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1 " We are, each of us, a multitude. I am not the man I was this morning, nor the man of yesterday. I am a throng of myself queued through time. We are, gentle reader, each a crowd within a crowd. "
― , Arm of the Sphinx (The Books of Babel, #2)
2 " It is not cynical to admit the past has been turned into a fiction. It is a story, not a fact. The real has been erased. Whole eras have been added or removed. Wars have been aggrandized, and human struggle relegated to the margins. Villains are redressed as heroes. Generous, striving, imperfect men and women have been stripped of their flaws or plucked of their virtues and turned into figurines of morality or depravity. Whole societies have been fixed with motive and visions and equanimity where there was none. Suffering has been recast as noble sacrifice! Do you know why the history of the Tower is in such turmoil? Because too many powerful men are fighting for the pen, fighting to write their story over our dead bodies. They know what is at stake: immortality, the character of civilization, and influence beyond the ages. They are fighting to see who gets to mislead our grandchildren. "
3 " But what was excruciating at first turned cathartic the more he talked. In telling his story, he discovered that he had developed definite ideas about his own motives and decisions. These ideas seemed to have formed in the ether of emotions and dreams, that wooly fog that lay outside the footlights of the conscious mind. They were not large revelations, but were rather like the little epiphanies one suffers and enjoys over a morning cup of tea. "
4 " We can cower behind oaths and excuses, but it does not change the fact that many are suffering and dying. Perhaps we are not responsible for the crimes of our fathers, but make no mistake, we are beneficiaries of those crimes, which makes us answerable to its victims. "
― , The Fall of Babel (The Books of Babel, #4)
5 " The reason we study and learn, the reason we take only what we need, is because we have all been given a great gift—the gift of civilization, the gift of understanding, the gift of mastery over our environment—and if we misuse these, if we take these things for granted, the ones who will suffer most are our sons and daughters. There is nothing wrong with enjoying the fruits of our ancestors’ labor. We should relish the pudding. But that privilege does not relieve us of our responsibility to be faithful custodians of the world we leave for our children. "
6 " I grow old in the company of youthful ghosts. "
7 " When you think little of yourself, everyone else’s opinion of you becomes more important than your own. "
8 " I ... I don't know," he said.She had a wide, wondering expression on her face, as if a butterfly had landed on the tip of her nose.Something seemed to crack open inside of him, and behind that barrier, which he had not known was there, he discovered an emptiness that seemed to cry out for exploration, an absence that wanted to be filled. It was like discovering a new floor within a house he'd lived in all his life. "
9 " True conspiracies are inflexible and susceptible to discovery, but imaginary plots are ever evolving and, as a result, invulnerable. That is to say, conspiracies are perishable, paranoia is not. "
10 " The human race will march into the darkness singing songs and telling stories because that is who we are and what we do. "
11 " Senlin felt like an ambitious weed growing in the deep shade of old trees. "
12 " Sometimes, it was difficult to tell the difference between independence and imprisonment. The two could look an awful lot alike. "
13 " one of those smug intellectuals who talked too much, listened but little, and amended their opinions never. "
14 " Those who claim to be “ready for anything” are overpacked and invariably unprepared for the one obstacle every adventurer must eventually face—disappointment. "
15 " The only medicine for gout is moderation; the only cure for excess is charity. "
16 " What is a poison to the simple may be a liquor to the wise. "
17 " I suppose books are like a surgeon’s scalpel. The same blade that can kill when wielded by a fool can save lives in the right hands. "
18 " The human race will go marching into that conclusive dark, singing our ballads and telling our stories and embellishing our walls with loafing nudes because that is who we really are: creatures who’ve only begun to believe in the scarce beauty of ourselves, and just in time for the point to be moot. "
19 " But the human race came into the world with all the physical prowess of a custard "
20 " He understood that accusations made in wrath drew from the proof of emotions rather than the substance of facts, and as such were incontestable. "