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The Subtle Knife (His Dark Materials, #2) QUOTES

The Subtle Knife (His Dark Materials, #2) QUOTES

1 " Her last conscious thought was disgust at life; her senses had lied to her. The world was not made of energy and delight but of foulness, betrayal, and lassitude. Living was hateful, and death was no better, and from end to end of the universe this was the first and last and only truth. "

― Philip Pullman , The Subtle Knife (His Dark Materials, #2)

2 " Tirelessly they flew on and on, and tirelessly she kept pace. She felt a fierce joy possessing her, that she could command these immortal presences. And she rejoiced in her blood and flesh, in the rough pine bark she felt next to her skin, in the beat of her heart and the life of all her senses, and in the hunger she was feeling now, and in the presence of her sweet-voiced bluethroat dæmon, and in the earth below her and the lives of every creature, plant and animal both; and she delighted in being of the same substance as them, and in knowing that when she died her flesh would nourish other lives as they had nourished her. "

― Philip Pullman , The Subtle Knife (His Dark Materials, #2)

3 " He let her do it, then looked around for his fingers. There they were, curled like a bloody quotation mark on the lead. He laughed. "

― Philip Pullman , The Subtle Knife (His Dark Materials, #2)

4 " You going to be a scientist when you grow up?” That sort of question deserved a blank stare, which it got. "

― Philip Pullman , The Subtle Knife (His Dark Materials, #2)

5 " The Specters feast as vampires feast on blood, but the Specters’ food is attention. A conscious and informed interest in the world. The immaturity of children is less attractive to them. "

― Philip Pullman , The Subtle Knife (His Dark Materials, #2)

6 " A few minutes after he arrived, Lee was talking to a group of astronomers eager to learn what news he could bring them, for there are few natural philosophers as frustrated as astronomers in a fog. "

― Philip Pullman , The Subtle Knife (His Dark Materials, #2)

7 " Ruta Skadi was four hundred and sixteen years old, with all the pride and knowledge of an adult witch queen. She was wiser by far than any short-lived human, but she had not the slightest idea of how like a child she seemed beside these ancient beings. Nor did she know how far their awareness spread out beyond her like filamentary tentacles to the remotest corners of universes she had never dreamed of; nor that she saw them as human-formed only because her eyes expected to. If she were to perceive their true form, they would seem more like architecture than organism, like huge structures composed of intelligence and feeling.

But they expected nothing else: she was very young. "

― Philip Pullman , The Subtle Knife (His Dark Materials, #2)

8 " From what we are, spirit; from what we do, matter. Matter and spirit are one. "

― Philip Pullman , The Subtle Knife (His Dark Materials, #2)

9 " Doesn't it scare you having your death close by all the time?" said Lyra. "Why ever would it? If he's there, you can keep an eye on him. I'd be a lot more nervous not knowing where he was. "

― Philip Pullman , The Subtle Knife (His Dark Materials, #2)

10 " I have suffered enough.” “Oh, there is more suffering to come. We have a thousand years of experience in this Church of ours. We can draw out your suffering endlessly. Tell us about the child,” Mrs. Coulter said, and reached down to break one of the witch’s fingers. It snapped easily. "

― Philip Pullman , The Subtle Knife (His Dark Materials, #2)

11 " There are two great powers,” the man said, “and they’ve been fighting since time began. Every advance in human life, every scrap of knowledge and wisdom and decency we have has been torn by one side from the teeth of the other. Every little increase in human freedom has been fought over ferociously between those who want us to know more and be wiser and stronger, and those who want us to obey and be humble and submit. "

― Philip Pullman , The Subtle Knife (His Dark Materials, #2)

12 " And she sobbed so passionately he thought that hearts really did break, and hers was breaking now, for she fell to the ground wailing and shuddering, and Pantalaimon beside her became a wolf and howled with bitter grief. "

― Philip Pullman , The Subtle Knife (His Dark Materials, #2)

13 " Yes,” Dr. Malone went on, “they know we’re here. They answer back. And here goes the crazy part: you can’t see them unless you expect to. Unless you put your mind in a certain state. You have to be confident and relaxed at the same time. You have to be capable—Where’s that quotation …” She reached into the muddle of papers on her desk and found a scrap on which someone had written with a green pen. She read: ‘ “… Capable of being in uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason.’ You have to get into that state of mind. That’s from the poet Keats, by the way. "

― Philip Pullman , The Subtle Knife (His Dark Materials, #2)

14 " Aveva detto una volta a Serafina Pekkala che a lui volare non importava, che era soltanto un lavoro come un altro, ma non parlava sul serio. Levarsi in alto, con un buon vento alle spalle e un nuovo mondo davanti: cosa poteva esserci di meglio in questa vita? "

― Philip Pullman , The Subtle Knife (His Dark Materials, #2)

15 " And then Serafina understood something for which witches had no word: it was the idea of pilgrimage. She understood why these beings would wait for thousands of years and travel vast distances in order to be close to something important, and how they would feel differently for the rest of time, having been briefly in its presence. "

― Philip Pullman , The Subtle Knife (His Dark Materials, #2)

16 " The world was not made of energy and delight but of foulness, betrayal, and lassitude. "

― Philip Pullman , The Subtle Knife (His Dark Materials, #2)

17 " Living was hateful, and death was no better, and from end to end of the universe this was the first and last and only truth. "

― Philip Pullman , The Subtle Knife (His Dark Materials, #2)

18 " Every advance in human life, every scrap of knowledge and wisdom and decency we have has been torn by one side from the teeth of the other. "

― Philip Pullman , The Subtle Knife (His Dark Materials, #2)

19 " ...when a witch offers you her love, you should take it. If you don't, it's your own fault when bad things happen to you. It's like having to make a choice: a blessing or a curse. The one thing can't do is choose neither. "

― Philip Pullman , The Subtle Knife (His Dark Materials, #2)

20 " No, we're renegades, she said. Not by our choice, but by his malice. Once the church learns about this, we're done for anyway. Take every advantage we can in the meantime. Go on, take the ring and stow it away, and mebbe we can use it. "

― Philip Pullman , The Subtle Knife (His Dark Materials, #2)