# Quote — Jeff VanderMeer, City of Saints and Madmen

> The city might be savage, stray dogs might share the streets with grimy urchins whose blank eyes reflected the knowledge that they might soon be covered over, blinded forever, by the same two pennies just begged from some gentleman, and no one in the fuming, fulminous boulevards of trade might know who actually ran Ambergris—or, if anyone ran it at all, but, like a renegade clock, it ran on and wound itself heedless, empowered by the insane weight of its own inertia, the weight of its own citizenry.

- Author: [Jeff VanderMeer](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jeff-vandermeer.md)
- Book: [City of Saints and Madmen](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jeff-vandermeer/city-of-saints-and-madmen.md)
- Page: 48
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jeff_VanderMeer#City_of_Saints_and_Madmen_(2001%E2%80%932004)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/jeff-vandermeer/city-of-saints-and-madmen/the-city-might

## More from this book

> Unlike the Cult of the Seven-Edged Star, the Church of the Seven Pointed Star believed that God had seven points rather than seven edges. Therefore, rather than worshipping the journey toward self-realization symbolized by the edges, they worshipped the goals of self-realization as symbolized by the points. [...] Adherents to the Church of the Seven-pointed Star used swords with sharp points but no edge, while the Cult of the Seven-Edged Star used swords with sharp edges but no point. Alas, edges proved superior to points in most battles fought in the streets of Nicea. Caroline's followers were forced to either commit sacrilege and switch to edges, or become meals for the ever-present saltwater buzzard. Proving, one could say, the point of the edges.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jeff-vandermeer/city-of-saints-and-madmen/unlike-the-cult.md)

> An inordinate love of ritual can be harmful to the soul, unless, of course, in times of great crisis, when ritual can protect the soul from fracture.

p. 122 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jeff-vandermeer/city-of-saints-and-madmen/an-inordinate-love.md)

> It closely resembles the situation that exists within a mental institution: in tight quarters, in similar garb, dissimilar minds attempt to build a consensus reality that, with a monumental effort of empathy, cannot—can never!—take concrete form.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jeff-vandermeer/city-of-saints-and-madmen/it-closely-resembles.md)