Sheri S. Tepper

Quotes

1. “That is the god of jihad,” she said. “That is the god of crusades. They are identical except for their names.”

   p. 55

2. 

   The place displayed luxury without comfort, ostentation without art. I hated it.

   p. 398

3. 

   Great wealth breeds great arrogance.

   p. 115

4. 

   Something in their history has moved them to patience. Wise leaders do not go to war with enemies, not even evil enemies, unless they have thought it through to the end.

   p. 504

5. 

   The Gardener says that mortals often pass laws they cannot enforce in order to be seen as “strong,” or “determined,” even though they know the laws will not solve the problem.

   p. 56

6. 

   “Are those gods real?” I demanded.

   “I am one of them, Gretamara. We exist, but we are not real in the sense that a tree is real or a rock is real. If all the people in the universe were gone, the rock or tree would still be there, but we deities exist only while our people do.”

   p. 283

7. 

   “Sit down, Grandma,” Glory urged. “You’re very pale. This is all very weird and strange, and you’re allergic to strange.”

   p. 389

8. 

   “That’s why we train women judges here at Temple. It is the nature of men to make rules for everything and to play complicated games with them. For them, the game is more important than justice.

   “Ordinary people prefer justice. They prefer that things be taken case by case, they prefer an attempt at justice over the rules of law, for they know that pure law is often used by the clever to victimize the innocent.”

   p. 189

9. 

   The people of Earth did not understand that humans were part of a worldwide organism, that something as tiny as a cluster of bacteria could mean the difference between life and death for every living thing, the difference between a functioning, flourishing planet and a desolation.

   p. 272

10. 

    “We have a membership provided the ISTO doesn’t declare all Earthians a barbarian people.”

    “I don’t know what that means,” I persisted, even though this wasn’t strictly part of the subject.

    Father gritted his teeth. “ISTO recognizes four types of creatures: civilized, semicivilized, barbarians, and animals. Civilized people know about, care about, and protect their environments. Semicivilized people know and care, but can’t do anything…”

    “Why not?”

    Mother said, “Because something prevents their acting in their own self-interest. Public apathy. Commercial interference. Religious opposition. Governmental corruption. The Gentherans say the humans have a lot of that.”

    Father frowned at her and went on. “Barbarians know but don’t care about their worlds, and animals don’t even know.”

    p. 29

11. 

    Human worlds are always awash in superstition, only a stubborn elite proof against it.

    p. 306

12. 

    Earth had always operated on a continuous-growth model that requires a poverty class. Sustainable models require productive work by all members and are quite different.

    p. 272