# Quote — George R. Stewart, Earth Abides

> It was all tied up in that same old question. How much did man strike outward to affect all his surroundings and how much did the surroundings press in upon him? Did the Napoleonic Age produce Napoleon or did he produce it?

- Author: [George R. Stewart](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-r-stewart.md)
- Book: [Earth Abides](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-r-stewart/earth-abides.md)
- Page: 294
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/George_R._Stewart#Earth_Abides_(1949)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-r-stewart/earth-abides/it-was-all

## More from this book

> What would be the use of all these books now? Why worry about one of them? Why worry about all the millions of them? There was no one left, now, to carry on. Books themselves, mere wood pulp and lampblack, were nothing—without a mind to use them.

p. 292 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-r-stewart/earth-abides/what-would-be-the.md)

> What a strange thing then is this great civilization, that no sooner have men attained it than they seek to flee from it!

p. 293 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-r-stewart/earth-abides/what-a-strange.md)

> How then, once overthrown, shall this great civilization, except by renewed Forces and Pressures, ever come again?

p. 294 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-r-stewart/earth-abides/how-then-once.md)