Dark Materials Quotes

We've searched our database for all the quotes and captions related to Dark Materials. Here they are! All 100 of them:

β€œ
You cannot change what you are, only what you do.
”
”
Philip Pullman (The Golden Compass (His Dark Materials, #1))
β€œ
I stopped believing there was a power of good and a power of evil that were outside us. And I came to believe that good and evil are names for what people do, not for what they are.
”
”
Philip Pullman (The Amber Spyglass (His Dark Materials, #3))
β€œ
People are too complicated to have simple labels.
”
”
Philip Pullman (The Amber Spyglass (His Dark Materials, #3))
β€œ
All the history of human life has been a struggle between wisdom and stupidity.
”
”
Philip Pullman (The Amber Spyglass (His Dark Materials, #3))
β€œ
You speak of destiny as if it was fixed.
”
”
Philip Pullman (The Golden Compass (His Dark Materials, #1))
β€œ
When you choose one way out of many, all the ways you don't take are snuffed out like candles, as if they'd never existed.
”
”
Philip Pullman (The Amber Spyglass (His Dark Materials, #3))
β€œ
I have stolen ideas from every book I have ever read.
”
”
Philip Pullman (The Amber Spyglass (His Dark Materials, #3))
β€œ
We are all subject to the fates. But we must act as if we are not, or die of despair.
”
”
Philip Pullman (The Golden Compass (His Dark Materials, #1))
β€œ
That's the duty of the old,' said the Librarian, 'to be anxious on the behalf of the young. And the duty of the young is to scorn the anxiety of the old.' They sat for a while longer, and then parted, for it was late, and they were old and anxious.
”
”
Philip Pullman (The Golden Compass (His Dark Materials, #1))
β€œ
Iorek Byrnison: Can is not the same as must. Lyra Silvertongue: But if you must and you can, then there's no excuse.
”
”
Philip Pullman (The Amber Spyglass (His Dark Materials, #3))
β€œ
Every little increase in human freedom has been fought over ferociously between those who want us to know more and be wiser and stronger, and those who want us to obey and be humble and submit.
”
”
Philip Pullman (The Subtle Knife (His Dark Materials, #2))
β€œ
I'll be looking for you, Will, every moment, every single moment. And when we do find each other again, we'll cling together so tight that nothing and no one'll ever tear us apart. Every atom of me and every atom of you... We'll live in birds and flowers and dragonflies and pine trees and in clouds and in those little specks of light you see floating in sunbeams... And when they use our atoms to make new lives, they wont' just be able to take one, they'll have to take two, one of you and one of me, we'll be joined so tight...
”
”
Philip Pullman (His Dark Materials Trilogy: The Golden Compass / The Subtle Knife / The Amber Spyglass)
β€œ
Invention, it must be humbly admitted, does not consist in creating out of void, but out of chaos; the materials must, in the first place, be afforded: it can give form to dark, shapeless substances, but cannot bring into being the substance itself.
”
”
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (Frankenstein)
β€œ
Perfect date material, she thought. A vampire with the social equivalent of road rage. ---Beth about Wrath
”
”
J.R. Ward (Dark Lover (Black Dagger Brotherhood, #1))
β€œ
Even if it means oblivion, friends, I'll welcome it, because it won't be nothing. We'll be alive again in a thousand blades of grass, and a million leaves; we'll be falling in the raindrops and blowing in the fresh breeze; we'll be glittering in the dew under the stars and the moon out there in the physical world, which is our true home and always was.
”
”
Philip Pullman (The Amber Spyglass (His Dark Materials, #3))
β€œ
So Lyra and her daemon turned away from the world they were born in, and looked toward the sun, and walked into the sky.
”
”
Philip Pullman (The Golden Compass (His Dark Materials, #1))
β€œ
Into this wild Abyss/ The womb of Nature, and perhaps her grave--/ Of neither sea, nor shore, nor air, nor fire,/ But all these in their pregnant causes mixed/ Confusedly, and which thus must ever fight,/ Unless the Almighty Maker them ordain/ His dark materials to create more worlds,--/ Into this wild Abyss the wary Fiend/ Stood on the brink of Hell and looked a while,/ Pondering his voyage; for no narrow frith/ He had to cross.
”
”
John Milton (Paradise Lost)
β€œ
When he'd sworn at her and been sworn at in return, they became great friends.
”
”
Philip Pullman (The Golden Compass (His Dark Materials, #1))
β€œ
We shouldn't live as if [other worlds] mattered more than this life in this world, because where we are is always the most important place.
”
”
Philip Pullman (The Amber Spyglass (His Dark Materials, #3))
β€œ
Maybe sometimes we don't do the right thing because the wrong thing looks more dangerous, and we don't want to look scared, so we go and do the wrong thing just because it's dangerous. We're more concerned with not looking scared than with judging right.
