“
Passion makes a person stop eating, sleeping, working, feeling at peace. A lot of people are frightened because, when it appears, it demolishes all the old things it finds in its path.
No one wants their life thrown into chaos. That is why a lot of people keep that threat under control, and are somehow capable of sustaining a house or a structure that is already rotten. They are the engineers of the superseded.
Other people think exactly the opposite: they surrender themselves without a second thought, hoping to find in passion the solutions to all their problems. They make the other person responsible for their happiness and blame them for their possible unhappiness. They are either euphoric because something marvelous has happened or depressed because something unexpected has just ruined everything.
Keeping passion at bay or surrendering blindly to it - which of these two attitudes is the least destructive?
I don't know.
”
”
Paulo Coelho (Eleven Minutes)
“
Maybe it's not in the perfection of life that things make sense, but in the chaos.
”
”
Rachel Van Dyken (Ruin (Ruin, #1))
“
She imagines him imagining her. This is her salvation.
In spirit she walks the city, traces its labyrinths, its dingy mazes: each assignation, each rendezvous, each door and stair and bed. What he said, what she said, what they did, what they did then. Even the times they argued, fought, parted, agonized, rejoined. How they’d loved to cut themselves on each other, taste their own blood. We were ruinous together, she thinks. But how else can we live, these days, except in the midst of ruin?
”
”
Margaret Atwood (The Blind Assassin)
“
I want to ruin her so that she’s mine, my beautiful disaster. My wild creature. My goddess of chaos.
”
”
Brynne Weaver (Butcher & Blackbird (The Ruinous Love Trilogy, #1))
“
The life of a person is more than the chaos of its passing. Emotion, Ruin. This is your defeat.
”
”
Brandon Sanderson (The Hero of Ages (Mistborn, #3))
“
Look at this!" he shouted "look at it! what has that one-woman force of chaos done to these spells?"
Sophie and Michael whirled round and looked at Howl. His hair was wet, but, apart from that, neither of them could see that it looked any different.
"If you mean me-" Sophie began.
"I do mean you! Look!" Howl shrieked. He sat down with a thump on the three-legged stool and jabbed at his wet head with his fingers. "Look. Survey. Inspect. My hair is ruined! I look like a pan of bacon and eggs!"
Michael and Sophie bent nervously over Howl's head. it seemed the usual flaxen color right down to the roots. The only difference might have been a slight, very slight, trace of red. Sophie found that agreeable. It reminded her a little of the color her own hair should have been.
"I think it's nice," she said.
"Nice!" screamed Howl. "You would! You did it on purpose. You couldn't rest until you made me miserable too. Look at it! It's ginger! I shall have to hide until it's grown out!" He spread his arms out passionately. "Dispair!" he yelled. "Anguish! Horror!
”
”
Diana Wynne Jones (Howl’s Moving Castle (Howl’s Moving Castle, #1))
“
A friend took me to the most amazing place the other day. It's called the Augusteum. Octavian Augustus built it to house his remains. When the barbarians came they trashed it a long with everything else. The great Augustus, Rome's first true great emperor. How could he have imagined that Rome, the whole world as far as he was concerned, would be in ruins. It's one of the quietest, loneliest places in Rome. The city has grown up around it over the centuries. It feels like a precious wound, a heartbreak you won't let go of because it hurts too good. We all want things to stay the same. Settle for living in misery because we're afraid of change, of things crumbling to ruins. Then I looked at around to this place, at the chaos it has endured - the way it has been adapted, burned, pillaged and found a way to build itself back up again. And I was reassured, maybe my life hasn't been so chaotic, it's just the world that is, and the real trap is getting attached to any of it. Ruin is a gift. Ruin is the road to transformation.
”
”
Elizabeth Gilbert (Eat, Pray, Love)
“
Life ain't fair.
It ain't.
Not never.
It's pointless and stupid and there's only suffering and pain and people who want to hurt you. You can't love nothing or no one cuz it'll all be taken away or ruined and you'll be left alone and constantly having to fight, constantly having to run just to stay alive.
”
”
Patrick Ness (The Knife of Never Letting Go (Chaos Walking, #1))
“
It's creepy, but here we are, the Pilgrims, the crackpots of our time, trying to establish our own alternate reality. To build a world out of rocks and chaos.
What it's going to be, I don't know.
Even after all that rushing around, where we've ended up is the middle of nowhere in the middle of the night.
And maybe knowing isn't the point.
Where we're standing right now, in the ruins in the dark, what we build could be anything.
”
”
Chuck Palahniuk (Choke)
“
- Sometimes you just have to throw spatzle at the wall and see what sticks.
- You absolutely do not. That is how you get ruined spatzle.
”
”
Margaret Owen (Little Thieves (Little Thieves, #1))
“
More than once, the broken moon would cast through the window a silver light and remind me of independent events yielding to their own momentum and interacting under natural laws while my mind would impose happiness, grief, beauty, ruin, justice and chaos.
”
”
Leonard Seet
“
We're going to die by dick, Ember. our tombstone will say: 'Here lies that one bitch who died from getting good dick' and that's just not going to look great in the afterlife.
”
”
Amelia Hutchins (Ruins of Chaos (Legacy of the Nine Realms, #3))
“
Sometimes poetry is a way of finding beauty in the chaos; a flower growing in ruins of love's wreckage.
”
”
John Mark Green
“
He’d seen unequivocally that the chaos he’d dedicated his life to holding at bay was stronger and wider and more powerful than he would ever be. No compromise he could make would be enough. His death-self was unfolding in him, and the dark blooming took no effort. It was a relief, a relaxation, a long, slow exhale after decades of holding it in.
He was in ruins, but it was okay, because he was dying.
”
”
James S.A. Corey (Leviathan Wakes (The Expanse, #1))
“
He knows I am not the monster he wanted. I am the one he made.
”
”
Amelia Hutchins (Ruins of Chaos (Legacy of the Nine Realms, #3))
“
Take down the walls.
That is, after all, the whole point. You do not know what will happen if you take down the walls; you cannot see through to the other side, don't know whether it will bring freedom or ruin, resolution or chaos. It might be paradise, or destruction.
Take down the walls.
Otherwise you must live closely, in fear, building barricades against the unknown, saying prayers against the darkness, speaking verse of terror and tightness.
Otherwise you may never know hell, but you will not find heaven, either. You will not know fresh air and flying.
