-
They based their extrapolations on numbers. That worked as long as money, which is easily measured numerically, was the principle motivating force in human affairs. But as time progressed, human actions became responsive instead to a multitude of incommensurable vectors.
Gene Wolfe -
She often spoke of marryin' a butcher or a sausage maker, having a liking for those trades, as she said, for they knew you couldn't never get all the stains from their aprons, and didn't demand it.
Gene Wolfe
-
Those who have never fought suppose that the deserter who flies the field is consumed by shame. He is not, or he would not desert; with only trifling exceptions, battles are fought by cowards afraid to run.
Gene Wolfe -
When neither our fellows nor our gods spoil our plans, we spoil them ourselves.
Gene Wolfe -
It is well not to spend one's symbols improvidently.
Gene Wolfe -
Time passed, slipping through the waist of the universe's great hourglass like the eroded soil of this continent slipping down her rivers to the seas.
Gene Wolfe -
Any representation of a god is ultimately a lie, Silk explained. It may be a convenient lie, and it may even be a reverent one; but it's ultimately false. ... Neither image would be more nearly true than the other, or more true than any other-merely more appropriate.
Gene Wolfe -
It’s easy-very easy-to slay a ruler. But it’s very difficult to prevent a worse one from coming to his place.
Gene Wolfe
-
There is more to be learned from any good teacher than the subject taught.
Gene Wolfe -
'You’re called a holy man,' she said. 'I see you’re wholly deranged.'
Gene Wolfe -
When we're young, we notice things that are young, like ourselves. New grass on old graves. New leaves on old trees
Gene Wolfe -
Perhaps I need to begin before I can think clearly about the task. The chief thing is to begin, after all-after which the chief thing is to finish.
Gene Wolfe -
He is indeed a creature of evil; but so are you, and so am I.
Gene Wolfe -
You have a walking stick. Suppose it could walk by itself, and that it chose to walk away from you. ... It would no longer be a walking stick at all, only a stick that walked.
Gene Wolfe
-
We don't harm the gods when we mingle their names with our curses and obscenities. We harm ourselves. I said that I didn't regard most gods as holy, but they don't have to be for our malice and mockery to recoil upon ourselves.
Gene Wolfe -
Be careful about extending credit, too, and doubly careful about refusing to extend it.
Gene Wolfe