Michael Moorcock Quotes

born 1939 England

Michael Moorcock (born 18 December 1939) is a prolific British writer and editor, long known for his SF and fantasy works and now also for literary novels.

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Random Michael Moorcock quote

219 quotes

My own self-deception at least promised some kind of pleasure. Theirs offered nothing but terror and guilt.

The City in the Autumn Stars (1986)

Elric knew that in reality Chaos was the harbinger of stagnation, for though it changed constantly, it never progressed.

Stormbringer (1965)

Paternalism and centralism, the bane of capitalist as well as socialist politics, are for me the permanent enemy of democracy.

The Warlord of the Air (1971)

The problems for which I could find no solution in fact had no solution.

The Eternal Champion (1970)

Machine-devoured, all his hours were given o’er to that insidious circuitry, and old grew he, unnoticing, in the service of his engines.

The Sword of the Dawn (1968)

"Farewell, friend. I was a thousand times more evil than thou!"

Stormbringer (1965)

Perhaps he was old and wise, perhaps he was just old.

The Winds of Limbo aka The Fireclown (1965)

But regret was useless now, so he forgot it.

Elric of Melniboné (1972)

I now know that legends in themselves have no power. The power comes from the uses that the living make of the legend. The legends merely represent an ideal.

The Fortress of the Pearl (1989)

“Men may trust men, Prince Elric, but perhaps we’ll never have a truly sane world until men learn to trust mankind. That would mean the death of magic, I think.”

The Sailor on the Seas of Fate (1976)

It is the spirit of Salem—the corrupting influence of Puritanism which in itself is perversion of the Stoic ideal—infecting what remains of a nation which could have set an example to the world.

The Land Leviathan (1974)

It’s getting late. I must return to my ship or my men will think I’ve drowned and be celebrating.

The Eternal Champion (1970)

Do not thank me for saving your life. You do not realize yet what I have saved it for.

The Jewel in the Skull (1967)

But beware of gods Elric. Beware of the Lords of the Higher Worlds and remember that their aid and their gifts must always be paid for.

Elric of Melniboné (1972)

Orelli smiled to himself. It was a wickedly introspective smile as if he looked into his own soul and was pleased with the evil he found there.

The Wrecks of Time aka The Rituals of Infinity (1967)

“Are you trying to talk peace terms?”
“I’ve given that up,” said Makhno. “It doesn’t appear to work. You mention peace and everyone tries to shoot you or jail you.”

The Steel Tsar (1981)

The Reens, the flying saucer people, were used by the hippies as an explanation for everything they couldn't understand. In rejecting Science, they had substituted only a banal myth.

The Cairene Purse (1997)

He wondered if, in achieving such a noble way of life, a people became automatically vulnerable to destruction by those who had not achieved it. If so, it was an irony of cosmic proportions.

The Oak and the Ram (1973)

Greatest of these heroes was a doom-driven adventurer who bore a crooning rune blade that he loathed.

Stormbringer (1965)

Did God truly build and populate a small planet for His own purposes; perhaps merely to relieve His boredom?

The City in the Autumn Stars (1986)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Michael Moorcock (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.