”
”
Lauren Oliver (Requiem (Delirium, #3))
“
You are ruin and chaos to them, but you are lovely to my eye.'
'You're brave or daft, then,' she said, quite rightly. 'Chaos and ruin. Where does that leave me, then?
”
”
Madeleine Roux (House of Furies (House of Furies, #1))
“
It's not in the perfection of life that things make sense, but in the chaos"- Weston Michel
”
”
Rachel Van Dyken (Ruin (Ruin, #1))
“
He's good to me. When I say he's good to me, Tyra, I mean he's good to me. He's good for me. He doesn't care if I ruin dinner. He doesn't care that I talk too much. He thinks I'm the shit, and you know why I know that?" I leaned into her and didn't wait for an answer. "Because he tells me. All the fucking time. I'm precious to him and I know it because he shows me and he tells me. It's beautiful. It's real. It's right.
”
”
Kristen Ashley (Own the Wind (Chaos, #1))
“
And who over the ruins of his life pursued its fleeting, fluttering significance, while he suffered its seeming meaninglessness and lived its seeming madness, and who hoped in secret at the last turn of the labyrinth of Chaos for revelation and God's presence...
”
”
Hermann Hesse (Steppenwolf)
“
Take down the walls. That is, after all, the whole point. You do not know what will happen if you take down the walls; you cannot see through to the other side, don't know whether it will bring freedom or ruin, resolution or chaos. It might paradise, or destruction. Take down the walls.
”
”
Lauren Oliver (Requiem (Delirium, #3))
“
You do not know what will happen if you take down the walls; you cannot see through to the other side, don't know whether it will bring freedom or ruin, resolution or chaos. It might be paradise or destruction. Take down the walls. Otherwise you must live closely, in fear, building barricades against the unknown, saying prayers against the darkness, speaking verse of terror and tightness. Otherwise you may never know hell, but you will not find heaven, either.
”
”
Lauren Oliver (Requiem (Delirium, #3))
“
Who read by night above the Rhine the cloudscript of the drifting mists? It was the Steppenwolf. And who over the ruins of his life pursued its fleeting, fluttering significance, while he suffered its seeming meaninglessness and lived its seeming madness, and who hoped in secret at the last turn of the labyrinth of Chaos for revelation and God's presence?
”
”
Hermann Hesse (Steppenwolf)
“
We thought that replacing the singular, authoritative voice of the twentieth century newscaster with the digitally-enabled vox populi of the internet would forever change the narrative. All it did was ruin the spelling.
”
”
Gordon White (Pieces of Eight: Chaos Magic Essays and Enchantments)
“
You do not know what will happen if you take down the walls; you cannot see through to the other side, don’t know whether it will bring freedom or ruin, resolution or chaos. It might be paradise, or destruction. Take down the walls.
”
”
Lauren Oliver
“
We created order out of chaos. We made beauty and shaped history. We kept the magic of the realms safe in our grasp. How has it come to this?"
"You've not kept it safe. You've kept it to yourselves."
She shakes her head to dismiss the thought. "Gemma, you may still use the power for much good. With us to help you-"
"And what, pray, have you done to better the lot of others?" I ask. "You call each other sisters, but are we not all sisters? The seamstress ruining her eyesight to keep her children in porridge? The suffragists fighting for the vote? The girls younger than I who would ask for a living wage, whose working conditions are so deplorable they were locked in a burning factory? they could make use of your precious help."
She holds her head high. "We would have done so. In time."
I snort in disgust. "It is daunting to be a woman in any world. What good does our power do us when it must be kept secret?"
"You would prefer bold voices to illusion?"
"Yes.
”
”
Libba Bray (The Sweet Far Thing (Gemma Doyle, #3))
“
You may not see every single piece of the puzzle that creates your life — you may not see every move the grand chess player makes — but know, He is in complete control of the game board. Sometimes certain pieces are moved or knocked over to make room for new ones. Other times, things happen because of the world we live in. But everything, in the end, will always turn out for good. It’s a nice promise, isn’t it? To know that there’s a reason for it all? A reason for your cancer — maybe by having cancer you’ve saved the lives of three of your best friends. Had you not been sick, would you have met them? Had you not been sick, would you have found the love of your life? Maybe it’s not in the perfection of life that things make sense, but in the chaos.
”
”
Rachel Van Dyken (Ruin (Ruin, #1))
“
it feels like a precious wound, like a heartbreak you won’t let go of because it hurts too good. We all want things to stay the same, David; settle for living in misery because we’re afraid of change, of things crumbling to ruins. Then I looked around in this place [the augusteum], at the chaos its endured – the way it has been adapted, burned, pillaged and found a way to build itself back up again. And I was reassured that maybe my life hasn’t been so chaotic; tt’s just the world that is and the only real trap is getting attached to any of it. Ruin is a gift. Ruin is the road to transformation… We must always be prepared for endless waves of transformation. Both of us deserve better than staying together because we’re afraid we’ll be destroyed if we don’t.
”
”
Elizabeth Gilbert
“
The Mask
We often pair the turmoil in our mind
With a calm exterior,
Hoping that the mask
Will serve as a floodgate
To hold back the chaos
Of our swirling thoughts
”
”
Liz Newman (Of Ruin and Renewal: Poems For Rebuilding)
“
Nobody has ever loved me the way you do. Don’t let me ruin this. Don’t let me ruin us.
”
”
Emery Rose (Sweet Chaos (Love and Chaos, #2))
“
[Pope] Clement waved his hands in irritation as if to dismiss the very idea. "The world is crumbling into ruin. Armies are marching. Men and women are dying everywhere, in huge numbers. Fields are abandoned and towns deserted. The wrath of the Lord is upon us and He may be intending to destroy the whole of creation. People are without leaders and direction. They want to be given a reason for this, so they can be reassured, so they will return to their prayers and their obiediences. All this is going on, and you are concerned about the safety of two Jews?
”
”
Iain Pears (The Dream of Scipio)
“
It was there that I met a counselor named Burton, a Yoda-like figure who told me that I liked the drama and chaos of my addiction problem. "What are you talking about?" I said. "It's ruined my life. It's robbed me of every good thing I have ever had."
I was really pissed off.
But what if he was right?
