# Quote — James Morrow, Blameless in Abaddon

> “When an upright citizen hears his neighbor has met with an earthquake or a hurricane, he doesn’t stop to ask, ‘Is there a hidden harmony here?’ He rolls up his sleeves and tries to help.”
>
> “Exactly.” With an athleticism that defied his years, Noah regained his feet and climbed onto the long, taut mooring line. “If I learned one thing from the Deluge, Your Grace, it is this: a man who seals up his ark for the sake of a greater good is a man who has ceded his soul to chaos.” Slowly, cautiously, he tightrope-walked toward the rudderless vessel. “The hidden harmony defense is pornography, Bishop Augustine—pornography for priests!”

- Author: [James Morrow](https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-morrow.md)
- Book: [Blameless in Abaddon](https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-morrow/blameless-in-abaddon.md)
- Page: 190
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/James_K._Morrow#Blameless_in_Abaddon_(1996)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-morrow/blameless-in-abaddon/when-an-upright

## More from this book

> “God was guilty. The best defense is the Manichaean heresy, which isn’t a defense at all, it’s—”
>
> “Never mind about that.”
>
> “—an indictment.”

p. 394 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-morrow/blameless-in-abaddon/god-was-guilty.md)

> “Origen cut off his own balls,” Martin informed Randall.
>
> “Prostate cancer?”
>
> “Faith.”

p. 328 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-morrow/blameless-in-abaddon/origen-cut-off.md)

> “I am what I am. I am Christ and Antichrist, God and Satan, Heaven and Hiroshima, Arcadia and Auschwitz.” Smiling devilishly, Sarkos lumbered up to Lovett. “Get it, fat boy? God is a duality. Dr. Jehovah and Mr. Hyde.” He lobbed the bottle cap into his mouth and chewed. “Allow me to tell you a bedtime story. It’s called ‘The Day the Gas Chambers Malfunctioned at Auschwitz.’ On second thought, why bother? You know the plot—the title gives it away—I’m surprised Braverman and Kelvin left it out of their overblown epic. Can you imagine how it feels to be a seven-year-old Jewish child, standing in line with hundreds of other Jewish children, waiting your turn to be thrown alive onto an open fire?” Swallowing the bottle cap, Sarkos swerved toward Martin. “Don’t you see? It’s the only solution that can possibly work. No other theory comes close. Of course God has a dark side. Not just dark—evil. Radically, radically evil.”

p. 390 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-morrow/blameless-in-abaddon/i-am-what.md)