# Quote — Tanith Lee, Night’s Master

> Azhrarn said: “The earth is dying. Man, your creation, is dying. Did you not hear of this?”
>
> But the gods did not answer, or look at him, or seem to see him.
>
> Then Azhrarn told them how the earth split and burned, and men slew each other under the goad of a sorcerous enduring hatred that fed and grew more vital on destruction. He told them everything and spared no word.
>
> But the gods did not answer, or look at him, or seem to see him.
>
> Then Azhrarn went to a single god...
>
> “Men you made,” Azhrarn said, “but me you did not make, and I will have an answer.”
>
> So the god spoke to Azhrarn at last... “Mankind is nothing to us, and the earth is nothing to us. Man is a mistake we made. Even gods are entitled to one mistake. But we will not perpetrate another by saving him. Let him vanish from the earth, and the earth vanish from the state of Being. You are the Demon, and humanity is your beloved toy, but we have graduated from such trivia. If you wish man to be saved, then you must save him, for we shall not.”

- Author: [Tanith Lee](https://www.leafyquotes.com/tanith-lee.md)
- Book: [Night’s Master](https://www.leafyquotes.com/tanith-lee/nights-master.md)
- Page: 174
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Tanith_Lee#Night's_Master_(1978)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/tanith-lee/nights-master/azhrarn-said-the

## More from this book

> Who would dare invite such a smoke? To some it might be healing, but to others, bane. Breathed in at the nostrils, it seemed to fill the eyes and ears and brain. To a man who knew many things, it would reveal many more, to a man who knew little it would reveal too much. Its name was self-knowledge.

p. 163 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/tanith-lee/nights-master/who-would-dare.md)

> “What else is she like?”
>
> The Eshva sighed at the touch of Azhrarn’s fingers. The sigh said this: Like a white moth at dusk, a night-blooming lily. Like music played by the reflection of a swan as it passes over the strings of a moonlit lake.

p. 127 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/tanith-lee/nights-master/what-else-is-she.md)

> Flat or round, there has always been hate in the world.

p. 167 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/tanith-lee/nights-master/flat-or-round.md)