”
”
Matthew Perry (Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing)
“
You do not know what will happen if you take down the walls; you cannot see through to the other side, don’t know whether it will bring freedom or ruin, resolution or chaos. It might be paradise, or destruction. Take
”
”
Lauren Oliver (Requiem (Delirium, #3))
“
I once took over a State which was faced by complete ruin, thanks to its trust in the promises of the rest of the world and to the bad regime of democratic governments… I have conquered chaos in Germany, re-established order and enormously increased production… developed traffic, caused mighty roads to be built and canals to be dug, called into being gigantic new factories and at the same time endeavored to further the education and culture of our people. I
”
”
William L. Shirer (The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany)
“
You do not know what will happen if you take down the walls; you cannot see through to the other side, don't know whether it will bring freedom or ruin, resolution or chaos. It might be paradise or destruction. Take down the walls.
”
”
Lauren Oliver
“
What she said in To the Lighthouse of Lily Briscoe’s art she might have said of her own: that the pen was ‘the one dependable thing in a world of strife, ruin, chaos . . .’,73 and the godlike power she felt as a writer is perfectly embodied in a passage from that novel.
”
”
Virginia Woolf (A Passionate Apprentice: The Early Journals 1897-1909)
“
If you say that everything—chaos, darkness, anathema— can be reduced to mathematical formulae—then man will go insane on purpose to have no judgement, and to behave as he likes. I believe this because it appears that man’s whole business is to prove that he is a man and not a cog-wheel... And perhaps, who knows, the striving of man on earth may consist in this uninterrupted striving for something ahead, that is, in life itself rather than some real end which obviously must be a static formula of the same kind as two and two make four—I am sure that man will never renounce the genuine suffering that comes of ruin and chaos. Why, suffering is the one and only source of knowledge
”
”
Colin Wilson (The Outsider)
“
He felt lost long before his mother left his life, he wanted to tell her, but it would ruin their dinner, their night. He thought of Frankie and Molly doing their homework with music and talking and laughter in the background. The doorbell ringing, kids stopping by, Kate on the phone, pots boiling over, everything a chaos of love. Then he thought of himself at their ages, alone in a silent house, listening for a creak on the stairs.
”
”
Mary Beth Keane (Ask Again, Yes)
“
It's creepy, but here we are, the Pilgrims, the crackpots of our time, trying to
establish our own alternate reality. To build a world out of rocks and chaos.
What it's going to be, I don't know.
Even after all that rushing around, where we've ended up is the middle of nowhere in
the middle of the night.
And maybe knowing isn't the point.
Where we're standing right now, in the ruins in the dark, what we build could be
anything.
”
”
Chuck Palahniuk (Choke)
“
Nearly every "serious" anarchist writer in recent years has tried to distance anarchism from chaos. Yet for most ordinary people, chaos and anarchy are forever linked. The connection between chaos and anarchism should be rethought and embraced, instead of being downplayed and repressed. Chaos is the nightmare of rulers, states, and capitalists. We should not polish the image of anarchism by erasing chaos. Instead, we should remember that chaos is not only burning ruins but also butterfly wings.
”
”
Curious George Brigade (Anarchy in the Age of Dinosaurs)
“
What will you birth, Persephone?” “Rage,” she answered without a second thought.
”
”
Scarlett St. Clair (Hades x Persephone Saga Series 7 Books Set - A Touch of Darkness, A Game of Fate, A Touch of Ruin, A Game of Retribution, A Touch of Malice, A Game of Gods, A Touch of Chaos)
“
I will love you through this. I will love you beyond this.
- Hades, A Touch of Chaos
”
”
Scarlett St. Clair (Hades x Persephone Saga Series 7 Books Set - A Touch of Darkness, A Game of Fate, A Touch of Ruin, A Game of Retribution, A Touch of Malice, A Game of Gods, A Touch of Chaos)
“
I wondered if I’d pushed him too far, and the thought that he was angry with me drove me crazy, and I’d tossed and turned the whole night, wondering whether I’d ruined everything.
”
”
Addison Jane (When Angels Seek Chaos (DePalma Family, #1))
“
There isn’t a man alive on this planet that can come close to being anywhere near as sexy, thrilling, scary, alluring, or terrifying as him, all in one go.
”
”
Callie Hart (Violent Things (Chaos & Ruin, #1))
“
I haven’t been afraid since I was five and here you come, sauntering in and shattering everything. That’s what you’ve done, Bernie, you’ve ruined me.
”
”
C.M. Stunich (Chaos at Prescott High (The Havoc Boys, #2))
“
What empire has ever been anything more than the ruins that are discovered by the one that rises after it? They never last, Khârn. Ever. And neither will this one.
”
”
Ian St. Martin (Angron: Slave of Nuceria (The Horus Heresy: Primarchs, #11))
“
You may be a queen only in name, but you will still be my Queen, Aria Hecate.
”
”
Amelia Hutchins (Ruins of Chaos: Legacy of the Nine Realms)
“
Maybe it’s not in the perfection of life that things make sense, but in the chaos.
”
”
Rachel Van Dyken (Ruin (Ruin, #1))
“
The life of a person is more than the chaos of it's passing. Emotion, Ruin. This is your defeat.
”
”
Brandon Sanderson (The Hero of Ages (Mistborn, #3))
“
But right here, in this moment, I want to believe the man holding me is an angel, sent to save me, not just another monster here to ruin me.
”
”
S.M. Soto (Deception and Chaos (Chaos, #1))
“
With love, encouragement, and character intact, a human being can be resilient beyond imagining. What cannot be borne, however, is the absolute ruin produced by tragedy and deception.
”
”
Jordan B. Peterson (12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos)
“
Take down the walls.
That is, after all, the whole point. You do not know what will happen if you take down the walls; you cannot see through to the other side, don't know whether it will bring freedom or ruin, resolution or chaos. It might be paradise, or destruction.
Take down the walls.
Otherwise you must live closely, in fear, building barricades against the unknown, saying prayers against the darkness, speaking verse of terror and tightness.
Otherwise you may never know hell, but you will not find heaven, either. You will not know fresh air and flying.
All of you, wherever you are: in your spiny cities or your one-bump towns. Find it, the hard stuff, the links of metal and chink, the fragments of stone filling your stomach. And pull, and pull, and pull.
”
”
Lauren Oliver (Requiem (Delirium, #3))
“
Ask any man what his greatest weakness is, and if he’s being honest, he will tell you it’s a woman. Not just any woman. The one woman who is capable of bringing him to his knees. The one woman who has the power to destroy him. Rip his beating heart from his chest. Ruin him. I knew that Remy was capable for doing all those things.
