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Quotes from Book 3: Egypt: The Book of Chaos — Nick Drake

born 1961 England

← All quotes by Nick Drake

20 quotes

It would be another day ruled by this world’s new gods: gold and power.

Book 3: Egypt: The Book of Chaos (2011)

‘Reform of corruption. Civil order to prevent the abuses of power. Justice.’

Book 3: Egypt: The Book of Chaos (2011)

My dear friend, the world is really one vast marketplace. No one cares where a man is from as long as he has gold in his pocket, or something you want.

Book 3: Egypt: The Book of Chaos (2011)

Can love communicate over great distance? I could only hope so.

Book 3: Egypt: The Book of Chaos (2011)

I dislike talk of the Gods, who taunt us with their promises, and whose disappointments we must always accept.

Book 3: Egypt: The Book of Chaos (2011)

We need strong, educated women to help us build a better world.

Book 3: Egypt: The Book of Chaos (2011)

‘There is no such thing as a cheerful poem [...] Happiness writes in water, not ink.’

Book 3: Egypt: The Book of Chaos (2011)

There is truth in what you say. Truth is a dangerous muse. One dies for the truth.

Book 3: Egypt: The Book of Chaos (2011)

I would much rather have a living husband with no job and no gold than a dead one.

Book 3: Egypt: The Book of Chaos (2011)

Cruelty, rage, grief — and something others carelessly name evil — can reduce the strange collation of profanity and beauty which makes up each of us to an inanimate lump of decaying meat.

Book 3: Egypt: The Book of Chaos (2011)

The truth is always the truth.

Book 3: Egypt: The Book of Chaos (2011)

Do intellect and morality count for nothing in the way the future unfolds? [...] Greed is our king, and corruption is his servant.

Book 3: Egypt: The Book of Chaos (2011)

Hunger is no respecter of disaster.

Book 3: Egypt: The Book of Chaos (2011)

‘These ambassadors are all the same. They have the eyes of Anubis. And they make me feel like a servant. Like a shabti in a tomb. “Here I am. I will do it!”’

Book 3: Egypt: The Book of Chaos (2011)

Death makes us strangers to ourselves ... Do not indulge yourself in a self-pitying, self-gratifying revenge. More than likely you would simply end up dead as well.

Book 3: Egypt: The Book of Chaos (2011)

Maybe I’ve finally learned the bitter truth that I can’t beat them, even if I’ll never join them. But I’m not going to lose the one thing I can still call my own: my life. And you should wise up and do the same, especially with a new child on the way.

Book 3: Egypt: The Book of Chaos (2011)

Conflict defines nations. Enemies justify armies. Wars glorify generals. Without his great enemy to give him purpose and meaning, he will be significantly diminished. He will have to come to terms with us.

Book 3: Egypt: The Book of Chaos (2011)

‘I see I have shocked you all a little. But to be a poet is to accept the responsibility of speaking the truth! No matter what the cost to my personal safety [...] in matters of men and this world. I’m a poet, not a complete fool…’

Book 3: Egypt: The Book of Chaos (2011)

My old friend. I know you see the reality of the streets, and the miseries of the people, and that is a valuable perspective. But remember the world of the wealthy, the priests and the nobles also suffers from dangerous tribulations. The two are not mutually exclusive.

Book 3: Egypt: The Book of Chaos (2011)

A little distance had opened between us, almost unnoticed, rarely acknowledged. We made love infrequently. The couch was for sleep at the end of exhausting days. I confided in her less often. Perhaps that is the fate of all marriages.

Book 3: Egypt: The Book of Chaos (2011)

Attribution

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