# Quote — Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian

> Whatever exists, he said. Whatever in creation exists without my knowledge exists without my consent. [...]
>
> Only nature can enslave man and only when the existence of each last entity is routed out and made to stand naked before him will he be properly suzerain of the earth.
>
> Because he is a special kind of keeper. A suzerain rules even where there are other rulers. His authority countermands local judgments. [...]
>
> The judge placed his hands on the ground. He looked at his inquisitor. This is my claim, he said. And yet everywhere upon it are pockets of autonomous life. Autonomous. In order for it to be mine nothing must be permitted to occur upon it save by my dispensation. [...]
>
> Toadvine sat with his boots crossed before the fire. No man can acquaint himself with everything on this earth, he said.
>
> The judge tilted his great head. The man who believes that the secrets of this world are forever hidden lives in mystery and fear. Superstition will drag him down. The rain will erode the deeds of his life. But that man who sets himself the task of singling out the thread of order from the tapestry will by the decision alone have taken charge of the world and it is only by such taking charge that he will effect a way to dictate the terms of his own fate.

- Author: [Cormac McCarthy](https://www.leafyquotes.com/cormac-mccarthy.md)
- Book: [Blood Meridian](https://www.leafyquotes.com/cormac-mccarthy/blood-meridian.md)
- Page: 207
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Blood_Meridian#Quotations) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/cormac-mccarthy/blood-meridian/whatever-exists-he-said

## More from this book

> Spanish: "People say the coyote is a witch. Most of the time, the witch is a coyote."

p. 75 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/cormac-mccarthy/blood-meridian/spanish-people-say.md)

> Where is yesterday? Where is Glanton and Brown and where is the priest? He leaned closer. Where is Shelby, whom you left to the mercies of Elias in the desert, and where is Tate whom you abandoned in the mountains? Where the ladies, ah the fair and tender ladies with whom you danced at the governor's ball when you were a hero anointed with the blood of the enemies of the republic you'd elected to defend? And where is the fiddler and where the dance?

p. 344 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/cormac-mccarthy/blood-meridian/where-is-yesterday.md)

> This is a terrible place to die in.
>
> Where’s a good one?

p. 217 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/cormac-mccarthy/blood-meridian/this-is-a-terrible.md)