18 quotes
“Gold,” says the Consul, knowing that this is the only syllable that has held its power over the ages.
The Fall of Hyperion (1990)
Doing a life study while drunk and in the process of being seduced is never a formula for quality art.
The Fall of Hyperion (1990)
Human philosophy tends to shake down into values which might be categorizes as intellectual, religious, moral, and aesthetic.
The Fall of Hyperion (1990)
“Sometimes,” said General Morpurgo, taking her hand, “dreams are all that separate us from the machines.”
The Fall of Hyperion (1990)
My own guess is that it’s a myth fueled by the same hunger for superstitious verities that drives other religions.
The Fall of Hyperion (1990)
Christ may have lost his faith for a few seconds; He did not sell it in the marketplace for the trinkets of ego and curiosity.
The Fall of Hyperion (1990)
The Great Change is when humankind accepts its role as part of the natural order of the universe instead of its role as a cancer.
The Fall of Hyperion (1990)
Have you considered that these prophecies were not divine revelations, but merely manipulation from some secular power?
The Fall of Hyperion (1990)
I learned that poets aren’t God, but if there is a God...or anything approaching a God...he’s a poet. And a failed one at that.
The Fall of Hyperion (1990)
Sol remembered the dream, remembered his daughter’s hug, and realized that in the end—when all else is dust—loyalty to those we love is all we can carry with us to the grave.
The Fall of Hyperion (1990)
He knew what had to be done. It is not always the same as knowing what to do.
The Fall of Hyperion (1990)
We are created for precisely this sort of suffering. In the end, it is all we are, those limpid tide pools of self-consciousness between crashing waves of pain.
The Fall of Hyperion (1990)
Mobs have passions, not brains.
The Fall of Hyperion (1990)
It was a dramatization of total chaos, a functional definition of confusion, an unchoreographed dance of sad violence. It was war.
The Fall of Hyperion (1990)
Those who ignore history’s lessons in the ultimate folly of war are forced to do more than relive them...they may be forced to die by them.
The Fall of Hyperion (1990)
Religion and ethics were not always—or even frequently—mutually compatible. The demands of religious absolutism or fundamentalism or rampaging relativism often reflected the worst aspects of contemporary culture or prejudices rather than a system which both man and God could live under with a sense of real justice.
The Fall of Hyperion (1990)
“War does not call for judgment,” I said, “merely survival.”
The Fall of Hyperion (1990)
The place was part museum, part library, and part archive; I loved it at first sight...and smell, for here there were thousands of printed books, many very old indeed, and nothing smells quite as wonderful as old books.
The Fall of Hyperion (1990)