth-an-age-of-dull-and/) [Aphra Behn](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/aphra-behn/) > [In morals, theosophy builds its teachings on the unity, seeing in each form the expression of a common life, and therefore the fact that…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/annie-besant/in-morals-theosophy-builds-its-teachings-on-the-unity-seeing-in-each/) [Annie Besant](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/annie-besant/) > [People are mostly sane enough, of course, in the affairs of common life: the getting of food, shelter, and so on. But the moment…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-stove/people-are-mostly-sane-enough-of-course-in-the-affairs-of-common-life/) [David Stove](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-stove/) > [“The Spirit doesn’t simply make me a singular new creation. He makes me part of God’s new creation people. He inscribes God’s rule on…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michael-lawrence/the-spirit-doesn-t-simply-make-me-a-singular-new-creation-he-makes-me/) Michael Lawrence > [Learn to commend thy daily acts to God, so shall the dry every-day duties of common life be steps to heaven, and lift they…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/edward-bouverie-pusey/learn-to-commend-thy-daily-acts-to-god-so-shall-the-dry-every-day/) [Edward Bouverie Pusey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/edward-bouverie-pusey/) > [Let us become thoroughly sensible of the weakness, blindness, and narrow limits of human reason: Let us duly consider its uncertainty and endless contrarieties,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-hume/let-us-become-thoroughly-sensible-of-the-weakness-blindness-and/) [David Hume](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-hume/) > [The most part of men, though they have the use of reasoning a little way, as in numbering to some degree; yet it serves…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-hobbes/the-most-part-of-men-though-they-have-the-use-of-reasoning-a-little/) [Thomas Hobbes](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-hobbes/) > [“Such are the limitations of the human mind, and so thoroughly engrossing are the cares of common life, that only the few among men…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/frederick-douglass/such-are-the-limitations-of-the-human-mind-and-so-thoroughly/) [Frederick Douglass](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/frederick-douglass/) > [The poor and the low have their way of expressing the last facts of philosophy as well as you. "Blessed be nothing," and "The…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ralph-waldo-emerson/the-poor-and-the-low-have-their-way-of-expressing-the-last-facts-of/) [Ralph Waldo Emerson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ralph-waldo-emerson/) > [Let us learn to accept ourselves-accept the truth that we are capable in some directions and limited in others, that genius is rare, that…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joshua-l-liebman/let-us-learn-to-accept-ourselves-accept-the-truth-that-we-are-capable/) [Joshua L. Liebman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joshua-l-liebman/) > [“in common life we esteem but meanly and contemptibly a fellow who anoints his hair, and palpably smells of that anointing. In truth, a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/herman-melville/in-common-life-we-esteem-but-meanly-and-contemptibly-a-fellow-who/) [Herman Melville](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/herman-melville/) > [“He came to save sinners, to heal the sick, to preach the good news to the poor, and to live a common life hidden…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/brian-kennelly/he-came-to-save-sinners-to-heal-the-sick-to-preach-the-good-news-to/) [Brian Kennelly](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/brian-kennelly/) Browse all 99 Common life quotes ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“Just as summer-killed meat draws flies, so the court draws spurious sages, philosophists, and acosmists who remain there as long as their purses and their wits will maintain them, in the hope (at first) of an appointment from the Autarch and (later) of obtaining a tutorial position in some exalted family. At sixteen or so, Thecla was attracted, as I think young women often are, to their lectures on theogony, thodicy, and the like, and I recall one particularly in which a phoebad put forward as an ultimate truth the ancient sophistry of the existence of three Adonai, that of the city (or of the people), that of the poets, and that of the philosophers. Her reasoning was that since the beginning of human consciousness (if such a beginning ever was) there have been vast numbers of persons in the three categories who have endeavored to pierce the secret of the divine. If it does not exist, they should have discovered that long before; if it does, it is not possible that Truth itself should mislead them. Yet the beliefs of the populace, the insights of the rhapsodists, and the theories of the metaphysicians have so far diverged that few of them can so much as comprehend what the others say, and someone who knew nothing of any of their ideas might well believe there was no connection at all between them. May it not be, she asked (and even now I am not certain I can answer), that instead of traveling, as has always been supposed, down three roads to the same destination, they are actually traveling toward three quite different ones? After all, when in common life we behold three roads issuing from the same crossing, we do not assume they all proceed toward the same goal. I found (and find) this suggestion as rational as it is repellent, and it represents for me all that monomaniacal fabric of argument, so tightly woven that not even the tiniest objection or spark of light can escape its net, in which human minds become enmeshed whenever the subject is one in which no appeal to fact is possible. As a fact the Claw was thus an incommensurable. No quantity of money, no piling up of archipelagoes or empires could approach it in value any more than the indefinite multiplication of horizontal distance could be made to equal vertical distance. If it was, as I believed, a thing from outside the universe, then its light, which I had seen shine faintly so often, and a few times brightly, was in some sense the only light we had. If it were destroyed, we were left fumbling in the dark.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Gene Wolfe" }, "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gene-wolfe/just-as-summer-killed-meat-draws-flies-so-the-court-draws-spurious/", "about": { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Common life" }, "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gene-wolfe/just-as-summer-killed-meat-draws-flies-so-the-court-draws-spurious/#quotation", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c2e/gene-wolfe-2530_common-life_just-as-summer-killed-meat-draws-flies-s_2488663.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c2e/gene-wolfe-2530_common-life_just-as-summer-killed-meat-draws-flies-s_2488663.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c2e/gene-wolfe-2530_common-life_just-as-summer-killed-meat-draws-flies-s_2488663.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Just as summer-killed meat draws flies, so the court draws spurious sages, philosophists, and acosmists who…” — Gene Wolfe", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } }, { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Quotes", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Gene Wolfe", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gene-wolfe/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "“Just as summer-killed meat draws flies,...", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gene-wolfe/just-as-summer-killed-meat-draws-flies-so-the-court-draws-spurious/" } ], "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gene-wolfe/just-as-summer-killed-meat-draws-flies-so-the-court-draws-spurious/#breadcrumb" }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "publisher": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } }, { "@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/themes/sq/assets/icons/icon-512.png", "width": 512, "height": 512 } } ] } ```