Michael Moorcock

Mortals and gods come and go, but nature remains.

“It has often been noted that gods could not exist without mortals and mortals could not exist without gods.”

“Yet gods, it appears,” said Corum, “can affect our destinies.”

“And we can affect theirs, can we not?”

“We are content here. None starves or goes in need of anything. There was no reason for the unrest. So we are victims of powers beyond our control, are we? I like not that—whether it be Law or Chaos. I would prefer to remain neutral…”

“Aye,” said Jhary-a-Conel. “Any thinking man does in these conflicts. Yet there are times when sides must be taken lest all that one loves is destroyed. I have never known another answer to the problem, though the taking of an extreme position will always make a man lose something of his humanity.”

Such speculation leads us nowhere and everywhere, but it makes no difference to our understanding of our immediate problems.

“I could come to hate all gods,” he said.

“IT WOULD BE YOUR RIGHT. WE MUST USE MORTALS FOR ENDS WE CANNOT OURSELVES ACHIEVE.”

Ultimately, Chaos brings a more profound stagnation than anything it despises in law. It must forever seek more and more sensation, more and more empty marvels, until there is nothing left and it has forgotten what true invention is.

Your imagination is notoriously poor. Not everyone holds identical ambitions to your own!

Indeed, to be a hero, forever at war, is to be in some ways always a child. The true challenge comes in making sense of one’s life, of imbuing it with purpose based on one’s own principles.

“For years my lady made her plans. And when the time came to put them into action, how wonderfully she was able to achieve her ambitions.”

“Only because few rational people can ever begin to understand such a lust for power,” said von Bek feelingly. “There is nothing more puerile than the mind of a tyrant.”

Everything may exist for a short while—even justice. But the true state of the universe is anarchy. It is the mortal’s tragedy that he can never accept this.

Knowledge ceases to be wisdom when one has no method for making sense or use of what one learns.

How true it is when they say there is nothing which makes a man more furious than the discovery that he has deceived himself!