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Quotes from By the Waters of Babylon — Stephen Vincent Benét

1898–1943 United States

← All quotes by Stephen Vincent Benét

11 quotes

The north and the west and the south are good hunting ground, but it is forbidden to go east.

By the Waters of Babylon (1937)

If the hunters think we do all things by chants and spells, they may believe so — it does not hurt them.

By the Waters of Babylon (1937)

I knew then that they had been men, neither gods nor demons. It is a great knowledge, hard to tell and believe. They were men — they went a dark road, but they were men.

By the Waters of Babylon (1937)

Now I tell what is very strong magic. I woke in the midst of the night.

By the Waters of Babylon (1937)

I have been in the Place of the Gods and seen it! Now slay me, if it is the law — but still I know they were men.

By the Waters of Babylon (1937)

They were men who were here before us. We must build again.

By the Waters of Babylon (1937)

When gods war with gods, they use weapons we do not know. It was fire falling out of the sky and a mist that poisoned. It was the time of the Great Burning and the Destruction. They ran about like ants in the streets of their city — poor gods, poor gods!

By the Waters of Babylon (1937)

It is better the truth should come little by little. I have learned that, being a priest. Perhaps, in the old days, they ate knowledge too fast.
Nevertheless, we make a beginning.

By the Waters of Babylon (1937)

The sign was an eagle. It flew east.

By the Waters of Babylon (1937)

I went north — I did not try to hide myself. When a god or a demon saw me, then I would die, but meanwhile I was no longer afraid. My hunger for knowledge burned in me — there was so much that I could not understand.

By the Waters of Babylon (1937)

Never have I been so much alone — I tried to think of my knowledge, but it was a squirrel's heap of winter nuts. There was no strength in my knowledge any more and I felt small and naked as a new-hatched bird — alone upon the great river, the servant of the gods.

By the Waters of Babylon (1937)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Stephen Vincent Benét (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.