”
”
Philip Pullman (The Amber Spyglass (His Dark Materials, #3))
β€œ
Human beings can't see anything without wanting to destroy it. That's original sin. And I'm going to destroy it. Death is going to die.
”
”
Philip Pullman (The Golden Compass (His Dark Materials, #1))
β€œ
I will love you for ever, whatever happens. Till I die and after I die, and when I find my way out of the land of the dead I’ll drift about forever, all my atoms, till I find you again…
”
”
Philip Pullman (The Amber Spyglass (His Dark Materials, #3))
β€œ
A book, too, can be a star, β€œexplosive material, capable of stirring up fresh life endlessly,” a living fire to lighten the darkness, leading out into the expanding universe.
”
”
Madeleine L'Engle (A Wrinkle in Time (A Wrinkle in Time Quintet, #1))
β€œ
I told him I was going to betray you, and betray Lyra, and he believed me because I was corrupt and full of wickedness; he looked so deep I felt sure he'd see the truth. But I lied too well. I was lying with every nerve and fiber and everything I'd ever done...I wanted him to find no good in me, and he didn't. There is none.
”
”
Philip Pullman (The Amber Spyglass (His Dark Materials, #3))
β€œ
Being a practiced liar doesn't mean you have a powerful imagination. Many good liars have no imagination at all; it's that which gives their lies such wide-eyed conviction.
”
”
Philip Pullman (The Golden Compass (His Dark Materials, #1))
β€œ
Without stories, we wouldn't be human beings at all
”
”
Philip Pullman (His Dark Materials (His Dark Materials #1-3))
β€œ
And I came to believe that good and evil are names for what people do, not for what they are. All we can say is that this is a good deed, because it helps someone or that's an evil one because it hurts them. People are too complicated to have simple labels.
”
”
Philip Pullman (The Amber Spyglass (His Dark Materials, #3))
β€œ
Tell them stories.
”
”
Philip Pullman (The Amber Spyglass (His Dark Materials, #3))
β€œ
It takes long practice, yes. You have to work. Did you think you could snap your fingers, and have it as a gift? What is worth having is worth working for.
”
”
Philip Pullman (The Amber Spyglass (His Dark Materials, #3))
β€œ
That’s the duty of the old, to be anxious on behalf of the young. And the duty of the young is to scorn the anxiety of the old.
”
”
Philip Pullman (The Golden Compass (His Dark Materials, #1))
β€œ
All good things pass away.
”
”
Philip Pullman (The Golden Compass (His Dark Materials, #1))
β€œ
As for what it's against - the story is against those who pervert and misuse religion, or any other kind of doctrine with a holy book and a priesthood and an apparatus of power that wields unchallengeable authority, in order to dominate and suppress human freedoms.
”
”
Philip Pullman (His Dark Materials)
β€œ
For a human being, nothing comes naturally,' said Grumman. 'We have to learn everything we do.
”
”
Philip Pullman (The Subtle Knife (His Dark Materials, #2))
β€œ
Lonely? I don't know. They tell me this is cold. I don't know what cold is, because I don't freeze. So I don't know what lonely means either. Bears are made to be solitary.
”
”
Philip Pullman (The Golden Compass (His Dark Materials, #1))
β€œ
The idea hovered and shimmered delicately, like a soap bubble, and she dared not even look at it directly in case it burst. But she was familiar with the way of ideas, and she let it shimmer, looking away, thinking about something else.
”
”
Philip Pullman (The Golden Compass (His Dark Materials, #1))
β€œ
We have to build the Republic of Heaven where we are, because for us, there is no elsewhere.
”
”
Philip Pullman (The Amber Spyglass (His Dark Materials, #3))
β€œ
We feel cold, but we don't mind it, because we will not come to harm. And if we wrapped up against the cold, we wouldn't feel other things, like the bright tingle of the stars, or the music of the aurora, or best of all the silky feeling of moonlight on our skin. It's worth being cold for that.
”
”
Philip Pullman (The Golden Compass (His Dark Materials, #1))
β€œ
because he's Will
”
”
Philip Pullman (The Amber Spyglass (His Dark Materials, #3))
β€œ
Tell them stories. They need the truth you must tell them true stories, and everything will be well, just tell them stories.
”
”
Philip Pullman (The Amber Spyglass (His Dark Materials, #3))
β€œ
...But it gradually seemed to me that I'd made myself believe something that wasn't true. I'd made myself believe that I was fine and happy and fulfilled on my own without the love of anyone else. Being in love was like China: you knew it was there, and no doubt it was very interesting, and some people went there, but I never would. I'd spend all my life without ever going to China, but it wouldn't matter, because there was all the rest of the world to visit... And I thought: am I really going to spend the rest of my life without feeling that again? I thought: I want to go to China. It's full of treasures and strangeness and mysteries and joy.