My greatest weakness was, is, and always would be, her.
”
”
Emery Rose (Wilder Love (Love and Chaos, #1))
“
And it was in that moment of distress and confusion that the whip of terror laid its most nicely calculated lash about his heart. It dropped with deadly effect upon the sorest spot of all, completely unnerving him. He had been secretly dreading all the time that it
would come - and come it did.
Far overhead, muted by great height and distance, strangely thinned and wailing, he heard the crying voice of Defago, the guide.
The sound dropped upon him out of that still, wintry sky with an effect of dismay and terror unsurpassed. The rifle fell to his feet. He stood motionless an instant, listening as it were with his whole body, then staggered back against the nearest tree for support, disorganized hopelessly in mind and spirit. To him, in that moment, it seemed the most shattering and dislocating experience he had ever known, so that his heart emptied itself of all feeling whatsoever as by a sudden draught.
'Oh! oh! This fiery height! Oh, my feet of fire! My burning feet of fire...' ran in far, beseeching accents of indescribable appeal this voice of anguish down the sky. Once it called - then silence through all the listening wilderness of trees.
And Simpson, scarcely knowing what he did, presently found himself running wildly to and fro, searching, calling, tripping over roots and boulders, and flinging himself in a frenzy of undirected pursuit after the Caller. Behind the screen of memory and emotion with which experience veils events, he plunged, distracted and half-deranged, picking up false lights like a ship at sea, terror in his eyes and heart and soul. For the Panic of the Wilderness had called to him in that far voice - the Power of untamed Distance - the Enticement of the Desolation that destroys. He knew in that moment all the pains of someone hopelessly and irretrievably lost, suffering the lust
and travail of a soul in the final Loneliness. A vision of Defago, eternally hunted, driven and pursued across the skyey vastness of those ancient forests fled like a flame across the dark ruin of his thoughts...
It seemed ages before he could find anything in the chaos of his disorganized sensations to which he could anchor himself steady for a moment, and think...
The cry was not repeated; his own hoarse calling brought no response; the inscrutable forces of the Wild had summoned their victim beyond recall - and held him fast.
("The Wendigo")
”
”
Algernon Blackwood (Monster Mix)
“
I had abandoned everything
frivolously
doing this that and nothing
until you broke through
with your perfume of promise
saying 'Give me your chaos'
undressing my soul
with your ferocious beauty
and tulip-soft skin
making me uncivilised
making me overcome myself
You drink the darkness
within darkness
and are not ruined by it
This intoxicating uncertainty
forces me to delay ‘forever’
—your body is now my home
”
”
Kamand Kojouri
“
Take down the walls. That is, after all, the whole point. You do not know what will happen if you take down the walls; you cannot see through to the other side, don’t know whether it will bring freedom or ruin, resolution or chaos. It might be paradise, or destruction.
”
”
Lauren Oliver (Requiem (Delirium, #3))
“
In the smoking dawn the party riding ragged and bloody with their baled peltries looked less like victors than the harried afterguard of some ruined army retreating across the meridians of chaos and old night, the horses stumbling, the men tottering asleep in the saddles.
”
”
Cormac McCarthy (Blood Meridian, or, the Evening Redness in the West)
“
I am your shelter from the storm. I am your strength when you are weak. I am the fire that burns through your veins and heats you when you are in need. I am the one who will fill your womb and protect the children you give me. I am your light in the darkness and the one who guides your way when you are lost. I am the creature who will destroy worlds to keep you and will never allow you to fall. I am Lennox, beast to the High King of the Nine Realms and King of Norvalla. I am your mate, Aria Karnavious.” Leaning closer, locking eyes with mine, Lennox asked, “Who are you?
”
”
Amelia Hutchins (Ruins of Chaos: Legacy of the Nine Realms)
“
I am Angrboda Iron-witch,.The Old One, Mother Witch, who birthed the wolves who cahes the sun and moon. Former wife to Loki and mother of both the ruler of the dead and the two creatures of chaos destined to bring about the doom of the very beings who ruined our lives.
I can do this on my own.
”
”
Genevieve Gornichec (The Witch's Heart)
“
She's everywhere, in every drop of my blood, in every spark of thought, and I want to fucking destroy her for it. To shatter her just like she's broken me. Because she brings me to my fucking knees. I want to ruin her so that she's mine, my beautiful disaster. My wild creature. My goddess of chaos.
”
”
Brynne Weaver (Butcher & Blackbird (The Ruinous Love Trilogy, #1))
“
For without that darkness, the world would have never discovered the beauty of the stars. We can only see some of the most beautiful things through the darkness of the night. No one understands that within the darkness, monsters can hide in plain sight, not having to pretend to be anything other than what they truly are.
”
”
Amelia Hutchins (Ruins of Chaos (Legacy of the Nine Realms, #3))
“
holding the illusion of love on her fucking sleeve. She was this wide-eyed, beautiful creature that looked at the Nine Realms with hope burning within her when there was none here to be found. This place would crush her dreams, stomp her fucking heart into the ground, and ruin the beauty that shined from within her soul before she’d ever make a dent in this hellhole.
”
”
Amelia Hutchins (Ruins of Chaos: Legacy of the Nine Realms)
“
Think rather of Ruin as intelligent decay. Not simply chaos, but a force that sought in a rational—and dangerous—way to break everything down to its most basic forms. Ruin could plan and carefully plot, knowing if he built one thing up, he could use it to knock down two others. The nature of the world is that when we create something, we often destroy something else in the process.
”
”
Brandon Sanderson (The Hero of Ages (Mistborn, #3))
“
He never approves of anything I do,” Kusha says from the garage, hiding her frown. She gets all her old cars and tools from places you don’t want your daughters to visit. And Rashad Gaumont certainly doesn’t want her to visit Magic Mama, the not-enough-evolved, middle-aged man from the Old City. “He’s not a citizen! He lives in a bus! So what if he made it himself? So what if he teaches you about machines? Don’t meet him.”
“Why?” Kusha used to ask Rashad, and she’d always get the same answer: “The unevolved kind brings chaos and wars.”
