# Quote — Olaf Stapledon, Star Maker

> Under the pressure of a war to the death, all that was best, all that was most human and gentle on each side was crushed out by military necessity. On the one side, the passion for a unified world, where every individual should live a free and full life in service of the world community, was overcome by the passion to punish spies, traitors, and heretics. On the other, vague and sadly misguided yearnings for a nobler, less materialistic life were cleverly transformed by the reactionary leaders into vindictiveness against the revolutionaries.

- Author: [Olaf Stapledon](https://www.leafyquotes.com/olaf-stapledon.md)
- Book: [Star Maker](https://www.leafyquotes.com/olaf-stapledon/star-maker.md)
- Page: 69
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Olaf_Stapledon#Star_Maker_(1937)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/olaf-stapledon/star-maker/under-the-pressure

## More from this book

> Thus, little by little, it came about, as so often before, that the Star Maker outgrew his creature. Increasingly he frowned upon the loveliness that he still cherished. Then, seemingly with a conflict of reverence and impatience, he set our cosmos in its place among his other works.

p. 179 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/olaf-stapledon/star-maker/thus-little-by-little.md)

> It seemed that he gazed down on me from the height of his divinity with the aloof though passionate attention of an artist judging his finished work; calmly rejoicing in his achievement, but recognizing at last the irrevocable flaws in his initial conception, and already lusting for fresh creation.

p. 164 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/olaf-stapledon/star-maker/it-seemed-that.md)

> As I contemplated the host of deities that rose to me like a smoke cloud from the many worlds, a new image, a new symbol of the infinite spirit, took shape in my mind. Though born of my own cosmical imagination, it was begotten by a greater than I.

p. 161 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/olaf-stapledon/star-maker/as-i-contemplated.md)