”
”
Philip Pullman (The Amber Spyglass (His Dark Materials, #3))
β€œ
People should decide on the books' meanings for themselves. They'll find a story that attacks such things as cruelty, oppression, intolerance, unkindness, narrow-mindedness, and celebrates love, kindness, open-mindedness, tolerance, curiosity, human intelligence.
”
”
Philip Pullman (His Dark Materials Trilogy: The Golden Compass / The Subtle Knife / The Amber Spyglass)
β€œ
Seems to me-" Lee said, feeling for the words, "seems to me the place you fight cruelty is where you find it, and the place you give help is where you see it needed....
”
”
Philip Pullman (His Dark Materials Trilogy: The Golden Compass / The Subtle Knife / The Amber Spyglass)
β€œ
When you live for many hundreds of years, you know that every opportunity will come again.
”
”
Philip Pullman (The Golden Compass (His Dark Materials, #1))
β€œ
She wondered whether there would ever come an hour in her life when she didn't think of him -- didn't speak to him in her head, didn't relive every moment they'd been together, didn't long for his voice and his hands and his love. She had never dreamed of what it would feel like to love someone so much; of all the things that had astonished her in her adventures, that was what astonished her the most. She thought the tenderness it left in her heart was like a bruise that would never go away, but she would cherish it forever.
”
”
Philip Pullman (His Dark Materials Trilogy: The Golden Compass / The Subtle Knife / The Amber Spyglass)
β€œ
From what we are, spirit; from what we do, matter. Matter and spirit are one.
”
”
Philip Pullman (The Subtle Knife (His Dark Materials, #2))
β€œ
It's not what you have on the outside that glitters in light, it's what you have on the inside that shines in the dark.
”
”
Anthony Liccione
β€œ
You are so young, Lyra, too young to understand this, but I shall tell you anyway and you'll understand it later: men pass in front of our eyes like butterflies, creatures of a brief season. We love them; they are brave, proud, beautiful, clever; and they die almost at once. They die so soon that our hearts are continually racked with pain. We bear their children, who are witches if they are female, human if not; and then in the blink of an eye they are gone, felled, slain, lost. Our sons, too. When a little boy is growing, he thinks he is immortal. His mother knows he isn't. Each time becomes more painful, until finally your heart is broken. Perhaps that is when Yambe-Akka comes for you. She is older than the tundra. Perhaps, for her, witches' lives are as brief as men's are to us.
”
”
Philip Pullman (The Golden Compass (His Dark Materials, #1))
β€œ
Oh, Will," she said, "What can we do? Whatever can we do? I want to live with you forever. I want to kiss you and lie down with you and wake up with you every day of my life till I die, years and years and years away. I don't want a memory, just a memory..." "No," he said. "Memory's a poor thing to have. It's your own real hair and mouth and arms and eyes and hands I want. I didn't know I could ever love anything so much. Oh, Lyra, I wish this night would never end! If only we could stay here like this, and the world could stop turning, and everyone else could fall into a sleep..." "Everyone except us! And you and I could live here forever and just love each other." "I will love you forever; whatever happens. Till I die and after I die, and when I find my way out of the land of the dead, I'll drift about forever, all my atoms, till I find you again..." "I'll be looking for you, Will, every moment, every single moment. And when we do find each other again, we'll cling together so tight that nothing and no one'll ever tear us apart. Every atom of me and every atom of you...We'll live in birds and flowers and dragonflies and pin trees and in clouds and in those little specks of light you see floating in sunbeams...And when they use our atoms to make new lives, they won't just be able to take one, they'll have to take two, one of you and one of me, we'll be joined so tight..." They lay side by side, hand in hand, looking at the sky.
”
”
Philip Pullman (The Amber Spyglass (His Dark Materials, #3))
β€œ
...because where we are is always the most important place.
”
”
Philip Pullman (The Amber Spyglass (His Dark Materials, #3))
β€œ
If a coin comes down heads, that means that the possibility of its coming down tails has collapsed. Until that moment the two possibilities were equal. But on another world, it does come down tails. And when that happens, the two worlds split apart.
”
”
Philip Pullman (The Golden Compass (His Dark Materials, #1))
β€œ
No,' he said, 'memory's a poor thing to have. It's your own real hair and mouth and arms and eyes and hands I want. I didn't know I could ever love anything so much...
”
”
Philip Pullman (The Amber Spyglass (His Dark Materials, #3))
β€œ
One moment several things are possible, the next moment only one happens, and the rest don't exist. Except that other worlds have sprung into being, on which the did happen.
