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The Secret Commonwealth (The Book of Dust, #2) QUOTES

The Secret Commonwealth (The Book of Dust, #2) QUOTES

1 " But he was a human being, or part of one, and he felt just as Lyra did: unhappy, and guilty, and wretchedly lonely. "

― Philip Pullman , The Secret Commonwealth (The Book of Dust, #2)

2 " She couldn't get any further at that point. The sky full of stars seemed dead and cold, everything in it the result of the mechanical, indifferent interactions of molecules and particles that would continue for the rest of time whether Lyra lived or died, whether human beings were conscious or unconscious: a vast silent empty indifference, all quite meaningless.
Reason had brought her to this state. She had exalted reason over every other faculty. The result had been - was now - the deepest unhappiness she had ever felt. "

― Philip Pullman , The Secret Commonwealth (The Book of Dust, #2)

3 " What is the world of the spirits? It is nothing I know about. I don't know what spirit is."
"Spirit is what matter does. "

― Philip Pullman , The Secret Commonwealth (The Book of Dust, #2)

4 " Had reason ever created a poem, or a symphony, or a painting? If rationality can’t see things like the secret commonwealth, it’s because rationality’s vision is limited. The secret commonwealth is there. We can’t see it with rationality any more than we can weigh something with a microscope: it’s the wrong sort of instrument. We need to imagine as well as measure ... "

― Philip Pullman , The Secret Commonwealth (The Book of Dust, #2)

5 " The question was, she thought, was the universe alive or dead? "

― Philip Pullman , The Secret Commonwealth (The Book of Dust, #2)

6 " The other side’s got an energy that our side en’t got. Comes from their certainty about being right. If you got that certainty, you’ll be willing to do anything to bring about the end you want. It’s the oldest human problem, Lyra, an’ it’s the difference between good and evil. Evil can be unscrupulous, and good can’t. Evil has nothing to stop it doing what it wants, while good has one hand tied behind its back. To do the things it needs to do to win, it’d have to become evil to do ’em. "

― Philip Pullman , The Secret Commonwealth (The Book of Dust, #2)

7 " You're in a world full of color and you want to see it in black and white. "

― Philip Pullman , The Secret Commonwealth (The Book of Dust, #2)

8 " You won’t understand anything about the imagination until you realise that it’s not about making things up, it’s about perception. "

― Philip Pullman , The Secret Commonwealth (The Book of Dust, #2)

9 " Mr. Scoresby...told me there were truthtellers, and they needed to know what the truth was, so as to tell it. And there were liars, and they needed to know what the truth was, so they could change it or avoid it. And there were bullshitters, who didn't care about the truth at all. They weren't interested. What they spoke wasn't the truth and it wasn't lies; it was bullshit. All they were interested in was their own performance. "

― Philip Pullman , The Secret Commonwealth (The Book of Dust, #2)

10 " You won't understand anything about imagination until you realise that it's not about making things up, it's about perception. "

― Philip Pullman , The Secret Commonwealth (The Book of Dust, #2)

11 " Lyra bent over the open vessel and found the concentrated fragrance of every rose that had ever bloomed: a sweetness and power so profound that it moved beyond sweetness altogether and out of the other side of its own complexity into a realm of clear and simple purity and beauty. It was the smell of sunlight itself. "

― Philip Pullman , The Secret Commonwealth (The Book of Dust, #2)

12 " But then she remembered what the gyptians had said: Include things, don’t leave them out. Look at things in their context. Include everything. "

― Philip Pullman , The Secret Commonwealth (The Book of Dust, #2)

13 " It was nothing more than what it was. "

― Philip Pullman , The Secret Commonwealth (The Book of Dust, #2)

14 " Keep away from the literal-minded folk, and ignore the scoffers. "

― Philip Pullman , The Secret Commonwealth (The Book of Dust, #2)

15 " Knowledge is like water: it always finds gaps to leak through. There are too many people, too many journals, too many places of learning, who already know something about it. "

― Philip Pullman , The Secret Commonwealth (The Book of Dust, #2)

16 " We need to imagine as well as measure. "

― Philip Pullman , The Secret Commonwealth (The Book of Dust, #2)

17 " You used to be optimistic. You used to think that whatever we did would turn out well. Even after we came back from the north, you used to think that. Now you're cautious, you're anxious… You're pessimistic."

She knew he was right, but it wasn't right that he should speak to her accusingly, as if it was something to blame her for.

"I used to be young," was all she could find to say. "

― Philip Pullman , The Secret Commonwealth (The Book of Dust, #2)

18 " But we shouldn't believe things because it makes us happy to, she thought. We should believe things because they're true, and if that makes us unhappy, that's very unfortunate, but it's not the reason of fault. "

― Philip Pullman , The Secret Commonwealth (The Book of Dust, #2)

19 " It’s the oldest human problem, Lyra, an’ it’s the difference between good and evil. Evil can be unscrupulous, and good can’t. Evil has nothing to stop it doing what it wants, while good has one hand tied behind its back. To do the things it needs to do to win, it’d have to become evil to do ’em. "

― Philip Pullman , The Secret Commonwealth (The Book of Dust, #2)

20 " with his lumpish sow dæmon sprawled on the ground beside him, gnawing a turnip. "

― Philip Pullman , The Secret Commonwealth (The Book of Dust, #2)