# Parable of the Talents - Author: [Octavia E. Butler](https://www.leafyquotes.com/octavia-e-butler.md) - Quotes: 18 - Book page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/octavia-e-butler/parable-of-the-talents ## Quotes > Consider— > > We are born > > Not with purpose, > > But with potential. p. 1 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/octavia-e-butler/parable-of-the-talents/consider-we-are.md) > Beware: > > Ignorance > > Protects itself > > Ignorance > > Promotes suspicion. > > Suspicion > > Engenders fear. > > Fear quails, > > Irrational and blind, > > Or fear looms, > > Defiant and closed. > > Blind, closed, > > Suspicious, afraid, > > Ignorance > > Protects itself, > > And protected, > > Ignorance grows. p. 225 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/octavia-e-butler/parable-of-the-talents/beware-ignorance-protects.md) > “I’m not a demagogue.” > > “That’s too bad. That leaves the field to people who are demagogues—to the Jarrets of the world. And there have always been Jarrets. Probably there always will be.” p. 395 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/octavia-e-butler/parable-of-the-talents/im-not-a-demagogue.md) > I’m literate, and the idea of leaving children illiterate is criminal. p. 405 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/octavia-e-butler/parable-of-the-talents/im-literate-and.md) > How completely, how thoroughly he has stolen my child. I have never even tried to forgive him. p. 446 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/octavia-e-butler/parable-of-the-talents/how-completely-how.md) > Overall, the Pox has had the effect of an installment-plan World War III. In fact, there were several small, bloody shooting wars going on around the world during the Pox. These were stupid affairs—wastes of life and treasure. They were fought, ostensibly, to defend against vicious foreign enemies. All too often, they were actually fought because inadequate leaders did not know what else to do. Such leaders knew that they could depend on fear, suspicion, hatred, need, and greed to arouse patriotic support for war. > > Amid all this, somehow, the United States of America suffered a major, nonmilitary defeat. It lost no important war, yet it did not survive the Pox. Perhaps it simply lost sight of what it once intended to be, then blundered aimlessly until it exhausted itself. p. 8 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/octavia-e-butler/parable-of-the-talents/overall-the-pox.md) > Life is getting better, but that won’t stop a war if politicians and business people decide it’s to their advantage to have one. p. 90 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/octavia-e-butler/parable-of-the-talents/life-is-getting.md) > Are you Earthseed? > > Do you believe? > > Belief will not save you. > > Only actions > > Guided and shaped > > By belief and knowledge > > Will save you. > > Belief > > Initiates and guides action— > > Or it does nothing. p. 382 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/octavia-e-butler/parable-of-the-talents/are-you-earthseed.md) > Now I have been raped. > > It happened twice. Once on Monday, and again yesterday. It is my Christmas gift from Christian America. p. 253 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/octavia-e-butler/parable-of-the-talents/now-i-have.md) > We give our dead > > To the orchards > > And the groves. > > We give our dead > > To life. p. 5 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/octavia-e-butler/parable-of-the-talents/we-give-our.md) > No one thought about what kind of society we were building with such stupid decisions. People who could afford to educate their children in private schools were glad to see the government finally stop wasting their tax money, educating other people’s children. They seemed to think they lived on Mars. They imagined that a country filled with poor, uneducated, unemployable people somehow wouldn’t hurt them! p. 404 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/octavia-e-butler/parable-of-the-talents/no-one-thought.md) > We keep falling into the same ditches, you know? I mean, we learn more and more about the physical universe, more about our own bodies, more technology, but somehow, down through history, we go on building empires of one kind or another, then destroying them in one way or another. We go on having stupid wars that we justify and get passionate about, but in the end, all they do is kill huge numbers of people, maim others, impoverish still more, spread disease and hunger, and set the stage for the next war. And when we look at all of that in history, we just shrug our shoulders and say, well, that’s the way things are. That’s the way things always have been. p. 392 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/octavia-e-butler/parable-of-the-talents/we-keep-falling.md) > If you hear nonsense like that often enough for long enough, you begin to believe it. p. 291 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/octavia-e-butler/parable-of-the-talents/if-you-hear.md) > Jarrett would be easier to take if he cared half as much about children’s bodies and minds as he pretends to care about their souls. p. 391 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/octavia-e-butler/parable-of-the-talents/jarrett-would-be-easier.md) > We’ve also been laughed at, argued with, booed, and threatened with hellfire—or gunfire. But Jarret’s kind of religion and Jarret himself are getting less and less popular these days. Both, it seems, are bad for business, bad for the U. S. Constitution, and bad for a large percentage of the population. They always have been, but now more and more people are willing to say so in public. The Crusaders have terrorized some people into silence, but they’ve just made others very angry. p. 430 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/octavia-e-butler/parable-of-the-talents/weve-also-been.md) > All religions are ultimately cargo cults. > > Adherents perform required rituals, follow > > specific rules, and expect to be supernaturally > > gifted with desired rewards—long life, > > honor, wisdom, children, good health, wealth, > > victory over opponents, immortality after > > death, any desired rewards. p. 357 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/octavia-e-butler/parable-of-the-talents/all-religions-are.md) > We were snatched away and given alone into the hands of people who believed that it was their duty to break us and remake us in the Christian American image. And, of course, breaking people is much easier than putting them together again. > > So much agony caused, so much evil done in God’s name. p. 288 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/octavia-e-butler/parable-of-the-talents/we-were-snatched.md) > When vision fails > > Direction is lost. > > When direction is lost > > Purpose may be forgotten. > > When purpose if forgotten > > Emotion rules alone. > > When emotion rules alone, > > Destruction...destruction. p. 239 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/octavia-e-butler/parable-of-the-talents/when-vision-fails.md)