”
”
Philip Pullman (The Golden Compass (His Dark Materials, #1))
β€œ
But think of Adam and Eve like an imaginary number, like the square root of minus one: you can never see any concrete proof that it exists, but if you include it in your equations, you can calculate all manner of things that couldn't be imagined without it.
”
”
Philip Pullman (The Golden Compass (His Dark Materials, #1))
β€œ
I know whom we must fight...it is the Church. For all its history, it's tried to suppress and control every natural impulse.That is what the Church does, and every church is the same: control, destroy, obliterate every good feeling.
”
”
Philip Pullman (The Subtle Knife (His Dark Materials, #2))
β€œ
It’s like having to make a choice: a blessing or a curse. The one thing you can’t do is choose neither.
”
”
Philip Pullman (The Subtle Knife (His Dark Materials, #2))
β€œ
We are all subject to the fates. But we must all act as if we are not, or die of despair...death will sweep through all the worlds; it will be the triumph of despair, forever. The universes will all become nothing more than interlocking machines, blind and empty of thought, feeling, life...
”
”
Philip Pullman (The Golden Compass (His Dark Materials, #1))
β€œ
Men and women are moved by tides much fiercer than you can imagine, and they sweep us all up into the current.
”
”
Philip Pullman (The Golden Compass (His Dark Materials, #1))
β€œ
I’m just trying to wake up - I’m so afraid of sleeping all my life and then dying - I want to wake up first. I wouldn’t care if it was just for an hour, as long as I was properly alive and awake…
”
”
Philip Pullman (The Amber Spyglass (His Dark Materials, #3))
β€œ
Being in love was like China: you knew it was there, and no doubt it was very interesting, and some people went there, but I never would... and then someone passed me a bit of some sweet stuff, and suddenly I realized that I had been to China. So to speak. And I'd forgotten it.
”
”
Philip Pullman (His Dark Materials (His Dark Materials #1-3))
β€œ
Just sort of relax your mind and say yes, it does hurt, I know. Don't try and shut it out.
”
”
Philip Pullman (The Subtle Knife (His Dark Materials, #2))
β€œ
Men pass in front of our eyes like butterflies, creatures of a brief season. We love them; they are brave, proud, beautiful, and clever.
”
”
Philip Pullman (The Golden Compass (His Dark Materials, #1))
β€œ
I thought physics could be done to the glory of God, till I saw there wasn’t any God at all and that physics was more interesting anyway. The Christian religion is a very powerful and convincing mistake, that’s all.
”
”
Philip Pullman (The Amber Spyglass (His Dark Materials, #3))
β€œ
The Christian religion is a very powerful and convincing mistake.
”
”
Philip Pullman (The Amber Spyglass (His Dark Materials, #3))
β€œ
Now and then, an inch below the water's surface, the muscles of his stomach tightened involuntarily as he recalled another detail. A drop of water on her upper arm. Wet. An embroidered flower, a simple daisy, sewn between the cups of her bra. Her breasts wide apart and small. On her back, a mole half covered by a strap. When she climbed out of the pond a glimpse of the triangular darkness her knickers were supposed to conceal. Wet. He saw it, he made himself see it again. The way her pelvic bones stretched the material clear of the skin, the deep curve of her waist, her startling whiteness. When she reached for her skirt, a carelessly raised foot revealed a patch of soil on each pad of her sweetly diminished toes. Another mole the size of a farthing on her thigh and something purplish on her calf--a strawberry mark, a scar. Not blemishes. Adornments.
”
”
Ian McEwan (Atonement)
β€œ
He meant the Kingdom was over, the Kingdom of Heaven, it was all finished. We shouldn't live as if it mattered more than this life in this world, because where we are is always the most important place.... We have to be all those difficult things like cheerful and kind and curious and patient, and we've got to study and think and work hard, all of us, in all our different worlds, and then we'll build... The Republic of Heaven.
”
”
Philip Pullman (The Amber Spyglass (His Dark Materials, #3))
β€œ
What work do I have to do then?" said Will, but went on at once, "No, on second thought, don't tell me. I shall decide what I do. If you say my work is fighting, or healing, or exploring, or whatever you might say, I'll always be thinking about it. And if I do end up doing that, I'll be resentful because it'll feel as if I didn't have a choice, and if I don't do it, I'll feel guilty because I should. Whatever I do, I will choose it, no one else.
”
”
Philip Pullman (The Amber Spyglass (His Dark Materials, #3))
β€œ
When you choose one way out of many, all the ways you don't take are snuffed out like candles, as if they'd never existed. At that moment all Will's choices existed at once. But to keep them all in existence meant doing nothing. He had to choose, after all.
