R. Scott Bakker

Quotes

1. ... for the sin of the idolator is not that he worships stone, but that he worships one stone over others.

2. 

   Like many old tyrants, I dote upon my grandchildren. I delight in their tantrums, their squealing laughter, their peculiar fancies. I willfully spoil them with honey sticks. And I find myself wondering at their blessed ignorance of the world and its million grinning teeth. Should I, like my grandfather, knock such childishness from them? Or should I indulge their delusions? Even now, as death's shadow pickets gather about me, I ask, Why should innocence answer to the world? Perhaps the world should answer to innocence ...

   Yes, I rather like that. I tire of bearing the blame.

3. 

   For men, no circle is ever closed. We walk ever in spirals.

4. 

   For all things there is a toll. We pay in breaths, and our purse is soon empty.

5. 

   What is the meaning of a deluded life?

6. 

   They strike down the weak and call it justice. They ungird their loins and call it reparation. They bark like dogs and call it reason.

7. 

   If all human events possess purpose, then all human deeds possess purpose. And yet when men vie with men, the purpose of no man comes to fruition: the result always falls somewhere in between. The purpose of deeds, then, cannot derive from the purposes of men, because all men vie with all men. This means the deeds of men must be willed by something other than men. From this it follows that we are all slaves.

   Who then is our Master?

8. 

   In terror, all men throw up their hands and turn aside their faces. Remember, Tratta, always preserve the face! For that is where you are.

9. 

   Why must I conquer you ask? War makes clear. Life or Death. Freedom or Bondage. War strikes the sediment from the water of life.

10. 

    A day with no noon,

    A year with no fall,

    Love is forever new,

    Or love is not at all.

11. 

    See your enemies content and your lovers melancholy.

12. 

    How does one learn innocence? How does one teach ignorance? For to be them is to know them not. And yet they are the immovable point from which the compass of life swings, the measure of all crime and compassion, the rule of all wisdom and folly. They are the Absolute.