Oliver Bowden · 504 pages
Rating: (3.6K votes)
“Death doesn’t wait for you to finish a book.” “Then read what you can, while you can.”
“How naïve to believe that there might be a single answer to every question. Every mystery. That there exists a lone, divine light that rules over everything. They say it is a light that brings truth and love. I say it is a light that blinds us—and forces us to stumble about in ignorance. I long for the day when men will turn away from invisible monsters, and once more embrace a more rational view of the world. But these new religions are so convenient—and promise such terrible punishment should one reject them—I worry that fear shall keep us stuck to what is truly the greatest lie ever told . . .”
“Ezio considered the new century they were in - the sixteenth. And only near its beginning. What would unfold during it, he could only guess; he knew that, at his age, he would not see very much more of it. More discoveries, and more wars, no doubt. But essentially the same play repeating itself - and the same actors, only with different costumes and different props for each generation that swallows up the last, each thinking that it would be the one to do better.”
“It’s incredible. The more we learn about the world, the less we seem to know.”
“Ah, I am weary of this fight, Claudia … Weary not because I am tired, but because our struggle seems to move in one direction only … towards chaos. Today I have more questions than answers. This is why I have come so far: to find clarity. To find the wisdom left behind by the Great Mentor, so that I may better understand the purpose of our fight, and my place in it. Should anything happen to me, dear Claudia … should my skills fail me, or my ambition lead me astray, do not seek revenge or retribution in my memory, but fight to continue the search for truth so that all may benefit. My story is one of many thousands, and the world will suffer if it ends too soon.”
“For as long as we continue to reproduce, we will give rise to doubters and challengers.”
“Tyranny is always better organized than freedom.”
“Being a poet doesn't automatically emasculate you, Claudia.”
“I have seen enough for one lifetime!”
“Sometimes our worst premonitions are the least reliable.”
“That is one of the moral paradoxes mankind will wrestle with until the day he becomes truly civilized,” replied Piri. “Is it evil to use evil to combat evil? Is agreeing with that argument merely a simple justification for something none of us should really do?” “For now,” said Ezio, “there is not leisure to ponder such questions.”
“A wounded heart sees all wisdom as the point of a knife.”
“the world is a tapestry of many colours and patterns. A just leader would celebrate this, not seek to unravel it.”
“I have often asked myself, "What did the Easter Islander who cut down the last palm tree say while he was doing it?" Like modern loggers, did he shout "Jobs, not trees!"? Or: "Technology will solve our problems, never fear, we'll find a substitute for wood"? Or: "We don't have proof that there aren't palms somewhere else on Easter, we need more research, your proposed ban on logging is premature and driven by fear-mongering"? Similar questions arise for every society that has inadvertently damaged its environment.”
“I sigh. I wonder if practicing in my head counts. I can easily picture myself doing a perfect routine. Somehow it comes out differently once gravity gets involved.”
“...When I set my mind on something I am a force to be reckoned with. Today I will be gravity - subtle, but powerful and undeniable.”
“I don't believe that anyone who is a legitimately interesting person can be popular as a teenager," Mel went on. "Or ever, maybe. Popularity rewards the uninteresting.”
“This was joy. This was love. So many words you hear about or read about, and now . . . now I knew them. When”
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