”
”
Philip Pullman (The Golden Compass (His Dark Materials, #1))
β€œ
The fact was that where Will is concerned, she was developing a new kind of sense, as if he were simply more in focus than anyone she'd known before. Everything about him was clear and close and immediate.
”
”
Philip Pullman (The Subtle Knife (His Dark Materials, #2))
β€œ
...his face bore an expression that mingled haughty disdain with a tender, ardent sympathy, as if he would love all things if only his nature could let him forget their defects.
”
”
Philip Pullman (The Amber Spyglass (His Dark Materials, #3))
β€œ
Then she was pressing her little proud broken self against his face, as close as she could get, and then they died.
”
”
Philip Pullman (The Subtle Knife (His Dark Materials, #2))
β€œ
Being in love was like China: you knew it was there, and no doubt it was very interesting, and some people went there, but I never would. I'd spend all my life without ever going to China, but it wouldn't matter, because there was all the rest of the world to visit.
”
”
Philip Pullman (The Amber Spyglass (His Dark Materials, #3))
β€œ
Lee saw the fireball and head through the roar in his ears Hester saying, "That's the last of 'em Lee." He said, or thought, "Those poor men didn't have to come to this, nor did we." She said, "We held 'em off. We held out. We're a-helping Lyra." Then she was pressing her little proud broken self against his face, as close as she could get, and then they died.
”
”
Philip Pullman (The Subtle Knife (His Dark Materials, #2))
β€œ
Her last conscious thought was disgust at life; her senses had lied to her. The world was not made of energy and delight but of foulness, betrayal, and lassitude. Living was hateful, and death was no better, and from end to end of the universe this was the first and last and only truth.
”
”
Philip Pullman (The Subtle Knife (His Dark Materials, #2))
β€œ
The stains could be seen only in the sunlight, so Ruth was never really aware of them until later, when she would stop at an outdoor cafe for a cup of coffee, and look down at her skirt and see the dark traces of spilled vodka or whiskey. The alcohol had the effect of making the black cloth blacker. This amused her; she had noted in her journal: 'booze affects material as it does people'.
”
”
Alice Sebold (The Lovely Bones)
β€œ
If there is a war to be fought, we don’t consider cost one of the factors in deciding whether or not to fight.
”
”
Philip Pullman (The Golden Compass (His Dark Materials, #1))
β€œ
I found folly everywhere, but there were grains of wisdom in every stream of it.
”
”
Philip Pullman (The Subtle Knife (His Dark Materials, #2))
β€œ
We are all subject to the fates. But we must all act as if we are not,” said the witch, β€œor die of despair.
”
”
Philip Pullman (His Dark Materials)
β€œ
The intentions of a tool are what it does. A hammer intends to strike, a vise intends to hold fast, a lever intends to lift. They are what it is made for. But sometimes a tool may have other uses that you don't know. Sometimes in doing what you intend, you also do what the knife intends, without knowing.
”
”
Philip Pullman (His Dark Materials Trilogy: The Golden Compass / The Subtle Knife / The Amber Spyglass)
β€œ
Symbols and emblems were everywhere. Buildings and pictures were designed to be read like books. Everything stood for something else; if you had the right dictionary, you could read Nature itself. It was hardly surprising to find philosophers using the symbolism of their time to interpret knowledge that came from a mysterious source.
”
”
Philip Pullman (The Golden Compass (His Dark Materials, #1))
β€œ
She shook her head and whispered, "No. No! That can't be true. Impossible!" "You think things have to be possible? Things have to be true!
”
”
Philip Pullman (The Subtle Knife (His Dark Materials, #2))
β€œ
There is a correspondence between the microcosm and the macrocosm! The stars are alive, child! Did you know that? Everything out there is alive, and there are grand purpose abroad! The universe is full of intentions, you know. Everything happens for a purpose.
”
”
Philip Pullman (The Golden Compass (His Dark Materials, #1))
β€œ
I will love you forever; whatever happens. Till I die and after I die, and when I find my way out of the land of the dead, I’ll drift about forever, all my atoms, till I find you again… I’ll be looking for you, every moment, every single moment. And when we do find each other again, we’ll cling together so tight that nothing and no one’ll ever tear us apart. Every atom of me and every atom of you… We’ll live in birds and flowers and dragonflies and pine trees and in clouds and in those little specks of light you see floating in sunbeams… And when they use our atoms to make new lives, they won’t just be able to take one, they’ll have to take two, one of you and one of me, we’ll be joined so tight…
”
”
Philip Pullman (The Amber Spyglass (His Dark Materials, #3))
β€œ
If a witch needs something, another witch will give it to her. If there is war to be fought, we don't consider cost one of the factors in deciding whether or not it is right to fight. Nor do we have any notion of honor. An insult to a bear is a deadly thing. To us...inconceivable. How could you insult a witch? What would it matter if you did?
