Darkest Descent Quotes

They find man a paradoxical being; one capable of descent into the darkest abysses of evil, and yet equally capable of ascent to the sublimest heights of nobility. They

A zoonosis is an animal infection transmissible to humans. There are more such diseases than you might expect. AIDS is one. Influenza is a whole category of others. Pondering them as a group tends to reaffirm the old Darwinian truth (the darkest of his truths, well known and persistently forgotten) that humanity is a kind of animal, inextricably connected with other animals: in origin and in descent, in sickness and in health.

Man little knows what calamities are beyond his patience to bear, till he tries them: as in ascending the heights of ambition, which look bright from below, every step we rise shows us some new and gloomy prospects of hidden disappointment: so in our descent from the summits of pleasure, though the vale of misery below may appear at first dark and gloomy, yet the busy mind, still attentive to its own amusement, finds, as we descend, something to flatter and to please. Still as we approach, the darkest objects appear to brighten, and the mental eye becomes adapted to its gloomy situation.

Portia had been assured that the overlord of the city was a demon, but she appeared to be a frail, ancient, and entirely human female. Her sagging face was a severe, bony mask that resembled the ancient mummies. Every breath rattled in her chest.

Unhappiness is a slow drowning descent into the darkest knowledges, while happiness blasts us like rootless party-rooms smelling of pot inside caramel bullets shot at doomed star-clusters shelled with swirling astronomical dust! I want the dusty dadaist perfume. The smashed caramel glow of galactic bliss! I choose brain freedom! Happiness!

It isn’t the outer battle against so called demons that takes the most courage, but the inward battle against our own demons, our own nature. This path that you take once you decide to put both halves of the divine masculine twin together, is akin to a willing descent into hell. To face your darkest fears, and while you walk this path burn off all the things that don’t serve you any more.

Falling through suffering is a descent into chaos,” I say, savoring the feel of her soft skin. “It’s the darkest obscurity, the ultimate terror. But the ascent out of the abyss reveals itself in the most tender moments.

I PALE HORSE 1 THE VIRUS NOW known as Hendra wasn’t the first of the scary new bugs. It wasn’t the worst. Compared to some others, it seems relatively minor. Its mortal impact, in numerical terms, was small at the start and has remained small; its geographical scope was narrowly local and later episodes haven’t carried it much more widely. It made its debut near Brisbane, Australia, in 1994. Initially there were two cases, only one of them fatal. No, wait, correction: There were two human cases, one human fatality. Other victims suffered and died too, more than a dozen—equine victims—and their story is part of this story. The subject of animal disease and the subject of human disease are, as we’ll see, strands of one braided cord. The original emergence of Hendra virus didn’t seem very dire or newsworthy unless you happened to live in eastern Australia. It couldn’t match an earthquake, a war, a schoolboy gun massacre, a tsunami. But it was peculiar. It was spooky. Slightly better known now, at least among disease scientists and Australians, and therefore slightly less spooky, Hendra virus still seems peculiar. It’s a paradoxical thing: marginal, sporadic, but in some larger sense representative. For exactly that reason, it marks a good point from which to begin toward understanding the emergence of certain virulent new realities on this planet—realities that include the death of more than 30 million people since 1981. Those realities involve a phenomenon called zoonosis. A zoonosis is an animal infection transmissible to humans. There are more such diseases than you might expect. AIDS is one. Influenza is a whole category of others. Pondering them as a group tends to reaffirm the old Darwinian truth (the darkest of his truths, well known and persistently forgotten) that humanity is a kind of animal, inextricably connected with other animals: in origin and in descent, in sickness and in health. Pondering them individually—for starters, this relatively obscure case from Australia—provides a salubrious reminder that everything, including pestilence, comes from somewhere.

Their seduction of her had begun. No great mystery there. It was the seduction of a storybook land, the seduction of becoming an expatriate. You fell for a place like darkest Africa or Paris or Kathmandu, and soon you had no nation of your own, and you were simply a citizen of time. He'd learned that down here.

The library has never been about taking charge. It's a memory, it's ideas. It might have hoped to stop what is happening here but it's too late. There will be blood and horror and probably all the worst things that humanity is capable of. The library can make sure that nobody has a good excuse for forgetting what happens and striving to prevent repetition. But it cannot stop even that. People have to want to know. I wish I could tell you that free and easy access to to information solves these problems, it doesn't. People find their own wells of poison to drink from." "Who decides what truth is and which truths to hand out? We take to ourselves the power of the almighty when we control it. So, not intending to rule, the library just gives access. The truth is there on the self. You just have to reach out and take it. Information is like water. Without it you won't live long; too much and you'll drown. And there's a difference between truth and information. Even correct information is not the same as truth. Truth does not mislead. Correct information bereaved of context, can be more dangerous than a lie." "... those who want to lead humanity down the darkest paths it can walk, their first instinct is to burn books. Close the gates of information, allow no voices of descent. Prevision of information might not cure these ills but it is an impediment to their formation. The wind can't stop the advance of armies but eventually it wins. In the end mountains become dust and the wind still blows. It is my faith that the library will save us in the end." -Yute