# Quote — Steven Erikson, The Bonehunters

> The world, Ahlrada Ahn knew, was indifferent to the necessity of preservation. Of histories, of stories layered with meaning and import. It cared nothing for what was forgotten, for memory and knowledge had never been able to halt the endless repetition of wilful stupidity that so bound peoples and civilizations.

- Author: [Steven Erikson](https://www.leafyquotes.com/steven-erikson.md)
- Book: [The Bonehunters](https://www.leafyquotes.com/steven-erikson/the-bonehunters.md)
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Steven_Erikson#The_Bonehunters_(2006)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/steven-erikson/the-bonehunters/the-world-ahlrada

## More from this book

> A civilization at war chooses only the most obvious enemy, and often also the one perceived, at first, to be the most easily defeatable. But that enemy is not the true enemy, nor is it the gravest threat to that civilisation. Thus a civilization at war often chooses the wrong enemy.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/steven-erikson/the-bonehunters/a-civilization-at-war.md)

> Mappo Trell, I believe motivations prove, ultimately, irrelevant. Upon either side of the battlefield the face grins with blunt stupidity, even as smoke fills the sky from horizon to horizon, even as crops whither and die, even as sweet land turns to salt. Inequity ends, Trell, when no-one and no thing is left standing.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/steven-erikson/the-bonehunters/mappo-trell-i-believe.md)

> Compassion existed when and only when one could step outside oneself, to suddenly see the bars from inside the cage.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/steven-erikson/the-bonehunters/compassion-existed-when.md)