”
”
Philip Pullman (The Golden Compass (His Dark Materials, #1))
β€œ
But suppose your dæmon settles in a shape you don't like? Well, then, you're discontented, en't you? There's plenty of folk as'd like to have a lion as a dæmon and they end up with a poodle. And till they learn to be satisfied with what they are, they're going to be fretful about it. Waste of feeling, that is. But it didn't seem to Lyra that she would ever grow up.
”
”
Philip Pullman (The Golden Compass (His Dark Materials, #1))
β€œ
Another night then,' Mom said. 'Maybe on the weekend we can have a barbecue and invite your sister.' 'Or,' I said turning to Rafe, 'if you want to skip the whole awkward meet-the-family social event you could just submit your life story including your view on politics religion and every social issue imaginable along with anything else you think they might need to conduct a thorough background check.' Mom sighed. 'I really don't know why we even bother trying to be subtle around you.' 'Neither do I. It's not like he isn't going to realize he's being vetted as daughter-dating material.' Rafe grinned. 'So we are dating.' 'No. You have to pass the parental exam first. It'll take you awhile to compile the data. They'd like it in triplicate.' I turned to my parents. 'We have Kenjii. We have my cell phone. Since we aren't yet officially dating I'm sure you'll agree that's all the protection we need.' Dad choked on his coffee.
”
”
Kelley Armstrong (The Gathering (Darkness Rising, #1))
β€œ
As with men, it has always seemed to me that books have their own peculiar destinies. They go towards the people who are waiting for them and reach them at the right moment. They are made of living material and continue to cast light through the darkness long after the death of their authors.
”
”
Miguel Serrano (C.G. Jung and Hermann Hesse: A Book of Two Friendships)
β€œ
The newcomer stood well over six feet, as tall as any Warden. His hair was dark, the color of obsidian, and it reflected blue in the dim light. Lazy locks slipped over his forehead and curled just below his ears. Brows arched over golden eyes and his cheekbones were broad and high. He was attractive. Very attractive. Mind-bendingly beautiful, actually, but the sardonic twist to his full lips chilled his beauty. The black T-shirt stretched across his chest and flat stomach. A huge tattoo of a snake curled around his forearm, the tail disappearing under his sleeve and the diamond-shaped head rested on the top of his hand. He looked my age. Total crush materialβ€”if it wasn’t for the fact that he had no soul.
”
”
Jennifer L. Armentrout (White Hot Kiss (The Dark Elements, #1))
β€œ
Do you think I could bear to live on after you died? Oh, Lyra, I'd follow you down to the world of the dead without thinking twice about it, just like you followed Roger; and that would be two lives gone for nothing, my life wasted like yours. No, we should spend our whole lifetimes together, good long busy lives, and if we can't spend them together, we... we'll have to spend them apart.
”
”
Philip Pullman (The Amber Spyglass (His Dark Materials, #3))
β€œ
If you want to write anything that works, you have to go with the grain of your talent, not against it. If your talent is inert and sullen in the face of business or politics...but takes fire at the thought of ghosts and vampires and witches and demons then feed the flames, feed the flames.
”
”
Philip Pullman (His Dark Materials (His Dark Materials #1-3))
β€œ
She had asked: What is he? A friend or an enemy? The alethiometer answered: He is a murderer. When she saw the answer, she relaxed at once. He could find food, and show her how to reach Oxford, and those were powers that were useful, but he might still have been untrustworthy or cowardly. A murderer was a worthy companion. She felt as safe with him as she'd done with Iorek Byrnison the armoured bear.
”
”
Philip Pullman (The Subtle Knife (His Dark Materials, #2))
β€œ
This is what’ll happen,” she said, β€œand it’s true, perfectly true. When you go out of here, all the particles that make you up will loosen and float apart, just like your daemons did. If you’ve seen people dying, you know what that looks like. But your daemons en’t just nothing now; they’re part of everything. All the atoms that were them, they’ve gone into the air and the wind and the trees and the earth and all the living things. They’ll never vanish. They’re just part of everything. And that’s exactly what’ll happen to you, I swear to you, I promise on my honor. You’ll drift apart, it’s true, but you’ll be out in the open, part of everything alive again.