Kusha didn’t listen. She went again and bought this car, too, from an antique dealer. He almost gave it away, saying it will never run again. It has the old days’ engine, the kind you don’t find in this era. A change of engines and batteries, a new set of all-terrain-tires, some safety trackers, sensors, and, well, a whole list of other things with 300% luck to make it run again through the Junk Land—the land outside the cities where it’s only ruins and rubble. Needs hard work, yes. But Kusha instantly liked the color of its body, the moment she saw it—a sort of green with greyish tint, and a good load of rust.
”
”
Misba (The High Auction (Wisdom Revolution, #1))
“
These are the figures of steel whose eagle eyes dart between whirling propellers to pierce the cloud; who dare the hellish crossing through fields of roaring craters, gripped in the chaos of tank engines ... men relentlessly saturated with the spirit of battle, men whose urgent wanting discharges itself in a single concentrated and determined release of energy.
As I watch them noiselessly slicing alleyways into barbed wire, digging steps to storm outward, synchronizing luminous watches, finding the North by the stars, the recognition flashes: this is the new man. The pioneers of storm, the elect of central Europe. A whole new race, intelligent, strong, men of will ... supple predators straining with energy. They will be architects building on the ruined foundations of the world.
”
”
Ernst Jünger (Der Kampf als inneres Erlebnis)
“
World Order New World Order is not new. Civilizations have devised forms of world order for millennia because the alternative to order is chaos. Order rarely includes liberty or justice. Order mainly ends disorder, and mitigates violence. That is how order achieves legitimacy. The next world order is emerging. What is new is that world order is no longer circumscribed by a defined “world” such as in the Roman or Chinese empires. The next world order will encompass the globe and all of its civilizations at once.
”
”
James Rickards (The Road to Ruin: The Global Elites' Secret Plan for the Next Financial Crisis)
“
Not my mother. Just a trick. Never deal with the devil—that much he knew. Live like a king. Right. The king of a ruined world. The king of nothing. But down here, he was alive. An agent of chaos. Caca grande. The shit in the Master’s soup. Gus’s reverie was interrupted by footfalls in the tunnels. He went to the door and saw artificial light coming around the corner. Fet came first, Goodweather behind him. Gus had seen Fet a month or two before, but the doctor he had not seen in quite some time. Goodweather looked the worst he’d
”
”
Guillermo del Toro (The Night Eternal (The Strain Trilogy, #3))
“
Take down the walls.
That is, after all, the whole point. You do not know what will happen if you take down the walls; you cannot see through to the other side, don’t know whether it will bring freedom or ruin, resolution or chaos. It might be paradise or destruction.
Take down the walls.
Otherwise you must live closely, in fear, building barricades against the unknown, saying prayers against the darkness, speaking verse of terror and tightness.
Otherwise you may never know hell; but you will not find heaven, either. You will not know fresh air and flying.
”
”
Lauren Oliver (Requiem (Delirium, #3))
“
But the greatest danger could spring from the chaos of a dysfunctional democracy, compounded by relentless party warfare, which, Washington warned, would erode faith in the effectiveness of self-governance and open the door to a demagogue with authoritarian ambitions. 'The disorders and miseries which result gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual; and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of public liberty.
”
”
John P. Avlon (Washington's Farewell: The Founding Father's Warning to Future Generations)
“
Chaos awaited him on the beaches near Arzew. An unanticipated westerly set had pushed the transports and landing craft off course. Dozens of confused coxswains tacked up and down the coast in the dark, looking for the right beaches. Most of the soldiers carried more than 100 pounds of equipment; one likened himself to a medieval knight in armor who had to be winched into the saddle. Once ashore, feeling the effect of weeks aboard ship with a poor diet and little exercise, they staggered into the dunes, shedding gas capes, goggles, wool undershirts, and grenades. Landing craft stranded by an ebb tide so jammed the beaches that bulldozers had to push them off, ruining their propellers and rudders. The
”
”
Rick Atkinson (An Army at Dawn: The War in Africa, 1942-1943)
“
Take down the walls.
That is, after all, the whole point.
You do not know what will happen is you take down the walls; you cannot see through to the other side, don't know whether it will bring freedom or ruin, resolution or chaos. It might be paradise or destruction.
Take down the walls.
Otherwise you must live closely, in fear, building barricades against the unknown, saying prayers against the darkness, speaking verse of terror and tightness.
Otherwise you may never know hell; but you will not find heaven, either. You will not know fresh air and flying.
All of you, wherever you are: in your spiny cities, or your one bump towns.
Find it, the hard stuff, the links of metal and chink, the fragments of stone filling your stomach.
And pull, and pull, and pull.
I will make a pact with you: I will do it if you will do it, always and forever.
Take down the walls.
”
”
Lauren Oliver (Requiem (Delirium, #3))
“
Take down the walls. That is, after all, the whole point. You do not know what will happen if you take down the walls; you cannot see through to the other side, don’t know whether it will bring freedom or ruin, resolution or chaos. It might be paradise, or destruction. Take down the walls. Otherwise you must live closely, in fear, building barricades against the unknown, saying prayers against the darkness, speaking verse of terror and tightness. Otherwise you may never know hell, but you will not find heaven, either. You will not know fresh air and flying. All of you, wherever you are: in your spiny cities or your one-bump towns. Find it, the hard stuff, the links of metal and chink, the fragments of stone filling your stomach. And pull, and pull, and pull. I will make a pact with you: I will do it if you will do it, always and forever. Take down the walls.
”
”
Lauren Oliver (Requiem (Delirium, #3))
“
Gravity's Rainbow"
Come on with me through ruined liplock
Across Tangian deserts we'll flock
Madcap Medusa flank my foghorn
We'll change four seasons with our first born.
All ships of sense on hyper ocean
All kinds of chaos still in motion
My culture vulture such a dab hand
I'll steal you from the year 4000
Come with me, come with me
We'll travel to infinity
Come with me, come with me
We'll travel to infinity
I'll always be there
Uh-oh my future love
I'll always be there
For you, my future love
Your tears leave trails of Tick fall blur room
Autonoma the room is bloom groom
Those crippled lines that I can't get to
You'd slip through time but I won't let you
Come with me, come with me
We'll travel to infinity
Come with me, come with me
We'll travel to infinity
I'll always be there
Uh-oh my future love
I'll always be there
For you, my future love
Come with me, come with me
We'll travel to infinity
Come with me, come with me
We'll travel to infinity
I'll always be there
Uh-oh my future love
I'll always be there
For you, my future love
Come with me, come with me
We'll travel to infinity
Come with me, come with me
We'll travel to infinity
I'll always be there
Uh-oh my future love
I'll always be there
For you, my future love
Come with me, come with me
We'll travel to infinity
Come with me, come with me
We'll travel to infinity
I'll always be there
Uh-oh my future love
I'll always be there
For you, my future love
”
”
The Klaxons
“
Since every I is, in itself, fundamentally criminal in its attitude toward the State and the people, we must
recognize that to live is to transgress. Unless we accept death, we must be willing to kill in order to be
unique. "You are not as noble as a criminal, you who do not desecrate anything." Moreover Stirner, still
without the courage of his convictions, specifies: "Kill them, do not martyr them."
