87 quotes
My master Herakleitos used to say: Most men might as well be blind and deaf, for all that they comprehend what lies about them. If you would gain wisdom, he said, get about, see things for yourself, and subject the impressions thus gained to the divine power of reason.
The Dragon of the Ishtar Gate (1961)
In all these fights and flights I have never known that mad joy of battle of which the epics speak. Before the combat I am frightened, during it I am confused, and after it I am weary and disgusted.
The Tritonian Ring (1951)
Bessas scowled. “I trust, sir banker, that you seek not to take advantage of our simplicity to squeeze unwonted wealth from us. You money-grubbers would pick a farthing from a dunghill with your teeth.”
The Dragon of the Ishtar Gate (1961)
“When I met him in Antigoneia, he seemed a man of truly kingly quality.”
Nikolaos, the full citizen, said: “If by kingly quality you mean cold-blooded treachery and murder, then Antigonos is your man.”
The Bronze God of Rhodes (1960)
“You make it sound wonderful, sir. Could I but be sure…”
“Wait to be sure of anything and you will find yourself looking out through the sides of a funerary urn, your quest unaccomplished.”
The Tritonian Ring (1951)
“‘The first in banquets, but the last in battle,’” quoted Pyrron. “Still and all, he suffered from the king’s disease.”
“What is that?”
“Self-conceit, which, as the proverb says, leads to self-destruction.”
An Elephant for Aristotle (1958)
The moving shadow saith: “Swift Time doth run,
And soon he’ll hale thee where there is no sun.”
Well then, am I Time’s slave? I’ll mock the fiend,
And gaily revel till my course be done!
The Dragon of the Ishtar Gate (1961)
“It’s like this Spinoza says,” said Witherwax, “when I read it in a book. You ain’t got no right to say something is bad just because you don’t like it personally. You’ve got to consider other people.”
Tales from Gavagan's Bar (1953)
Antis, looking up from his fire-making to watch the flying fish, remarked, “That’s an omen of change.”
“What is?”
“When a flying fish circles withershins.”
“Oh, silly! You see omens in everything, and changes are always occurring.”
Rogue Queen (1951)
I fear me that the eighteenth century, which I have idealized all these years, never really existed. The real one was far dirtier, more narrow-minded, brutal, orthodox, and superstitious than I could have ever conceived without seeing it.
The Purple Pterodactyls (1980)
Oh, yes, he says it is not unusual to prepare for a religious lecture in the South by the liberal ingestion of corn liquor. People seem to feel that it enables them to attain more readily the emotional state desirable for receiving a revelation.
Tales from Gavagan's Bar (1953)
Some give their dead to earth, and some to fire,
And some to beasts that roam the deserts dire;
But since the dead do not return to rail,
For aught I care, my guts may string a lyre!
The Dragon of the Ishtar Gate (1961)
In the early years of his reign, everyone praised you-know-who to the skies. And indeed he did well at the outset. But I suppose the responsibilities and the temptations of kingship, acting together, in time break down the strongest character.
The Dragon of the Ishtar Gate (1961)
But what argument could I offer? It was nothing but an irrational feeling—the kind of “premonition” we get from time to time but remember only on the rare occasions when it is fulfilled by the event. I had no evidence.
The Purple Pterodactyls (1980)
Either the letter had been lost on the way; or, more likely, Menon had neglected to write it. Were I Zeus, I would appoint a special fiend to harass those who do not write the letters they have promised.
An Elephant for Aristotle (1958)
It was hardly fair to his opponents, but I have never had much sympathy for the victims of gambling sharks. If they were not trying to get something for nothing, they would not expose themselves to being taken.
The Purple Pterodactyls (1980)
“You make me feel very ignorant, my Greek friend.”
“I am sorry—”
The First Prophet cackled. “Tsk, tsk; apologize not. I, like other men, own up to minor failings in hope of convincing others that I have no major ones.”
The Dragon of the Ishtar Gate (1961)
“From all I gather, love of individuals is more important among you than love of your Community. If that’s the case, how can your Communities be well run?”
“Mostly they aren’t,” said Bloch, relighting his pipe. “But we have a lot of fun.”
Rogue Queen (1951)
“Why told you not the entire tale?”
“It is foolish to entangle oneself, any more deeply than can be helped, in the struggles of the great. The man who is down today may be up tomorrow, and rancor outlasts gratitude as stone outlasts wood.”
The Dragon of the Ishtar Gate (1961)
If a man tell you that the streets of India are paved with pearls, cast the lie back in his teeth. Nor do pigs run about the streets ready roasted. To be sure, the kings and priests are rich, but that is the case in other lands, and the vulgus has as much ado to keep ahead of hunger as elsewhere.
The Dragon of the Ishtar Gate (1961)