”
”
Philip Pullman (His Dark Materials (His Dark Materials #1-3))
β€œ
I have said that His Dark Materials is not fantasy but stark realism, and my reason for this is to emphasise what I think is an important aspect of the story, namely the fact that it is realistic, in psychological terms. I deal with matters that might normally be encountered in works of realism, such as adolescence, sexuality, and so on; and they are the main subject matter of the story – the fantasy (which, of course, is there: no-one but a fool would think I meant there is no fantasy in the books at all) is there to support and embody them, not for its own sake. DΓ¦mons, for example, might otherwise be only a meaningless decoration, adding nothing to the story: but I use them to embody and picture some truths about human personality which I couldn't picture so easily without them. I'm trying to write a book about what it means to be human, to grow up, to suffer and learn. My quarrel with much (not all) fantasy is it has this marvelous toolbox and does nothing with it except construct shoot-em-up games. Why shouldn't a work of fantasy be as truthful and profound about becoming an adult human being as the work of George Eliot or Jane Austen?
”
”
Philip Pullman
β€œ
But Balthamos couldn't tell; he only knew that half his heart had been extinguished. He couldn't keep still: he flew up again, scouring the sky as if to seek out Baruch in this cloud or that, calling, crying, calling; and then he'd be overcome with guilt, and fly down to urge Will to hide and keep quiet, and promise to watch over him tirelessly; and then the pressure of his grief would crush him to the ground, and he'd remember every instance of kindness and courage that Baruch had ever shown, and there were thousands, and he'd forgotten none of them; and he'd cry that a nature so gracious could ever be snuffed out, and he'd soar into the skies again, casting about in every direction, reckless and wild and stricken, cursing the air, the clouds, the stars.
”
”
Philip Pullman (The Amber Spyglass (His Dark Materials, #3))
β€œ
And at the word alone, Will felt a great wave of rage and despair moving outwards from a place deep within him, as if his mind were an ocean that some profound convulsion had disturbed. All his life he'd been alone, and now he must be alone again, and this infinitely precious blessing that had come to him must be taken away almost at once.He felt the wave build higher and steeper to darken the sky, he felt the crest tremble and begin to spill, he felt the great mass crashing down with the whole weight of the ocean behind it against the iron-bound coast of what had to be. And he felt himself crying aloud with more anger and pain than he had ever felt in his life, and he found Lyra just as helpless in his arms. But as the wave expended its force and the waters withdrew, the bleak rocks remained; there was no arguing with fate; neither his despair nor Lyra's had moved them a single inch.
”
”
Philip Pullman (The Amber Spyglass (His Dark Materials, #3))
β€œ
He had not stopped desiring her for a single instant. He found her in the dark bedrooms of captured towns, especially in the most abject ones, and he would make her materialize in the smell of dry blood on the bandages of the wounded, in the instantaneous terror of the danger of death, at all times and in all places. He had fled from her in an attempt to wipe out her memory, not only through distance but by means of a muddled fury that his companions at arms took to be boldness, but the more her image wallowed in the dunghill of the war, the more the war resembled Amaranta. That was how he suffered in exile, looking for a way of killing her with his own death...
”
”
Gabriel GarcΓ­a MΓ‘rquez (One Hundred Years of Solitude)
β€œ
Occasionally they would hear a harsh croak or a splash as some amphibian was disturbed, but the only creature they saw was a toad as big as Will's foot, which could only flop in a pain-filled sideways heave as if it were horribly injured. It lay across the path, trying to move out of the way and looking at them as if it knew they meant to hurt it. 'It would be merciful to kill it,' said Tialys. 'How do you know?' said Lyra. 'It might still like being alive, in spite of everything.' 'If we killed it, we'd be taking it with us,' said Will. 'It wants to stay here. I've killed enough living things. Even a filthy stagnant pool might be better than being dead.' 'But if it's in pain?' said Tialys. 'If it could tell us, we'd know. But since it can't, I'm not going to kill it. That would be considering our feelings rather than the toad's.' They moved on.
”
”
Philip Pullman (The Amber Spyglass (His Dark Materials, #3))
β€œ
Tirelessly they flew on and on, and tirelessly she kept pace. She felt a fierce joy possessing her, that she could command these immortal presences. And she rejoiced in her blood and flesh, in the rough pine bark she felt next to her skin, in the beat of her heart and the life of all her senses, and in the hunger she was feeling now, and in the presence of her sweet-voiced bluethroat dæmon, and in the earth below her and the lives of every creature, plant and animal both; and she delighted in being of the same substance as them, and in knowing that when she died her flesh would nourish other lives as they had nourished her.