But to decree that murder is legitimate is to decree mobilization and war for all the Unique. Thus murder
will coincide with a kind of collective suicide. Stirner, who either does not admit or does not see this,
nevertheless does not recoil at the idea of any form of destruction. The spirit of rebellion finally discovers
one of its bitterest satisfactions in chaos. "You [the German nation] will be struck down. Soon your sister
nations will follow you; when all of them have gone your way, humanity will be buried, and on its tomb I,
sole master of myself at last, I, heir to all the human race, will shout with laughter." And so, among the
ruins of the world, the desolate laughter of the individual-king illustrates the last victory of the spirit of
rebellion. But at this extremity nothing else is possible but death or resurrection. Stirner, and with him all
the nihilist rebels, rush to the utmost limits, drunk with destruction. After which, when the desert has been
disclosed, the next step is to learn how to live there. Nietzsche's exhaustive search then begins.
”
”
Albert Camus (The Rebel)
“
But it’s not about knowing. It is simply about going forward. The cureds want to know; we have chosen faith instead. I asked Grace to trust me. We will have to trust too—that the world won’t end, that tomorrow will come, and that truth will come too.
An old line, a forbidden line from a text Raven once showed me, comes back to me now. He who jumps may fall, but he may also fly.
It’s time to jump.
“Let’s go,” I say to Grace, and let her lead me into the surge of people, keeping a tight hold on her hand the whole time. We push into the shouting, joyful throng, and fight our way toward the wall. Grace scrabbles up a pile of broken-down wood and shards of shattered concrete, and I follow clumsily until I am balancing next to her. She is shouting—louder than I have ever heard her, a babble-language of joy and freedom—and I find that I join in with her as together we begin to tear at chunks of concrete with our fingernails, watching the border dissolve, watching a new world emerge beyond it.
Take down the walls.
That is, after all, the whole point. You do not know what will happen if you take down the walls; you cannot see through to the other side, don’t know whether it will bring freedom or ruin, resolution or chaos. It might be paradise, or destruction.
Take down the walls.
Otherwise you must live closely, in fear, building barricades against the unknown, saying prayers against the darkness, speaking verse of terror and tightness.
Otherwise you may never know hell, but you will not find heaven, either. You will not know fresh air and flying.
All of you, wherever you are: in your spiny cities or your one-bump towns. Find it, the hard stuff, the links of metal and chink, the fragments of stone filling your stomach. And pull, and pull, and pull.
I will make a pact with you: I will do it if you will do it, always and forever.
Take down the walls.
”
”
Lauren Oliver (Requiem (Delirium, #3))
“
the end chaos would burst forth to overwhelm the order that the gods had made and preserved. In Midgard the end would begin with three winters of war and general lawlessness; men would fight without mercy, murder one another and betray their own kin through adultery and with violence. After this would come three years of winter, with the sun’s warmth weakened and terrible winds sweeping the earth so that its people died of hunger. Then the wolves that ran behind the moon and sun would overtake them, and darkness would fall on the land. In Asgard Loki would break from his bonds and so would his son, the wolf Fenrir. In the depths of the sea Loki’s other monster-son, the Midgard Serpent, would rise in anger. The giants out of Jotunheim and the fire-demons out of Muspelheim would come to Loki’s call and attack the gods. The battle would be desperate. Thor would kill and be killed by the Midgard Serpent, and Heimdall the sentry of Asgard would kill and be killed by Loki. Odin would fight against the wolf Fenrir and die, but his son Vidar would destroy the wolf. At the end, when the best part of both armies lay dead, Surt the fire-bearer would come from the burning world of Muspelheim and set Asgard, Midgard and the World Tree itself ablaze. The sea would rise, churned up by the death-throes of the Midgard Serpent, and the ruined land would be drowned. But this destruction, while great and terrible, was not quite final. Out of the empty seas land would rise again and green plants would grow there; indeed, fine crops of grain would grow without any man tending them. Balder would return from the dead, Honir would return with the gift of prophecy added to his other strengths, and Thor’s sons would arise carrying their father’s great hammer. Soli would not return from death to drive the chariot of the sun but her daughter, even stronger and lovelier than she, would rise and give light to the worlds again. And a man and a woman, long concealed in a safe place hidden from the ruin, would emerge to drink of the dew and eat of the plants of the field and start the human race again. Some said also that the dead humans in Helheim would be raised to life again, but some said otherwise.
”
”
Patrick Auerbach (Mythology: Norse Mythology, Greek Gods, Greek Mythology, Egyptian Gods, & Ancient Egypt (Ancient Greece History Books))
“
Matthew knew it was wrong the instant their lips met. Because nothing would ever equal the perfection of Daisy in his arms. He was ruined for life. God help him, he didn’t care.
Her mouth was soft and hot, like sunshine, like the white blaze of a heartwood fire. She gasped as he touched her lower lip with the tip of his tongue. Slowly her hands came to his shoulders, and then he felt her fingers at the back of his head, sliding into his hair to keep him from pulling away. There wasn’t a chance in hell of that happening. Nothing could have made him stop.
A tremor shook his fingers as he bracketed the exquisite line of her jaw in the open framework of his hand, gently angling her face upward. The flavor of her mouth, sweet and elusive, fueled a hunger that threatened to rage out of control… he searched the damp silk beyond her lips, deeper, harder, until she began to breathe in long sighs, her body molding against his.
He let her feel how much stronger he was, how much heavier, one muscular arm clamped along her back, his feet spread to hold her between the powerful length of his thighs. Her upper half was bound in a laced and padded corset. He was almost overcome by a savage desire to tear away the stays and quilting and find the tender flesh beneath.