”
”
Philip Pullman (The Subtle Knife (His Dark Materials, #2))
β€œ
We live among ruins in a World in which β€˜god is dead’ as Nietzsche stated. The ideals of today are comfort, expediency, surface knowledge, disregard for one’s ancestral heritage and traditions, catering to the lowest standards of taste and intelligence, apotheosis of the pathetic, hoarding of material objects and possessions, disrespect for all that is inherently higher and better β€” in other words a complete inversion of true values and ideals, the raising of the victory flag of ignorance and the banner of degeneracy. In such a time, social decadence is so widespread that it appears as a natural component of all political institutions. The crises that dominate the daily lives of our societies are part of a secret occult war to remove the support of spiritual and traditional values in order to turn man into a passive instrument of dark powers. The common ground of both Capitalism and Socialism is a materialistic view of life and being. Materialism in its war with the Spirit has taken on many forms; some have promoted its goals with great subtlety, whilst others have done so with an alarming lack of subtlety, but all have added, in greater or lesser measure, to the growing misery of Mankind. The forms which have done the most damage in our time may be enumerated as: Freemasonry, Liberalism, Nihilism, Capitalism, Socialism, Marxism, Imperialism, Anarchism, Modernism and the New Age.
”
”
Seyyed Hossein Nasr
β€œ
Cindy, have you heard of the second law of thermodynamics?” β€œYes. Something about heat energy can never be created or destroyed?” β€œThat’s the first law of thermodynamics. The second one is this…all organized systems tend to slide slowly into chaos and disorder. Energy tends to run down. The universe itself heads inevitably towards darkness and stasis. Our own star system eventually will die, the sun will become a red giant, and the earth will be swallowed by the red giant.” β€œCheery thought.” β€œBut mathematics has altered this concept; rather one particular mathematician. His name was Ilya Prigogine, a Belgian mathematician.” β€œWho and what does that have to do with your being a PI and a great psychologist?” β€œAre you being sarcastic? Of course you are. Anyway, what I was trying to say was that Prigogine used the analogy of a walled city and open city. The walled city is isolated from its surroundings and will run down, decay, and die. The open city will have an exchange of materials and energy with its surroundings and will become larger and more complex; capable of dissipating energy even as it grows. So my point is, this analogy very much pertains to a certain female. The walled person versus the open person. The walled person will eventually decline, fade, and decay.
”
”
Behcet Kaya (Appellate Judge (Jack Ludefance, #3))
β€œ
Life is Beautiful? Beyond all the vicissitudes that are presented to us on this short path within this wild planet, we can say that life is beautiful. No one can ever deny that experiencing the whirlwind of emotions inside this body is a marvel, we grow with these life experiences, we strengthen ourselves and stimulate our feelings every day, in this race where the goal is imminent death sometimes we are winners and many other times we lose and the darkness surprises us and our heart is disconnected from this reality halfway and connects us to the server of the matrix once more, debugging and updating our database, erasing all those experiences within this caracara of flesh and blood, waiting to return to earth again. "Life is beautiful gentlemen" is cruel and has unfair behavior about people who looked like a bundle of light and left this platform for no apparent reason, but its nature is not similar to our consciousness and feelings, she has a script for each of us because it was programmed that way, the architects of the game of life they know perfectly well that you must experiment with all the feelings, all the emotions and evolve to go to the next levels. You can't take a quantum leap and get through the game on your own. inventing a heaven and a hell in order to transcend, that comes from our fears of our imagination not knowing what life has in store for us after life is a dilemma "rather said" the best kept secret of those who control us day by day. We are born, we grow up, we are indoctrinated in the classrooms and in the jobs, we pay our taxes, we reproduce, we enjoy the material goods that it offers us the system the marketing of disinformation, Then we get old, get sick and die. I don't like this story! It looks like a parody of Noam Chomsky, Let's go back to the beautiful description of beautiful life, it sounds better! Let's find meaning in all the nonsense that life offers us, 'Cause one way or another we're doomed to imagine that everything will be fine until the end of matter. It is almost always like that. Sometimes life becomes a real nightmare. A heartbreaking horror that we find impossible to overcome. As we grow up, we learn to know the dark side of life. The terrors that lurk in the shadows, the dangers lurking around every corner. We realize that reality is much harsher and ruthless than we ever imagined. And in those moments, when life becomes a real hell, we can do nothing but cling to our own existence, summon all our might and fight with all our might so as not to be dragged into the abyss. But sometimes, even fighting with all our might is not enough. Sometimes fate is cruel and takes away everything we care about, leaving us with nothing but pain and hopelessness. And in that moment, when all seems lost, we realize the terrible truth: life is a death trap, a macabre game in which we are doomed to lose. And so, as we sink deeper and deeper into the abyss, while the shadows envelop us and terror paralyzes us, we remember the words that once seemed to us so hopeful: life is beautiful. A cruel and heartless lie, that leads us directly to the tragic end that death always awaits us.
”
”
Marcos Orowitz (THE MAELSTROM OF EMOTIONS: A selection of poems and thoughts About us humans and their nature)