Instead he sank his fingers into her pinned-up hair and tugged it backward until the weight of her head was cradled in his hand, and her pale throat was exposed. He searched for the pulse he had seen earlier, his lips dragging softly along the secret pathway of nerves beneath her skin. When he reached a senstive spot, he felt the vibration of her suppressed moan against his mouth.
This was what it would be like to make love to her, he thought dazedly… the sweet shivering of her flesh as he entered her, the delicate chaos of her breath, the helpless sounds that rustled in her throat. Her skin, warm and female, scented like tea and talcum and a trace of salt. He found her mouth again, opened it, delving into wet silk, heat, and an intimate flavor that drove him mad.
She should have struggled, but there was only yielding and more softness, driving him past all limits. He began to ravish her mouth with deep, twisting kisses, bringing her body rhythmically against his. He felt her legs part beneath her gown, his thigh fitting neatly between them. She squirmed with innocent desire, her face blooming with the color of late summer poppies. Had she understood exactly what he wanted from her, she would have done more than blush. She would have fainted on the spot.
Lifting his mouth from hers, Matthew pressed his jaw against the side of her head. “I think,” he said raggedly, “this puts to rest any question of whether I find you desirable or not.
”
”
Lisa Kleypas (Scandal in Spring (Wallflowers, #4))
“
This is Northumbria, spanning Durham, Yorkshire, and Northumberland, the northernmost county in England. Here was once the frontier, the last place, where, in the second century, the Romans built their vast fortifications to hold back the Scots and the Picts: first Hadrian’s Wall, running from the banks of the Tyne in the east to the Solway Firth in the west; and later, in a fit of optimism – or arrogance – the more northerly Antonine Wall, from the Firth of Forth in the east to the Firth of Clyde in the west, before abandoning it in favor of a consolidation of the southern defenses. In time, the remains of the Antonine Wall will come to be referred to as the Devil’s Dyke, but by then the Romans will be long gone, their fortresses already falling into ruin, leaving the blood to dry, and the land to bear their scars. Because the land remembers. So the Romans depart, and chaos descends. The Angles invade from Germania, battling the natives and one another, before eventually forging two kingdoms, Northumbria and Mercia, only to see them fall to the Norsemen in the ninth century, who will themselves be defeated by the kings of Wessex. More blood, more scars. In 927 AD, Northumbria becomes part of Athelstan’s united England. In 1066 William the Conqueror lands with his Normans, and crushes the Northumbrian resistance to Norman rule. The Norman castles rise, but they, like the Romans and the Angles before, are forced to defend themselves against the Scots. They leave their dead at Alnwick and Redesdale, Tyndale and Otterburn. The land has a taste for blood now. More conflicts follow – the Wars of the Roses, the Rising in the North, the Civil War, the Jacobite rebellions – and the ground makes way for new bones, but the blood never really dries. Dig deep enough, expose the depths, and one might almost glimpse seams of red and white, like the strata of rock: blood and bone, over and over, the landscape infused by them, forever altered and forever changing. Because the killing never stops.
”
”
John Connolly (A Book of Bones (Charlie Parker #17))
“
What is this Socialism that we hear so much about, but which so few understand? What is it, and what does it mean?’
Then, raising his voice till it rang through the air and fell upon the ears of the assembled multitude like the clanging of a funeral bell, he continued:
‘It is madness! Chaos! Anarchy! It means Ruin! Black Ruin for the rich, and consequently, of course, Blacker Ruin still for the poor!’
Toil-worn women, most of them dressed in other women’s shabby cast-off clothing – weary, tired-looking mothers who fed their children for the most part on adulterated tea, tinned skimmed milk and bread and margarine, grew furious as they thought of the wicked Socialists who were trying to bring Ruin upon them.
It never occurred to any of these poor people that they were in a condition of Ruin, Black Ruin, already. But if Sweater had suddenly found himself reduced to the same social condition as the majority of those he addressed, there is not much doubt that he would have thought that he was in a condition of Black Ruin.
The awful silence that had fallen on the panic-stricken crowd, was presently broken by a ragged-trousered Philanthropist, who shouted out:
‘We knows wot they are, sir. Most of ’em is chaps wot’s got tired of workin’ for their livin’, so they wants us to keep ’em.’
Encouraged by numerous expressions of approval from the other Philanthropists, the man continued:
‘But we ain’t such fools as they thinks, and so they’ll find out next Monday. Most of ’em wants ’angin’, and I wouldn’t mind lendin’ a ’and with the rope myself.
”
”
Robert Tressell (The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists)
“
female circumcision, practiced in many countries, which is responsible for ruining the sexual gratification of millions of Muslim women. Hmmmm…
”
”
L.A. Marzulli (Days of Chaos: An End Times Handbook)
“
The notion of a peaceful life feels like an impossible dream when you live in chaos. But these glimpses remind me why peace is something worth fighting for.
”
”
Charissa Weaks (City of Ruin (Witch Walker, #2))
“
on, Zeus said I was his peace in the chaos that was his life. I was his little dove.
”
”
Samantha Towle (Ruin (Gods, #1))
“
Our records suggest that you’re near what used to be a city called Raleigh. See those ruins through the trees? Raleigh was underwater when we left. Clearly they’ve reclaimed the land, but we are astonished that no one has redeveloped it, or at least clear-cut the forest. We find such chaos ugly and inefficient.
”
”
N.K. Jemisin (Emergency Skin (Forward Collection, #3))
“
The simple human act of hatred ruined the magical bond I’d expected to survive a lifetime. I’d anticipated more from witches, but in the end, we were the same.
”
”
Blanka H. Madow (Bloodline of Chaos (Precious Stones #4))
“
Mandelbrot appended this statement to his entry in Who’s Who: “Science would be ruined if (like sports) it were to put competition above everything else, and if it were to clarify the rules of competition by withdrawing entirely into narrowly defined specialties. The rare scholars who are nomads-by–choice are essential to the intellectual welfare of the settled disciplines.” This nomad-by–choice, who also called himself a pioneer-by–necessity, withdrew from academe when he withdrew from France, accepting the shelter of IBM’s Thomas J. Watson Research Center.
”
”
James Gleick (Chaos: Making a New Science)
“
Even well-lived lives can, of course, be warped and hurt and twisted by illness and infirmity and uncontrollable catastrophe. Depression, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, like cancer, all involve biological factors beyond the individual’s immediate control. The difficulties intrinsic to life itself are sufficient to weaken and overwhelm each of us, pushing us beyond our limits, breaking us at our weakest point. Not even the best-lived life provides an absolute defence against vulnerability. But the family that fights in the ruins of their earthquake-devastated dwelling place is much less likely to rebuild than the family made strong by mutual trust and devotion. Any natural weakness or existential challenge, no matter how minor, can be magnified into a serious crisis with enough deceit in the individual, family or culture.
”
”
Jordan B. Peterson (12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos)
“
I have seen a husband adapt honestly and courageously while his wife descended into terminal dementia. He made the necessary adjustments, step by step. He accepted help when he needed it. He refused to deny her sad deterioration and in that manner adapted gracefully to it. I saw the family of that same woman come together in a supporting and sustaining manner as she lay dying, and gain newfound connections with each other—brother, sisters, grandchildren and father—as partial but genuine compensation for their loss. I have seen my teenage daughter live through the destruction of her hip and her ankle and survive two years of continual, intense pain and emerge with her spirit intact. I watched her younger brother voluntarily and without resentment sacrifice many opportunities for friendship and social engagement to stand by her and us while she suffered. With love, encouragement, and character intact, a human being can be resilient beyond imagining. What cannot be borne, however, is the absolute ruin produced by tragedy and deception.
”
”
Jordan B. Peterson (12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos)
“
She’s everywhere, in every drop of my blood, in every spark of thought, and I want to fucking destroy her for it. To shatter her just like she’s broken me. Because she brings me to my fucking knees. I want to ruin her so that she’s mine, my beautiful disaster. My wild creature. My goddess of chaos.
”
”
Brynne Weaver (Butcher & Blackbird (The Ruinous Love Trilogy #1))
“
In the light of the helicopter and perfect chaos, our reunion is near delirious. I’m passed around, hugged and kissed, touched and worshipped. Four men saved my life on the rooftop hanging over us. My debt to them is repaid. Seven has his revenge, served cold and bloody. There’s no fire and death this time. Incendia’s ruin comes in the form of real, tangible justice. For the first time in our lives, the world has sided with us. The truth isn’t something that many can afford, but when you’re stripped of everything, sometimes it’s all you have left. We told ours. We braved the world’s hatred and judgement. We won.
”
”
J. Rose (Desecrated Saints (Blackwood Institute, #3))
“
I didn’t tell you how I was feeling because I didn’t want you to worry,” he said. She froze and looked at him and let her anger blossom. She had warned him. “You didn’t want to worry me?” she asked. “Did you think the worry just stops and starts on your command?
”
”
Scarlett St. Clair (Hades x Persephone Saga Series 7 Books Set - A Touch of Darkness, A Game of Fate, A Touch of Ruin, A Game of Retribution, A Touch of Malice, A Game of Gods, A Touch of Chaos)
“
That is not true,” Persephone said. “I know he cares for you.” He was probably already in love. Lexa frowned and then looked up at the sky. “What do I do?” “Do you like him?” “Yes,” she said. “Very much.” “Then tell him,” Persephone said. “And he will likely tell you that you cannot be together, and when he does, ask why.” “And what do I do when he tells me why?” “I think you have two options depending on what he says,” she said. “You can kiss him, or you can leave him.” “Leave him?” “Yes, leave him. Especially if he tells you that you cannot be together.” Lexa frowned. “Then what do I do?” “You live,” she said. “You live as if he’d told you yes.
”
”
Scarlett St. Clair (Hades x Persephone Saga Series 7 Books Set - A Touch of Darkness, A Game of Fate, A Touch of Ruin, A Game of Retribution, A Touch of Malice, A Game of Gods, A Touch of Chaos)
“
There are few things that survive war, Persephone,” she said. “Let your love be one of them.
”
”
Scarlett St. Clair (Hades x Persephone Saga Series 7 Books Set - A Touch of Darkness, A Game of Fate, A Touch of Ruin, A Game of Retribution, A Touch of Malice, A Game of Gods, A Touch of Chaos)
“
It is curious that death would choose life as a bride,” Hippolyta said. “It is like the sun falling in love with the moon.” “One cannot exist without the other,” Persephone said.
“Just as honor cannot exist without shame.
”
”
Scarlett St. Clair (Hades x Persephone Saga Series 7 Books Set - A Touch of Darkness, A Game of Fate, A Touch of Ruin, A Game of Retribution, A Touch of Malice, A Game of Gods, A Touch of Chaos)
“
I want blood, Hermes. I will fill rivers with it until he is found.
”
”
Scarlett St. Clair (Hades x Persephone Saga Series 7 Books Set - A Touch of Darkness, A Game of Fate, A Touch of Ruin, A Game of Retribution, A Touch of Malice, A Game of Gods, A Touch of Chaos)
“
I want to ruin her so that she’s mine, my beautiful disaster. My wild creature. My goddess of chaos. And
”
”
Brynne Weaver (Butcher & Blackbird (The Ruinous Love Trilogy #1))
“
I drew the line at harming women and children,
”
”
Amelia Hutchins (Ruins of Chaos: Legacy of the Nine Realms)
“
Knox was literally saving witches. He was offering them a place in his army, even the babies.
”
”
Amelia Hutchins (Ruins of Chaos: Legacy of the Nine Realms)
“
She's everywhere, in every drop of my blood, in every spark of thought, and I want to fucking destroy her for it. To shatter her just like she's broken me. Because she brings me to my fucking knees. I want to ruin her so that she's mine, my beautiful disaster. My wild creature. My goddess of chaos.
”
”
Brynne Weaver (Butcher & Blackbird (The Ruinous Love Trilogy, #1))
“
For the Line was broken, as all lines finally are; it was all for nothing, and of it nothing remained. People kept on longing for meaning and hope, but the annals of the past are a muddy story of chaos only.
And of that colossal ruin, boundless and buried, the lone and level jungle stretched far away. Of imperial dreams and dead men, all that remained was long grass
”
”
Richard Flanagan (The Narrow Road to the Deep North)
“
For the Line was broken, as all lines finally are; it was all for nothing, and of it nothing remained. People kept on longing for meaning and hope, but the annals of the past are a muddy story of chaos only.
And of that colossal ruin, boundless and buried, the lone and level jungle stretched far away. Of imperial dreams and dead men, all that remained was long grass.
”
”
Richard Flanagan (The Narrow Road to the Deep North)